Community Corner

Labor Day Rally to Improve Birth Planned

Organizers are advocating for evidence-based care in childbirth.

Supporters of evidenced-based childbirth are planning to rally at 10 a.m. Sept. 2 in Brentwood to push for safer births and fewer c-sections. 

The group will join people in 170 places across the US, Japan and Canada to call for women being given full information and choices in their maternity care. 

One-third of US births are by cesarean which is higher than the World Health Organization's recommended rate of 15 percent. The rate of cesarean sections at each hospital varies, according to a recent study. 

April Woollard, of Lake Saint Louis, is helping to organize the Rally to Improve Birth this year, in part because of her first birth experience with her twin daughters. She said her doctor ignored her requests and didn't provide information or present her with options. 

"When it came to the birth, I was often told no by my care provider and it was an opened and closed subject," she said. "I felt like I didn't have a voice in my care. ... I felt very shut down and very disempowered."

Kim Martino-Sexton, a childbirth educator and doula, said they are rallying to put humanity back in childbirth and put women before concerns about liability and convenience for doctors. 

"Birth and moms matter," she said. "It's not just about, 'oh you know, you have a healthy baby, no worries.' Mom has a choice and has dignity and should be treated in a humane way during her birth." 

Last year the group rallied near Mercy and Missouri Baptist Hospitals. This year, they plan to rally in a more high-traffic location at the Fountain on Brentwood Boulevard at the entrance to Highway I-64/40 and Eager Road.

Labor Day is the perfect day to talk about labor issues, Martino-Sexton said.

"People driving by think, 'what is that?'" she said. "Maybe then they'll go look up something. There are more choices in childbirth than we are aware."


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