Arizona Hospital Banning VBAC?

By Rachel Walden — May 19, 2008

The Flagstaff Birth Network is reporting that Flagstaff Medical Center (the only hospital in the city) has banned vaginal births after cesarean. According to Barbara Stratton, however, a successful protest rally that drew local NPR and tv news coverage was recently held at the hospital, and the hospital administration has indicated that they are trying to take steps to reverse the ban. FBN is also asking individuals to send letters to the hospital board, with more information on how to do so at their site. Barbara informs us that if the ban is not reversed, women in Flagstaff would need to travel up to 3 hours to reach a VBAC-friendly hospital.

Stratton has previously published an excellent quick guide for women in similar situations, 50 Ways to Protest a VBAC Denial.

One response to “Arizona Hospital Banning VBAC?”

  1. I am a certified nurse midwife who has attended many women who have successfully vbac’d, however recently one of the local hospitals have changed policies making that difficult. I work with an obstetrician who is a strong advocate for vbacs and our success rate is very high but now we have to change hospitals and in the past our success rate wasn’t as high at this specific hospital that is why we preferred the other hospital. I will continue to fight and encourage my moms to vbac. Thanks for listening it can be very frustrating.

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