BAC Member sends Letter to Cottage Hospital re. VBAC guidelines

This letter is posted in the mail today, July 28th to Cottage Hospital. Jessica Barton is a mother,         Le Leche League leader and BAC Founding Member who lives in Goleta. Barton had to travel to UCLA for her VBAC and has corresponded with Cottage Hospital in the past about the lack of access to VBAC.  Cottage Hospital is the only hospital in the Santa Barbara area which has  labor and delivery. See our website (scroll down) for information on our efforts in Santa Barbara to reverse the "de facto" VBAC ban at Cottage Hospital. 

*Note: Jessica has given permission to anyone to use her letter as a template to send one to your own local hospital. BAC suggests including a copy of ACOG's press release with your letter, and copying your local newspaper as well. 

Jessica Barton
559 Mills Way
Goleta, CA
93117

July 28, 2010

Ron Werft, President and CEO
Cottage Health System
Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital
P.O. Box 689
Santa Barbara, CA 93102-0689

Dear Mr. Werft,

I am writing you regarding the new guidelines issued on July 21st of this year by the College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists which I have attached. The new guidelines relax some of the previous conditions that they had suggested a hospital should have in order to be able to offer vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC).

The practice bulletin states "Our primary goal is to promote the safest environment for labor and delivery, not to restrict women's access to VBAC." The bulletin also states that “women and their physicians may still make a plan for a TOLAC in situations where there may not be "immediately available" staff to handle emergencies, but it requires a thorough discussion of the local health care system, the available resources, and the potential for incremental risk.”

The National Institute of Health also issued a statement in March encouraging wider availability of VBACs. The statement is very long and can be found in its entirety here: http://consensus.nih.gov/2010/vbacstatement.htm
It includes the following: “We are concerned about the barriers that women face in gaining access to clinicians and facilities that are able and willing to offer trial of labor. Given the low level of evidence for the requirement for “immediately available” surgical and anesthesia personnel in current guidelines, we recommend that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Society of Anesthesiologists reassess this requirement [which they have done]....Health care organizations, physicians, and other clinicians should consider making public their trial of labor policies and VBAC rates, as well as their plans for responding to obstetric emergencies. We recommend that hospitals, maternity care providers, health care and professional liability insurers, consumers, and policymakers collaborate on the development of integrated services that could mitigate or even eliminate current barriers to trial of labor.”

I am writing to ask how Cottage Hospital is going to respond to the new guidelines as issued by ACOG and the statement by the NIH. I hope that you will find a way to make VBAC an option for women in our community who desire it. As a local resident who had to travel 100 miles to give birth by VBAC a year ago, I would encourage you to revisit the current hospital and OB department policy on the issue and find a way to make more options available to local birthing women and families.

Sincerely,

Jessica Barton