I sent it out as a mass e-mail. Then I sent a second one saying April fools. Then I got this e-mail from my midwife and friend:

...However, its not far from fiction. It is a satire of reality, meant to raise awareness of this policy trend.

C-section (even planned ones) make it twice as likely that the mother or infant will die in birth. http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=39604 ) And mortality rates are just an indicator, meaning many others will have complications and suffer other less severe complications than death.

But still....

In 1985, Dr. Feldmans and Friedman published an article in The New England Journal of Medicine calling for 100% "prophylactic" cesarean rate, and in 2000 the then president of ACOG (American Association of Obstetrician and Gynecologists) was on Good Morning America being interviewed by Diane Sawyer and called for 100% c-section rate as well.

100% c-section rates are in fact an aspiration of some leaders of American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists who create much of maternal health policy in our country. Sadly, since we lack an organized health care system, this professional association can run amok and influence policy as we have no government agency with the job of protecting consumers from their ill conceived policies.

A push from ACOG led to a NIH 2006 conference that gave the ethical go ahead for doctors to perform c-sections for no medical reason, in spite of evidence from Childbirth Connections in the "Listening to Mothers Survey" that that less 1% of c-sections are for maternal request. Eugene DeClercq, PhD epidemiologist from Boston University was at NIH conference and argued that these so-called maternal request c-sections are in reality, physician request c-sections. There is a considerable saving of time, money, and risk exposure to physicians who perform planned c-sections (c-sections mean twice as much pay for 40 minutes of schedulable work compared to a days work that might interfere with office hours for vaginal birth). http://consensus.nih.gov/2006/CesareanStatement_Final053106.pdf

Latest c-section rates for 2006 include a 58% rate at a Miami hospital, and all Sarasota area hospitals exceed 35%. And Sarasota Memorials website hosts this video, showing head of the former head OB promoting "maternal request c-sections under the heading "Patient Safety". http://www.smh.com/sections/services-procedures/medlib/cmeonline/DrHill_...

Good satire makes us take a closer look at ourselves.

Heidi Dahlborg LM Sarasota Florida.

I thought it was a cool response because I had felt the satirical aspect of the article but couldn't quite pin point it. As I was reading, some of the stuff said was totally plausible to me! I am a bit gullible and literal so satire often eludes me. I actually sent the e-mail out BEFORE I knew it was an April fool's joke! Thinking *I* was informing people! Yeah, boy did I feel like the fool. But had a good laugh. I played it off with the second e-mail and was relieved when folks wrote me believing it as well! Whew.