A new short documentary from Al Jazeera English, Birthrights: The Risk of Choice, examines the prevalence and safety of cesarean sections in the United States, and the many players within the maternity care system.
How much liberty and bodily integrity should the state be able to require a pregnant woman to surrender to guarantee a perfect birth, something she couldn’t guarantee even if she desperately desired it? My answer: None.
The opinion in Burton v. Florida, in which an appeals court reversed an order forcing a pregnant woman to go on bed rest and undergo cesarean surgery, raises a question about our courts: what is it about pregnancy that they just don't understand?
NYC's midwife-friendly St. Vincent's Hospital is now closed, leaving women planning births both in and out of the hospital in the cold. What can New Yorkers do to help, and what does this mean for the rest of us?