On Marshall Street on Monday, women and their children united for a common goal: to have more options for mothers giving birth.

Improving Birth, a national birth advocacy group, organized the 2013 Rally to Improve Birth, which took place in more than 170 cities across the country, according to an Aug. 26 Improving Birth news release. BirthNetwork CNY hosted the Syracuse rally. The rally highlighted multiple issues such as expanding options for giving birth and educating women on their rights regarding childbirth.

People gathered on the corner of South Crouse Avenue and Marshall Street. The crowd left Marshall Street at 11:30 a.m. and marched toward Crouse Hospital, chanting, “Peace on Earth begins with birth.”
Local residents, including children, carried signs and handed out fliers emphasizing various issues in maternity care.

Aimee Brill, one of the founders of BirthNetwork CNY, said community members attended to call for better birth outcomes for all women and to raise awareness about the high infant mortality rate in the United States.

Brill said part of the rally was to educate the public about the lack of birth options, as well as open up dialogue with medical professionals.

“Women feel forced and feel restricted in their own choices,” she said. “Our options are limited.”

Women are often limited in terms of where they give birth and how they’re positioned, as well as who’s in the room, Brill said.

She said that in several states, a woman isn’t allowed to deliver vaginally after a cesarean section, despite inadequate scientific evidence to support this hospital policy. Because of this, women are inadvertently pressured into expensive procedures such as cesarean sections for subsequent pregnancies, she added.

The repercussions from having multiple cesarean sections can be physically and mentally damaging, Brill said.

She said the organization is proud to raise awareness that “women are tired of birth being taken away from them.”
Green Party mayoral candidate Kevin Bott also attended the rally. He also works as the associate director for Imagining America.

 “There’s a really robust birth community here in Syracuse and central New York, and so this group is a lot of moms and dads and birth workers and birth activists who are trying to bring attention to what’s happening in the birth culture nationally and locally, and to improve birth outcomes for women and families,” Bott said.

One in three American births result in a cesarean section — double the highest recommended rate by the World Health Organization, according to the release.

Sarah Cowherd, another founding member of BirthNetwork CNY, said she believes hospitals should pursue simpler and less expensive strategies such as having more midwives on staff.

“It would make a huge impact in the rates of inductions and cesareans. It would really challenge the current model,” she said.
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Published on September 3, 2013 at 2:17 am