United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Yes I realize that,I was quite rushed last night when I posted that.But that is what I meant.You are correct.
Although I wish it were a law that it would have to be made public record.I realize it is not the same in all cases, but the OB in my daughter case, she has caused this damage to many different children.

I think these are great questions. Nicole was our first child and was injured during her birth 6 yrs. ago. I did return to the same dr. for my 6-week checkup, but when it was time for my first annual, I changed drs. I actually changed drs. annually for a few years. I always went with a list of questions pertaining to SD/BPIs -- partly b/c I really didn't want to be under the care of a dr. who I knew was responsible for this injury to another baby and more importantly b/c I felt we would likely want to have a second baby. I was so relieved when I finally found a dr. who I really felt that I could trust. He recommended a c-section, but also said that if I really wanted to deliver vaginally, that we could discuss that. He had delivered I think over 1000 babies and had encountered many SDs, but they had never resulted in a BPI b/c he knew all the appropriate maneuvers to do. He also knew a lot about BPIs b/c he was in charge of all the risk management of the state's OBs in dealing with the insurance companies (something like that) so he read notes on all the difficult deliveries.

So, while he recommended the C-S, it really was up to me. I did give it some thought, but decided on the C-S. In my case, I did well with my diet throughout both pregnancies and only gained about 12 lbs with the first and about 20 or less with the second. However, I was already overweight going into both pregnancies, so while I didn't gain much, I was quite overweight at delivery. Maybe if I'd lost a lot of weight I might have chanced the vaginal delivery, but I don't think so. I do know of a Mom who had 2 babies (the 2nd one had the BPI and was supposed to be a c/s, but another dr. did the delivery) and with her 3rd she chose a vaginal delivery. However, she had just lost about 100 lbs before the preg. and did great throughout so she really had different circumstances. Her 3rd delivery went great. My point is that I think we need to consider our circumstances and factor that into our decision.

For me personally though, I'm not sure if any circumstances would really have changed my decision to have the c-s. The way I felt was that if I were to take the chance and not have the c-s and end up with another baby with a BPI, then I would have to carry that guilt with me throughout my life. For my daughter's injury, I know the dr. was at fault, but if my 2nd baby was injured, then I'd feel at least partly to blame b/c it could've easily been avoided by having the c-s.

Also, I think most of us change OBs even if we don't plan to have anymore babies. As I said, I felt really confident with this OB and in hindsight (my son was 8lbs, 8 oz and my daughter was 9 lbs, 12 oz), I think he might very well have been able to deliver him vaginally, but I don't think we can really ever trust any kind of dr (esp. an OB) 100% after being a victim of med. malpractice. Some might argue, if you don't trust a dr. to do a vaginal delivery, why would you trust him to do a c-s? Well, in my case, I felt the c-s was less risky. My main concern toward the end of the preg. was, not about having a c-s, but about going into labor before my scheduled date (38 wks) b/c I only felt such confidence in the one dr. in the practice that I'd selected and didn't want to end up with an on-call dr.

Personally, I never felt that my having a c-s the next time around was attributing cause to my body. I still feel that the dr. was at fault the first time around and feel that the dr. who delivered my son could've very likely safely delivered my daughter had he been my dr., but the c-s just gives me extra assurance.

I think that you won't regret having a c-s whereas you run a higher risk of regretting not having one. I'm not saying it's wrong to choose not to have one and everyone's circumstances are different, just that it could possibly be something to later regret and you just have to ask yourself if you could handle that possibility. For me, I could not.

~Tina