VBAC feedback

[Sue Cudlipp]

Dear list A couple of weeks ago I asked if any of you had seen or heard of manual checking of scars following VBAC. I collated your responses, copied the relevant passage from "Effective Guide...". and wrote a letter to go with it all, and posted the lot to the doctor involved. He telephoned me at home a few days later, actually on the weekend,  and we had a very lengthy conversation.  He was a bit taken aback at the force of some of your comments! On balance, I feel the conversation was productive and was not acrimonious.  I respected the fact that he phoned me at home rather than make a verbal assault in the workplace, and it gave us both the opportunity to express our opinions in a neutral zone.  I have worked with this doctor (among others) for the past 11 years, and we have had one or two disagreements in that time, without it ever becoming nasty, so I was happy that this was the same. He did say that he would no longer manually check scars - so I guess you could say that the result was a positive one!  And I said that I respected his decision to change his practice in light of evidence etc.. It was an interesting exercise for me, as even after all this time (23 years) as a midwife, I still found it took a great deal of courage to actually confront the power of the medical profession.  (Why???) Anyway, thank you for all your feedback - none of my colleagues had heard of this procedure either - though in all fairness, my research has shown me that it was indeed considered normal practice once!  Happy IMD to you all.  I shall be celebrating with a long-overdue, childfree weekend alone with my husband!   Sue C