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New Practice Guidelines for Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC)
Following the NIH Consensus Conference Panel statement on VBAC, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) released new VBAC practice guidelines. These guidelines are based on the latest research on the safety of VBAC, which was also reviewed and discussed at the NIH conference, and are less restrictive toward VBAC than the previous practice guidelines released in 2004.
ACOG states that “Attempting a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) is a safe and appropriate choice for most women who have had a prior cesarean delivery, including for some women who have had two previous cesareans.”
The new guidelines represent a positive step toward supporting a woman’s right to make informed choices about how she wants to give birth!
The full press release about the new guidelines can be found here, and an article in the New York Times in response to the release of the guidelines.