The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 117

4 Pirt VIII Nov, 5, 1978 Coo Atiflclco Gftmes Fathers Begin to Attend Cesarean Births Overweight Persons with Diabetes or Hypertension Find Help at Bermuda Inn Our high protein, low carbohydrate, low fat and low iodium, low calorie diets, supervised by an M.D., have helped persons with problems related to being overweight, Relax, exercise in the sunny, smog -free high desert and lose up to a pound a day, We've helped men and women reduce for 15 years! Low daily rates begin at just $33 including room, meals and activities. Send or call for our free color brochure and information, today! BERMUDA INN REDUCING RESORT 4JIM MIMA, LANCASTSR, CALIF. tJSM Phont: (213) 625 )115 (Its ttles) (005) 042 1493 (Intnter) Our advtrtltlng hot 6n occtpttd tor publication In tht Lot Angtltt County Mtdlcol Mocktian Bulhlin. feJv mm. i 11 BEVERLY HILLS SINCE 1930 "1 tn tn fl 50 ii BY TRACY HOTCHNER The members of the Lamaze childbirth class at UCLA looked nervously at each other.

Their teacher, Ida Bird, had just told them the odds were that one couple of the 10 there would not have a baby as planned. The couples had spent jix weeks training to work as a team during labor and delivery, hoping for a natural, unmedicated birth. But Ms. Bird explained that statistics indicated that one perhaps two-of the couples would wind up giving birth by cesarean section. How would these teams work? Would fathers be able to assist in C-section deliveries? The answers vary but the issue is a new and growing one among those involved in maternity care.

Shelley and James Mercer had been using prepared childbirth techniques all through her labor at UCLA Medical Center when the decision was made to perform a cesarean. The Mercers are lawyers-he a Securities and Exchange Commission attorney, she with the National Health Law Program in Santa Monica-and they were determined to stay together for their first baby's birth. "I knew they wouldn't have dared to physically remove me," Mercer recalls, "and I felt legally protected since it would have been a tort for them to seize me." Support From Staff However, to the Mercer's surprise, they found unanimous support for his presence in the operating room, even though it wasn't hospital policy. "At 5:30 in the morning at UCLA there was 150 support of the staff," Shelley Mercer reports, "We were able to have a very natural experience with the parent-infant bonding aspects we had read about and been impressed by. Even though the hierarchy is against fathers being there, the staff has a very different attitude." Her husband adds, "There's a rebellion by the staff, which those on high may not know about-there was a unanimity of support for us, in contrast to official policy.

The recovery room nurse congratulated us, saying that change was too slow and that was the only way to do it." Ms. Mercer is grateful that her husband remained with her but is not content with having sneaked him in. "A friend of mine is an attorney who represents hospitals and there is nothing in state codes or statutes against it and major insurance companies have no objection to couples staying together. But many couples do get intimidated by the hospital system. It was a fundamental meaningful experience for us, not a fringe, fanatical issue.

Next time we're going to find a hospital that allows my husband in as policy." Sandra Steffes of Pacific Palisades is a Lamaze teacher nally got over the hurdle they went forward very quickly, and I think that's going to happen with cesareans, too. To some extent it's just a question of raising peoples' con-sciousnesscs' The three main reasons for not having fathers attend C-sections are the same arguments used against Lamaze 10 or 15 years ago. Yet Lamaze generally has shown that fathers present for birth do not faint nor get in the way or interfere, and the infection rate did not go up, Steffes says, pointing out that studies show that none of these problems has occurred in institutions that permit fathers to be present for cesarean birth. Yale University Hospital and Boston Women's Lying-In (affiliated with Harvard University) have had positive results from their programs permitting fathers. An Alamo for Doctors "The reasons against letting fathers Into C-sections are irrational," Sandra Steffes says.

"Which gives me the feeling that doctors look on cesareans as their last holdout the Alamo. They seem to have their backs up against a wall, as if they feel they've been backed into the locker room by demanding couples," Cesareans account for 15 to 20 of all births in the U.S. and the rate has reached 25 at some hospitals. The number of C-sections has doubled over the last decade and can only go higher, since subsequent babies are almost always also delivered by cesarean. There are a number of reasons for this increase in cesareans, many of which can apply to any one expectant woman.

Although a cesarean is major surgery, carrying with it the risks of any surgery, the operation has evolved to the point where it is a relatively safe procedure. This means that a doctor can decide in favor of a C-section when its risks are low compared to the alternative complications in a vaginal birth. An increasing number of women are waiting until their late 20s and early 30s to have their first baby, which means a higher incidence of cesarean births. These women are approaching the age when the risk of a deformed child increases and when there can be complications of labor. These also are women who often want only one or two children.

They have waited a long time for a baby and they don't have the leeway for error of many childbearing years ahead of them. Therefore, if things do not go smoothly in labor a doctor will perform a cesarean rather than riding it out and taking any chances. Another contributor to the rising cesarean rate is the development of machines like ultrasound (sonar-type rays) and electronic fetal heart monitors. These machines can predict which babies might be compromised by the rigors of labor, indicating a C-section. The fetal monitor, Please Turn to Page 5, Col.

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Times photo by Ell Reichmo who has recently begun a cesarean preparation class for couples who know in advance that they'll be having a C-section. "Birth is becoming a consumer-oriented issue," Steffes says, "and there are more couples having ejections all the time. I started this clafcs because an ex-student of my Lamaze class was so upset and angry after her cesarean." Steffes finds that doctors who supported Lamaze prepared childbirth techniques in the early days are the same ones supporting fathers in cesareans, "viewing a C-section as a humanistic experience. "When I first started doing Lamaze in this community there was the same reaction as there is now against fathers being present for cesareans," Steffes says. "I even remember an article in The Times back then about how horrible UCLA was they were one of the last hospitals to allow fathers in for regular labor and delivery.

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