The Narcisarean

I suspect we are all breathing a collective sigh of relief that the new champion of homebirth narcissism, Emily Dickey, did not manage to kill her baby or herself in her marathon VBAC lasting nearly three days and presided over by a midwife who ought to be arrested for malpractice.

Emily is now crowing over her empowering narcisarean. What's a narcisarean? That's when a homebirth advocates refuses or delays a necessary C-section in favor of gratifying the immature narcissistic impulse to brag to her friends about her "achievement" of pushing a baby out of her vagina.

Emily is not merely a narcissist, she is a lucky narcissist. Many narcisareans end in the death or permanent brain injury of the baby. For example, Emily's co-leader at the anti C-section organization ICAN of the Rock River Valley, Christine Woodard, attempted her own narcisarean last fall. Christine did ultimately have a C-section after multiple hours of pushing with no progress.

Emily joyfully announced the results:

Our other co-leader, Christine, and her family just welcomed a new baby BOY, Alexander John! Diagnosed with HIE [hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, which is brain damage due to oxygen deprivation during labor] Alexander is in the NICU–send your prayers and hugs!! To stay up to date on Alexander’s progress, you can follow the journal that Christine set up here: Alexander’s Journal. Congrats Christine on your new little bundle of joy! Can’t wait to see pictures and meet him in person.

What's a little brain damage among activists, right?

Christine wrote about the aftermath of her all too necessary C-section:

...[W]e were told that Alexander had swallowed a great deal of meconium and [was transported to another hospital] NICU for a hypothermic treatment to slow damage from the asphyxia...

Seeing him with all the tubes and wires in the transport incubator was horrible. I could not see his whole face. I could not hold him. I had to say goodbye to him not knowing what the future held...

... Off to Lutheran General I went 42 hours after delivery.

There it was harder. I could not touch him. I could not hold him. All the tubes, IV's, monitors, wires--it was too much. And then I was told that he had apgars of 2, 5, & 6. He had a brain insult. There could be permanent damage.

Had I done this??? Did my selfishness cause this? Would he be okay??? All I knew is that I would keep vigil as much as I could until he could come home.

The number of narcisareans has been growing as homebirth becomes more popular. Australian midwife Lisa Barrett is an expert in narciseareans. She has presided over at least FIVE unnecessary neonatal deaths that occurred when women put their narcissistic desire for a vaginal birth over their babies' lives.

This month alone I have written about three narcisareans: a postdates pregnancy that ended in a C-section that should have been done sooner (You risked your baby's brain function for this?), a UC horror story, and a couple who refused to believe that their baby was in danger (A medical student learns about homebirth).

Frankly, I find it hard to think of anything more contemptible than a mother who risks her baby's life and brain function to satisfy her own narcissistic impulses. But most of all I feel profoundly sorry for the littlest victims like Rebecca Dickey whose life was put at risk and Alexander John Woodard whose brain was damaged for no better reason than their mothers thought their "experience" was more important than their babies' lives.