New DVD promises to accept ALL birth choices

From: "It's a joke!" and "I think major abdominal surgery should be a last resort." To: "all the power to her!" ...In seven months, Ricki Lake's opinion on women who choose to have a cesarean has thankfully changed, at least according to an interview posted this week on celebritybabyscoop. 

Back in July 2011, on the same website, Ricki answered the question, "What do you say to women who choose to have scheduled C-sections to protect their “vaginal integrity”?" like this (and I blogged about it here):

"It’s a joke!
I didn’t tear with either of my children and they were both over 8 pounds. In fact, my midwife came back to my apartment the next day and she looked down there and said that it didn’t even look like I’d had a baby. My body recovered so quickly. That’s what happens when you’re not given a drug that numbs you from the waist down. You can feel what you’re doing. That said, I don’t judge any woman for making the choice that she makes. But I think major abdominal surgery should be a last resort."

Fast forward seven months, and this is how Ricki answered the question, "CBS: How do you handle the criticism from people who are against or uneducated about natural/home births?"

"I understand that there is a lot of misinformation out there, so I don’t take it personally. But I do not advocate natural birth or home birth for anyone – my passion is educating women about their childbirth options so that they can decide what kind of birth is best for them. A lot of women do the research and decide they want an elective cesarean – and I say all the power to her! Pregnant women need to be informed and empowered and they deserve to be active participants in the childbirth process."

This is what I've been calling for since the beginning of my campaigning work back in 2004 - for women to be able to make their own informed decisions, whatever their preferred birth plan.

Hopefully, more natural birth advocates will now move towards supporting the full spectrum of choices too, and making an effort to understand, accept and respect why some women choose a cesarean.