VBAC

The short version while trying to be respectful: YOU PEOPLE are illiterate as all hell about math, mmmkay?

That's from a previous post on this site called Medicine, Math Illiteracy and Race. I've reread it. I know what I'm trying to say and I don't feel it says it very well.

Averages Lie with Statistics 

Mean: Add all figures and divide by the number of numbers.

Median: The middle value of a data set.

Mode: The most common value in a given data set.

Most articles talking about averages really are talking about the mean value, but not always. Average is kind of not really a math term. It's a sloppy word that can be used to talk about any of the above calculations.

My data set:

A 501 pound daddy duck.

499 baby ducks that weigh one pound apiece.

I have a thousand pounds of ducks and 500 ducks. The mean weight is two pounds. The median and mode would be one pound.

It probably makes no sense whatsoever to use either of those figures to talk about this data set. That's exactly what gets done on a routine basis when talking about average home prices in a market with a bunch of houses around $200,000 and a few over a million dollars.

I have two men who weigh 235 pounds. One is Mr. Universe Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. The other is some short pudgy guy and I can't readily find a name of a fat actor that lists a weight because the world is so oversensitive about this.

Arnold Schwarzenegger played in a movie called Junior where he got pregnant. Let's go with that.

I have looked at a couple of VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean) calculators. Both seem to ask age, weight, height and a few medical questions. 

If our pudgy guy is the same height as Arnold Schwarzenegger and both are pregnant, who do you think has greater risk? And does this tool REALLY capture that distinction?

I don't think so.

I don't see a question about ethnicity or race. I do see a potentially Jim Crow question about chronic hypertension.

If chronic high blood pressure during the age range covered by the VBAC calculator is a polite code word for "not White" or "African American" by racist White assholes, maybe it's not actually useful data, medically speaking.

Do we have studies that meaningfully break down the influence of high blood pressure on this as separate from skin color? Or is it essentially a proxy for Black people? Or Black and Latina? Or Black, Latina and Native American?

I read once that some ASSHOLE physician ROUTINELY delivered Black babies via forceps because he couldn't be arsed to WAIT on those babies.

I cannot tell you how angry that makes me.

If some doctors treat Black women that badly in delivery, do you think they were meaningfully a good provider in the months prior to delivery? Do you think anyone ever wrote that in the medical records "Forceps delivery because Dr. White Supremacist couldn't be arsed to weight on a Black baby."?

Have you checked the data on forceps births by race and combed through the medical reasons given and determined if that was medically necessary?

If your so-called "care" provider is essentially abusive to you because of your skin color while treating White chicks like precious and valuable and fragile people doing God's work of carrying the next generation of White overlords, do you THINK that might materially worsen medical outcomes across the board for "undesirables" we are trying to POLITELY genocide with plausible deniability?

So when your VBAC or medical literature or whatever SAYS "These colored women don't deserve a shot at vaginal birth after delivery because we know they are all losers and can't succeed anyway." ...

You tell me: Is that maybe code for "Bitch, I'm on my fucking smoke break right now because I just took care of a White woman. Quit your bitching. I make more money than you."?

If we ACTUALLY cared for women of color properly, do you THINK those outcomes might IMPROVE?

Years ago, I sat in a doctor's office reading a magazine. It was a long weight and for once I actually finished the magazine article.

It was about a medical study in India where firstborn boys get extra privileges. 

If you are a firstborn boy and don't feel well, mom and dad probably take you to see a doctor immediately.

If you are a girl, they probably tell you "Let's wait and see. If you are not better by morning, I will take you tomorrow." which is only a matter of a few hours.

Firstborn boys are more likely to be served their favorite foods. Other children, especially girls, are told "You will eat what is put in front of you."

The difference in outcomes of these small extra privileges could be measured in mortality rates.

Firstborn boys die less than girls.

The VBAC calculator is potentially justification for "Business as usual, you know we aren't going to properly care for them. We never do. So it's a joke to imagine we will actually rise to the occasion for extra care. Thus, fuck you. More surgery. Once one of you has a Caesarean, we will forevermore do what's most convenient for hospital staff."