ArticleMedical anthropology quarterly2023
Epistemic Silences and Experiential Knowledge in Decisions After a First Cesarean: The case of a vaginal birth after cesarean calculator.
Article in Medical anthropology quarterly, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association Between Racial Segregation of Labor and Delivery Services and Utilization of Trial of Labor and Vaginal Birth After Cesarean.Obstetrics and gynecology · 2026Observational
- Assessing Racial/Ethnic Variation and Trends in Vaginal Birth after Cesarean in California: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using Linked Birth Certificate and Hospital Discharge Records.American journal of perinatology · 2026Article
- Reexamining the use of race in medical algorithms: the maternal health calculator debate.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Evidence-based obstetrics can employ statistical models to justify greater use of cesareans, sometimes excluding experiential elements from informed decision making. Over the past decade, prenatal providers adopted a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) calculator designed to support patients in making informed decisions about their births by estimating their probability for a VBAC. Among other factors, the calculator used race and ethnicity to make its estimate, assigning lower probabilities for a successful VBAC to Black and Hispanic patients. I analyze how a diverse group of women and their providers engaged with the VBAC calculator. Some providers used low calculator scores to remove a shared decision-making model by prescriptively counseling Black and Hispanic women who desired a VBAC into undergoing repeat cesareans. Consequently, women racialized by the calculator as Black or Hispanic used experiential knowledge to challenge the calculator's assessment of their supposed lesser ability to give birth vaginally.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.