It is just after sunrise. I am walking the hilly streets of Jerusalem, where I have come to visit my mother on her 80th birthday. I am trying to get in my daily exercise before the heat of the day takes hold. I find myself consumed by a feeling of sadness, having just found out before I left for this trip in July 2009 that the obstetrics department of our local hospital has decided to stop offering VBACs (vaginal birth after cesarean) to its patients after having offered this option for the past 25 years, many of which were the years that I was the chief of obstetrics at the hospital. As I climb the next hill I review in my mind the history of VBACs at this rural community hospital in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York.
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