Tenth Month Doula Services

Undisclosed Risk

Betsy — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:44:20 +0000

Although difficult to believe that parents would not be informed of risks associated with this government-financed study, this is exactly the case. There were 1300 infants who participated, with 23 academic institutions involved. I encourage you to read the New york Times article, which reference the study on oxygen levels for premature babies. I find it disconcerting that people enter these experiments without knowing the risks involved. We should always do our homework when it comes to health care and full disclosure of risks and benefits, especially when it concerns our children. Parents are the only chance they’ve got, and it is a gamble at best even in the best of circumstances.

Shared Decision Making

Betsy — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:56:16 +0000

When it comes to health care it seems that we often surrender to our medical providers no questions asked. It makes better sense for us to work in conjunction with our providers; to learn what we don’t know and be able to make informed decisions about our health care. Birth is in the category of health care, although it is not an illness or a medical event. It is viewed as such because most women go to the hospital to give birth. In fact, the number one reason for hospital admission is childbirth and the number one performed surgery in the United States is cesarean section. Given these facts it is imperative that women understand risks and benefits of all procedures, and understand informed consent and informed refusal. Women need to take charge of their own pregnancy and birth. To learn more about shared decision making you can check out the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation.

Procedures to Avoid While Pregnant

Betsy — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:54:06 +0000

We look to Consumer Reports for the best T.V., the best phone, the best washing machine. Why not look at this article about how to shop for a better birth? The United States ranks behind 41 other nations, in preventing mothers from dying during childbirth. We have the best technology, yet the outcomes could be better. Induction rates have increased dramatically and scheduling labor has become very appealing to practitioners. What is this doing for mothers and babies? Here is a quote from the article : “The U.S. health care system has developed into a profitable labor-and- delivery machine that operates on its own timetable—not the schedule of mothers and babies.” If the motive is profit, and not the health and well-being of mother and baby, then perhaps the system needs changing. Check out When it Pays to Do Too Much, which talks about our fee for service health care system. This explains a lot.

Cesarean Section in the News

Betsy — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:33:27 +0000

Cesarean section is the number one performed surgery in the United States. Some hospitals have a rate of 7%, while others have a rate of 70%. These results are from a study conducted in 2009. The answer to the question of why the rates are so varied is not clear. The professor who conducted the study suspected that the way the births were managed at the various hospitals, and the way the staff is paid, contributed to the wide variance in percentages. Click here to read the article abstract. You will need a subscription to Health Affairs to read the full article.

Paid Maternity Leave?

Betsy — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:26:23 +0000

Giving Children a Chance is a new report released by the World Analysis Policy Center. The study looked at laws and public policies of 191 countries that have to do with healthy development of children. One of the areas of research was on maternity leave around the globe. The United States and three other tiny countries on the world map do not offer paid maternity leave. Just an extra 10 weeks of paid maternity leave is associated with 10% lower infant mortality and 9% lower mortality in children younger than 5 years. 136 countries guarantee supportive labor policies that allow breastfeeding breaks at work. The United States does well with this part of the equation.

Hepatits B Vaccine

Betsy — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 17:52:53 +0000

I will let you read this story and decide for yourself. The problem is that the hepatitis B vaccine, given to infants only moments old, is riskier than contracting Hepatitis B.

Obstetric Violence

Betsy — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:13:26 +0000

There seems to be a silent code in the world of obstetrics, one that if translated might say something like this: “It doesn’t matter what happens to the mother during labor and birth, as long as the baby is healthy.” I say it does matter. It matters a lot. Every day women are being violated in birth. The medical model teaches that birth is a crisis waiting to unfold, and needs to be managed and interfered with. When this is the presumption of the care provider, most often an obstetrician, the laboring and birthing woman becomes part of what needs to be managed. The baby then becomes the primary focus. The doctor will stop at nothing to ensure the baby comes out whole and healthy. Fear and intimidation are tactics often used for compliance to protocol. What about the mother? What about the woman who is giving birth to that baby? Doesn’t her health and well-being matter? I’d like to link you to a post about obstetric violence that was shared on facebook, this day, February 14th 2013, the day dedicated to ending violence against women, One Billion Rising. Imagine a world where every birth is treated with reverence and every woman is tended to in a loving manner. What a difference we would feel and know.

Benefits of Collaborative Care

Betsy — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:24:50 +0000

Watch for a new documentary (due in 2015) whose aim is to educate women about their birth options. The film, The Mama Sherpas, follows several women from various U.S. communities. A Sherpa refers to a member of a Tibetan people living on the high southern slopes of the Himalayas in eastern Nepal and known for providing support for foreign trekkers and mountain climbers. The focus is on the model of collaborative care, where much research has been done to show that better outcomes result from obstetricians working with midwives in various birth settings. For more information about the film called The Mama Sherpas, visit their website.

Childbirth and Trauma

Betsy — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:54:23 +0000

I have read a lot about this topic and heard from women who have experienced traumatic birth. Please take the time to read the full blog post at www.lactationmatters.org, the International Lactation Consultants Assoication’s official blog page. Kathleen Kendall-Tackett has been researching this issue since 1990, when she could only find one study on the subject. That study concluded that there was no relation between a woman’s birth experience and her emotional health. Since that time there have been many studies, whose conclusions state otherwise.

Birth Centers Study

Betsy — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:11:55 +0000

There is a new study out about Birth Centers. Amy Romano, an author for Science and Sensibility, a Lamaze International blog had the opportunity to interview Cara Osborne, co-author of the study, National Birth Center Study II.

Here is one of the quotes from the interview with Cara:

“The take away messages from this study for expectant parents are that birth center care is safe and minimizes the likelihood that their baby will need to be born by cesarean, and that if hospital care becomes necessary, that transfer is very unlikely (1.9%) to be an emergency.”

Here are the key findings of the National Birth Center Study II, as found on Science and Sensibility:

Of more than 15,000 women eligible for birth center care when labor started, 93% had spontaneous vaginal births, and 6% had cesareans.

16% of women transferred during labor, and approximately 2.5% of mothers or newborns required transfer to the hospital after birth. Emergent transfer before or after birth was required for 1.9% of women in labor or for their newborns. Most women who transferred in labor had vaginal births.

There were no maternal deaths. The intrapartum stillbirth rate was 0.47/1000, and the neonatal mortality rate was 0.40/1000 excluding anomalies.

Go to Science and Sensibility to read the full interview.