Did you know that the U.S. is the ONLY developed nation with a rising maternal death rate?

Austin Moms Blog | The Decline of Maternal Healthcare in the USA :: Natural Childbirth

I’m going to let that sink in for a minute… Before you pick your jaw up off the floor, let me add that our statistics put us in the company of Afghanistan {you know, a country at war} and countries like Chad and Swaziland. World-wide there has been a decrease of maternal deaths per 100,000 births of an average of 1.3%. However, in the U.S., we have seen a rise of 1.7%.

Now there are a multitude of reasons for this scary statistic – the average age of mothers is growing and our overall health isn’t great {let’s not forget that heart disease is the #1 killer of women}. There are also often issues regarding access to prenatal care. The factor I want to discuss with you today is unnecessary medical interventions and their impact on moms.

When I had my son, I was pretty naive about the risks of childbirth. I had an unnecessary induction with pitocin, my water was broken, I was on an IV of fluids, I had continuous electronic fetal monitoring throughout labor, I had an episiotomy, and I received an epidural…and to quote my doctor ‘narrowly escaped a c-section’. My son was born with breathing difficulties and spent about half a day being observed in the nursery. All of this was traumatic and unnecessary. And I consider myself lucky that our results were as good as they were.

Our c-section rate in the United States is a staggering 32%. That means 1 in 3 births is performed via MAJOR abdominal surgery. Now, I’m not here to say c-sections are bad or mean a mom didn’t go through labor. I’m just saying our rate is well above {like more than double} what the World Health Organization recommends for a country to maintain SAFE deliveries for mamas which is approximately 10-15%.

Electronic fetal monitoring {as opposed to intermittent monitoring}…increases your risk of having a c-section. Receiving an epidural…increases your risk of having a c-section. Using pitocin during labor or having your water broken…you guessed it…increases your risk of having a c-section. There is no evidence that IV fluids prevent poor outcomes in low-risk labors, and there is evidence that episiotomies actually lead to more pain, more tearing, sexual problems, and incontinence. {The studies for these statements can be found here.}

I’ve mentioned pitocin a few times, but there’s another drug that is being commonly used to induce labor, called cytotec, that has numerous side effects for pregnant women {including death of mom and baby} and was not designed for use in labor. It’s being used because it’s cheap and typically creates a faster labor and delivery.

When I decided to have natural childbirth with out daughter, and I started reading and researching childbirth, I learned that there are many countries around the world where unmedicated births are the norm. I truly believe that American women have been brainwashed to think we can’t have babies naturally. That we have to have our babies in hospitals, and we have to be induced, and we need epidurals. These fears lead to a lot of unnecessary interventions with often devastating side effects for mom and baby. Well, let me tell you, none of this is true. I am a wimp, and I rocked my natural childbirth with our daughter, and it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. Should I be lucky enough to have another baby, I cannot wait to have another natural childbirth experience…and maybe this time at home!

Austin Moms Blog | The Decline of Maternal Healthcare in the USA :: Natural Childbirth

:: Do these statistics scare you? Would you ever consider natural childbirth? ::

 

4 COMMENTS

  1. http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2011&issue=07000&article=00015&type=Abstract In the US the data collected for maternal death rate encompasses the entire first year. This means that every death, for any reason is included. Whether or not it was related to the delivery. Maternal death rate means nothing for the quality of obstetric care in the US. No, the WHO does not recommend a 15% rate for c/sections. http://www.scienceandsensibility.org/does-it-really-%E2%80%9Cwho-admits-there-is-no-evidence-for-recommending-a-10-15-caesarean-limit%E2%80%9D/ Cytotec is no longer widely used for inductions, so I’m curious why you would even mention it. According to this study, do not increase the necessity for c/sections http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1481670/ Inductions reduce the risk of c/section http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/2014/04/28/cmaj.130925 I’m very glad you enjoyed your birth, however, it does not qualify you to advise anyone else to follow in your footsteps. And it is unethical of you to promote any kind of birth using erroneous information. What “research” did you do? I’m going to hazard a guess that it was natural childbirth facebook pages and blogs, judging by your usage of common natural childbirth tropes. Natural childbirth is a very personal choice, and having one does not an expert make. Good luck with your next birth.

  2. The WHO has no recommendation for what the c-section rate should be. They used to say 15%, but retracted that number in 2009 and admitted they had never had any evidence for that recommendation. In fact, in a 2007 study on c-section rates, it was found that every country in the world (except for two – Kuwait and Croatia, neither country known for being accurate with medical statistics) with a c-section rate less than 15% had awful perinatal and mortality rates. http://goo.gl/SprMnC

    Electronic fetal monitoring may increase your chance of having a c-section, but that’s because it’s good at detecting fetal distress and so doctors can act to save your child’s life and brain function. A study published in 2011, “Electronic fetal heart rate monitoring and its relationship to neonatal and infant mortality in the United State,” published by the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in a “Report of Major Impact,” that shows that electronic fetal monitoring cuts early neonatal death (from birth to 7 days) rates in half. I’ll repeat that – Electronic Fetal Monitoring cuts early neonatal death in half. I’d much rather have a c-section and a healthy baby than no c-section and a dead or brain damaged baby. Give me electronic fetal monitoring.

    Finally, inductions do not increase the the chance of having a c-section. A huge, well-done study that came out in March of last year, “Maternal and neonatal outcomes in electively induced low-risk term pregnancies,” reports that “Several studies have presented information refuting the association of induction with increased cesarean delivery. Two large prospective multicenter studies of late term pregnancies found no difference or a decreased rate of cesarean delivery in elective inductions vs expectant management. A metaanalysis reported an absolute risk reduction in cesarean delivery rate with elective induction of 1.9% for late term and post term pregnancies. Similar findings have been reported across different obstetric cohorts, including those with hypertensive disease, fetal growth restriction, and diabetes.

    “Our primary outcome of mode of delivery, we observed a reduction in cesarean section with elective induction, regardless of week of gestation, parity, or cervical examination. For secondary outcomes including maternal and neonatal morbidity, no outcome was shown to be worse with elective induction. Conversely, several maternal outcomes including infectious morbidity, obstetrical lacerations, and shoulder dystocia were reduced with induction of labor. For those electively induced, we observed a reduction in composite neonatal morbidities with induction of labor at 38, 39, and 40 weeks’ gestation.”

    Did you get that? Induction actually decreases chances of c-section, and improves other health outcomes.

    You said, “I learned that there are many countries around the world where unmedicated births are the norm.” Yeah, because most countries in the world are undeveloped and the resources don’t exist for the majority of women to get pain relief. That doesn’t mean they’re choosing to go without it, it means they just don’t have the option.

    And just a note about your final comment, about home birth. Every major study on US home birth shows that it has at least 3 times the newborn death rate of hospital births.

    http://goo.gl/FXmP4p – Study from 2014 that found a death rate 4 times higher at home birth
    http://goo.gl/Xguiqi – Meta-analysis from 2013 that found a death rate 3 times higher at home birth
    http://goo.gl/Vm1NWC – Statistics from 2008 that found a death rate 3.5 times higher at home birth
    http://goo.gl/DE3OV5 – Statistics from 2012 that found a death rate 8 times higher at home birth
    http://goo.gl/T1hvSk – Study released this year that found a death rate 5.5 times higher at home birth (for low-risk pregnancies; for breech babies the death rate was 28 times higher)
    http://goo.gl/1Cfmi6 – Study that found that home birth babies suffer 17 times as many brain injuries
    http://goo.gl/3HQ0j9 – Study that found that 3 times as many babies born at home have seizures
    http://goo.gl/4IcUsC – Study found 10 times as many babies born at home have a five minute Apgar score of 0

    THESE statistics scare me, not the ones about the hospital.

  3. Great post! Thanks for sharing. I too had a traumatic birth experience with my first child. It included an unnecessary induction, aggressive water breaking, episiotomy, and forceps assisted delivery…narrowly escaping a c-section. I ended up with 3rd degree tearing, a prolapsed uterus, cystocele, and numbing in my legs which meant I couldn’t walk and hold my newborn for almost 6 weeks. ALL of this is because of unnecessary medical intervention. With my second, I used a natural friendly OB and ended up with a much different experience. After my water was broke for a day, the OB gave me a small dose of cytotec (so yes, it is still used and it’s my one regret) and my baby was born 2.5 hours later with no further intervention. I needed NO stitches, had NO numbing, and NO further prolapses. I haven’t clicked on any of the links above but I can speak about my own experience which supports your post. It’s a shame that mothers are made to believe that their bodies can’t delivery a child’s without intervention. Your body know what to do. While there is a time for medical intervention such as induction and c-section, the rate that it happens is what needs to be fixed.

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