Some interesting facts:
- Doctors and some researchers immediately want to blame the increase in the maternal mortality rate on obesity, even though the research doesn't support this claim at all.
- Most medical professionals completely fail to see any link between the sharp increase in c-sections and the staggering increase in maternal deaths - even when hemorrhaging from C-sections is included as a possible contributing factor.
- Similarly, most medical professionals completely fail to see any link between the increase in inducing labor early, which is standard practice now, and the increase in maternal deaths. Because letting a woman's body go through the natural processes that occur prior to and during labor would just be silly now, wouldn't it?
- The state wasn't terribly enthusiastic about sharing this info.
- When they say "doctors and nurses are eager to help after seeing the numbers," that's probably actually code for "doctors and nurses are eager to increase the number of interventions during labor and delivery," since they cannot seem to get it out of their heads that medical micro-management = safe births and healthy babies. And this isn't likely to change, no matter how many statistics to the contrary and maternal deaths there are.
Lesson to be learned: If you're planning on having a baby anytime soon, your best bet is to stay the fuck away from the hospital. Which is, of course, a luxury reserved for the privileged.
Well, you're probably right that medical professionals will just see this as a call for more interventions, but I still think it's good that this kind of info is making it into the mainstream.
ReplyDeleteBecause letting a woman's body go through the natural processes that occur prior to and during labor would just be silly now, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteI thought just about every form of hormonal birth control interferes with natural process prior to labor.
It is kinda funny (not ha-ha funny) that when it comes to the potential long lasting side affects of birth control many women adopt the talking points of the pharmaceutical companies... as if their research can be trusted and the FDA has enough resources to pin them down.
I think all of these newer and innovative birth controls have to be messing with the works. I just don't think the data is out there to use them safely.
Steven,
ReplyDeleteWell, it's actually dangerous (for the baby) to be on birth control while you're pregnant, so that shouldn't really be an issue.
As to the effects of birth control, I think you have to make some distinctions. The standard forms of the pill have been around forever, so there's pretty reliable info on the longterm effects. I share some of your doubt about the effects of the newer forms (like the ones that make you skip your period for months and months) and am always suspicious where big pharma is concerned.
But the larger point is that one major goal of feminism is to give women more autonomy and control over their lives, and birth control assists in that. Of course there should be good, complete info available to women when they're making their choices. But in obstetrics, there's a long predicatble history of western medicine taking control from women, and interfering with / problematizing natural physical processes, as well as forcing interventions (which are often harmful) on women without their informed consent, and in a way that reveals a deep distrust of and disrespect for women. This is a huge issue for feminists.
"If you're planning on having a baby anytime soon, your best bet is to stay the fuck away from the hospital."
ReplyDeleteAmen.
I was having a conversation about midwives with a friend just the other day. I couldn't believe the misconceptions she had. She herself was a nurse and a woman in her prime, with the belief that she had one option when choosing to deliver her children...the Hospital. She said, you go to the hospital like everyone else...unless you want to have serious complications. I asked her to think back to pretty much every woman we knew that had a baby, which one didn't have "serious complications" resulting in a c-section? I myself was told, I could have a c-section with my second child, or I could risk vaginal birth, killing myself and the baby. Something needs to happen.
ReplyDelete