In USA Today, on 10/8/2008, the paper quoted University of Wisconsin’s Douglas Laube, a former president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who blames “very significant external forces” for the overuse of expensive technologies in maternity care.
“I don’t like to admit it, but there are economic incentives” for doctors and hospitals to use the procedures, says Laube, who reviewed the new report before its release. Dr. Laube goes on to say that some doctors might get bonuses for performing more labor inductions, which adds costs and increases the risk of C-sections, which, in turn, increase hospital profits because they require longer stays. In addition, some doctors order unnecessary tests and procedures to protect against malpractice suits, Laube says.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
A Nurse Speaks
This was posted on the *Business of Being Born* website. It is a great summary of why I am SO passionate about non-hospital, non-surgeon births (in the case of a low-risk pregnancy).
Written by a Labor & Delivery Nurse
November 9th, 2008
I am a labor and delivery nurse and I must say that I see all too often women coming in who want a natural birth and are not being supported in their decision. A women comes in labor and we strap them to the bed so we can see the babies every heart beat. They want to move to their side or sit up but then we lose the heart beat and have to reposition them in sometimes uncomfortable positions. Women who are healthy and want a natural delivery should go to a birthing center or deliver at home where they can walk around and get into comfortable positions that make laboring bearable. If they come to the hospital doctors are all too eager to rush things along one intervention at a time.
First we break the water which puts you at greater risk for infection and fetal heart decels. Then we check you every couple of hours which after rupture of membranes further increases the risks of infection. If no progress is made we start pitocin which dramatically increases your risk of cesarean. Pitocin also makes contractions more intense and makes it very unlikely that you will be able to deliver without having an epidural. An epidural can lower your blood pressure which makes it hard for baby to get the oxygen it needs from your blood which very often turns into a stat cesarean. An epidural also decreases your urge to push and guess what…doctors don’t let you push for more than two hours…so if baby is not out you have a cesarean.
Its a snowball effect that I see all to often and I can’t help but wish these women had known about alternatives to hospitals. I’ve seen doctors lie to patients and say that the baby is in danger when it’s not and tell them that even if they don’t agree they will do a cesarean to save the baby. NOT TRUE. You cannot do a cesarean or start pitocin without written and verbal consent from the patient. If anybody tries to tell you otherwise, tell your nurse you want to speak to the hospital’s patient advocate. If you want a natural vaginal delivery and have had a healthy uneventful pregnancy with no past medical problems, I strongly urge you to consider your options. If however you have had increased blood pressure or sugar issues or any other health problems you should not attempt to deliver at home.
Heather
Written by a Labor & Delivery Nurse
November 9th, 2008
I am a labor and delivery nurse and I must say that I see all too often women coming in who want a natural birth and are not being supported in their decision. A women comes in labor and we strap them to the bed so we can see the babies every heart beat. They want to move to their side or sit up but then we lose the heart beat and have to reposition them in sometimes uncomfortable positions. Women who are healthy and want a natural delivery should go to a birthing center or deliver at home where they can walk around and get into comfortable positions that make laboring bearable. If they come to the hospital doctors are all too eager to rush things along one intervention at a time.
First we break the water which puts you at greater risk for infection and fetal heart decels. Then we check you every couple of hours which after rupture of membranes further increases the risks of infection. If no progress is made we start pitocin which dramatically increases your risk of cesarean. Pitocin also makes contractions more intense and makes it very unlikely that you will be able to deliver without having an epidural. An epidural can lower your blood pressure which makes it hard for baby to get the oxygen it needs from your blood which very often turns into a stat cesarean. An epidural also decreases your urge to push and guess what…doctors don’t let you push for more than two hours…so if baby is not out you have a cesarean.
Its a snowball effect that I see all to often and I can’t help but wish these women had known about alternatives to hospitals. I’ve seen doctors lie to patients and say that the baby is in danger when it’s not and tell them that even if they don’t agree they will do a cesarean to save the baby. NOT TRUE. You cannot do a cesarean or start pitocin without written and verbal consent from the patient. If anybody tries to tell you otherwise, tell your nurse you want to speak to the hospital’s patient advocate. If you want a natural vaginal delivery and have had a healthy uneventful pregnancy with no past medical problems, I strongly urge you to consider your options. If however you have had increased blood pressure or sugar issues or any other health problems you should not attempt to deliver at home.
Heather
Monday, September 1, 2008
Birth Stories
Birth Stories~~~~~~~~
If you have one, I want to hear it!!!
Be it in the 60's, the 70's, the 80s' or today...be it in a hospital, at home, in a birth center....I WANT IT!!
Each birth is different. Some are scary. Some are painless. Some are CRAZY. Some are hilarious. I want to hear it all.
All of them lead to a human being with tendencies, with humor, with a personality. What was your birth like? What was you second birth like? Your third? Your fourth? Each woman is different. Each birth is different. I'd love to hear about them. If you haven't guessed already, birth is my passion. No matter where it occurred. No matter HOW it occurred. Are you happy about your birth experience? What would you change if you were pregnant right now?
Birth is the absolute MAGIC of our times. What else makes you cry and bend down to your knees?
This life can end at any moment. Birth is the beginning of possibility. How will yours be? How was yours? How did your life begin? How will it end?
Love to whoever is reading this....
If you have one, I want to hear it!!!
Be it in the 60's, the 70's, the 80s' or today...be it in a hospital, at home, in a birth center....I WANT IT!!
Each birth is different. Some are scary. Some are painless. Some are CRAZY. Some are hilarious. I want to hear it all.
All of them lead to a human being with tendencies, with humor, with a personality. What was your birth like? What was you second birth like? Your third? Your fourth? Each woman is different. Each birth is different. I'd love to hear about them. If you haven't guessed already, birth is my passion. No matter where it occurred. No matter HOW it occurred. Are you happy about your birth experience? What would you change if you were pregnant right now?
Birth is the absolute MAGIC of our times. What else makes you cry and bend down to your knees?
This life can end at any moment. Birth is the beginning of possibility. How will yours be? How was yours? How did your life begin? How will it end?
Love to whoever is reading this....
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Strength
"Yet, in all my years of doing home births, I never once took a woman to the hospital because of unmanageable pain. Not once. And time after time I had the honor and privilege of looking into the astonished faces of first-time moms as I laid slippery newborns in their arms. They gazed back at me, awed by the intensity of this thing called childbirth, this rite of passage they had just completed. Having made that journey, having tapped depths of strength they never knew they possessed, they crossed a line and never looked back."
More from the book, Baby Catcher
(Yes, I'm a little obsessed with this book recently...everyone needs to buy it and pass it on!!)
I'm going to have to type out that line again, this time in caps:
I NEVER ONCE TOOK A WOMAN TO THE HOSPITAL BECAUSE OF UNMANAGEABLE PAIN.
That's because, *There's a secret in our societey, and its not that childbirth is painful, its that women are strong.*
More from the book, Baby Catcher
(Yes, I'm a little obsessed with this book recently...everyone needs to buy it and pass it on!!)
I'm going to have to type out that line again, this time in caps:
I NEVER ONCE TOOK A WOMAN TO THE HOSPITAL BECAUSE OF UNMANAGEABLE PAIN.
That's because, *There's a secret in our societey, and its not that childbirth is painful, its that women are strong.*
Monday, August 18, 2008
These Women...
"I lived for these occasional women, the ones who were different, who thrived on the challenge and the passion. The women who wanted to sigh and moan and deep-breathe through their labors, to move around in the bed, to squeeze my hands and look into my eyes. They pressed their sweaty forehead into mine as they hissed in and out between clenched teeth - and I hissed along with them, pulling the curtains to keep the world away. I shut the doors and tried to keep them quiet, to shield them until it was too late for intervention. Too late for anyone to steal their births from them. These were the ones who touched my heart and fed my fire."
An excerpt from Baby Catcher, Chronicles of a Modern Midwife
by Peggy Vincent
A beautiful book found me this weekend. I happened to be half-browsing the childbirth/parenting section of Barnes and Noble while trying to corral a very quick and inquisitive toddler from ridding the shelves of their books, when I glimpsed the title "Baby Catcher". A peek to the cover revealed a quote from Ms. Anne Lamott, a talented author and dear motherhood connection. That was all the motivation I needed for a purchase decision as I continued to follow BabyBoy through the maze of shelves and around book store patrons. I've made it through the first chapter, with tears and veins full of adrenoline, and I cannot WAIT to experience the rest. I already have so much from it that I want to share here.
An excerpt from Baby Catcher, Chronicles of a Modern Midwife
by Peggy Vincent
A beautiful book found me this weekend. I happened to be half-browsing the childbirth/parenting section of Barnes and Noble while trying to corral a very quick and inquisitive toddler from ridding the shelves of their books, when I glimpsed the title "Baby Catcher". A peek to the cover revealed a quote from Ms. Anne Lamott, a talented author and dear motherhood connection. That was all the motivation I needed for a purchase decision as I continued to follow BabyBoy through the maze of shelves and around book store patrons. I've made it through the first chapter, with tears and veins full of adrenoline, and I cannot WAIT to experience the rest. I already have so much from it that I want to share here.
Economics of Midwifery
Since, as they say, "money talks"...
1. Percent of countries providing universal prenatal care that have lower infant mortality rates than the United States: 100%
2. Percent of US births attended by midwives: 4%
3. Percent of European births attended by midwives: 75%
4. Number of European countries (Great Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland) with higher perinatal mortality rates than the US: 0
5. Average cost of midwife-attended birth in the US: $1,200
6. Average cost of physician-attended birth in US: $4,200
7. Health care cost savings if midwifery care were utilized for 75% of US births: $8.5 billion/year
8. Health care cost savings by bringing US cesarean section rate into compliance with WHO recommendations: $1.5 billion/year
9. Health care cost savings by extending midwifery care and de-medicalizing births in the US: $13-20 billion/year
Compiled by Marsden Wagner, MD, Consultant for World Health Organization
reprinted in "Baby Catcher" by Peggy Vincent with permission
Essentially...midwives are one of this country's great untapped resources. They are skilled in the beautiful, normal, and natural process of childbirth. They know, that of all the ways they can assist in birth, the most important is to allow a mother to be free to follow and express their own primitive rhythms during the process. Midwives facilitate SAFE and PURE childbirth.
Of course there is so much more to say, but this blog will be an advocate for CHOICE in CHILDBIRTH and educating men and women about the true possibility for gentle, peaceful, un-interfered-with birth.
1. Percent of countries providing universal prenatal care that have lower infant mortality rates than the United States: 100%
2. Percent of US births attended by midwives: 4%
3. Percent of European births attended by midwives: 75%
4. Number of European countries (Great Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland) with higher perinatal mortality rates than the US: 0
5. Average cost of midwife-attended birth in the US: $1,200
6. Average cost of physician-attended birth in US: $4,200
7. Health care cost savings if midwifery care were utilized for 75% of US births: $8.5 billion/year
8. Health care cost savings by bringing US cesarean section rate into compliance with WHO recommendations: $1.5 billion/year
9. Health care cost savings by extending midwifery care and de-medicalizing births in the US: $13-20 billion/year
Compiled by Marsden Wagner, MD, Consultant for World Health Organization
reprinted in "Baby Catcher" by Peggy Vincent with permission
Essentially...midwives are one of this country's great untapped resources. They are skilled in the beautiful, normal, and natural process of childbirth. They know, that of all the ways they can assist in birth, the most important is to allow a mother to be free to follow and express their own primitive rhythms during the process. Midwives facilitate SAFE and PURE childbirth.
Of course there is so much more to say, but this blog will be an advocate for CHOICE in CHILDBIRTH and educating men and women about the true possibility for gentle, peaceful, un-interfered-with birth.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The First Word
Drumroll please . . . . . . . .
BUBBLE!!
However, when I replayed the video for him to see himself, he looked up at us and quietly whispered...
"bub-buh"
(sigh......and melt......)
BUBBLE!!
It was first expressed in the bath tub, and later repeated for dish soap bubbles. We were trying to get it on video, showing him bubbles and saying the requisite "Bubble. Bubble! You can say it. BUBBLE!!" Of course He declined to satisfy our requests.
However, when I replayed the video for him to see himself, he looked up at us and quietly whispered...
"bub-buh"
(sigh......and melt......)
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