Archive for the ‘In the news’ Category
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Flight attendants “delivered” Chinese baby born on plane
Media from all over the world have been writing about a baby born in midair, on a plane between Sichuan Province and Wuhan. Feng Yu, 23, and her husband boarded the plane after a doctor told her that her baby wouldn’t be born for another two weeks. Apparently, the woman passed security checks despite not being allowed to fly during the first trimester, because she was thin and wore heavy clothes. Now, here goes the story of the “brave” flight attendants who “delivered” this woman’s baby.
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New study warns against early induction of labor
You know how many obstetricians start discussing labor induction at around 38 weeks due to fears of going overdue? It is true that the risk of stillbirth goes up at the 42 week mark, but there is no need to induce labor for non-medical reasons earlier than that. Indeed, there is a powerful argument against doing so – a new study, published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, suggests that babies born between 37 and 39 weeks have a higher risk of dying.
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Homebirth safe, says Ottawa paramedic
One Ottawa mom’s labor progressed so fast that her baby was crowning before she realized it. Her husband promptly called the emergency services, who turned up soon after, and the mother had a totally normal and healthy birth – albeit one that was a bit fast. The paramedics showed up after the baby reached earthside. Now, that sounds pretty uneventful to me. Yet the Ottawa Citizen found this family’s birth so interesting that they published a story about it, complete with quotes from one of the paramedics who arrived at the scene after the birth. Apparently, according to this local newspaper, “this kind of home delivery” is absolutely safe.
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Red menstrual bracelets in the workplace?
If your first reaction after reading the headline is “WHAT?”, you are not the only one. That is exactly what I thought when I read a Danish article about this subject yesterday. Apparently, one Norwegian company has obliged its female employees to wear red bracelets indicating that they are menstruating to give them more frequent access to the bathroom.
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The madness of modern feminism
Erica Jong wrote a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal last week. The piece is called “Mother Madness“, and it argues that attachment parenting is bad for women. Read it, if you haven’t already. According to Jong, “giving up your life for your children” keeps moms (and some dads) busy with their families and out of public life and political processes. She argues that modern society holds mothers up to the “ideal” of doing everything themselves, and anything less is considered bad parenting. Of course her article is well-written and interesting, but unfortunately it misses the point completely. Here is my perspective on motherhood, feminism, and attachment parenting.
Does attachment parenting keep you out of the political process? Someone forgot to inform this Member of the European Parliament!
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British OB questions premature cord clamping
I was pleased to read an article by a UK obstetrician about the need to avoid premature cord clamping after birth in the British Medical Journal this week. The retired OB, Dr David Hutchon, asks a lot of relevant questions in this article. Why is it still common practice to clamp babies’ umbilical cords immediately after birth in hospitals across the Western world, despite the fact that the World Health Organization recommends against this practice? The evidence relating to the benefits of physiological cord clamping is available, so why do so many doctors and even midwives still cut and clamp umbilical cords prematurely? The answer could found in medical school textbook, Dr Hutchon points out.
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Dutch midwives’ reaction to recent infant death study
A study about the number of babies dying before, during and immediately after birth in the city of Utrecht, Netherlands, and the surrounding areas, was published in the British Medical Journal this week. Yesterday, I posted a translation of reactions of the Dutch press to this newly-released study. I promised to give you a translation of the Dutch College of Midwives’ reaction to the study as soon as possible, so here you go!
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Dutch reactions to infant mortality study
It has been clear for a while that the Dutch infant mortality rate is higher than that of surrounding European countries. Earlier this year, the government in the Netherlands committed 24 million Euros to combat infant mortality, with the intention to invest more. An interesting study into the Dutch perinatal morbidity rate appeared in the British Medical Journal this week. The study aimed to find out whether babies were more likely to die before, during, or just after labor and birth in primary (midwifery) care, or secondary (obstetric) care, and come to the conclusion that those in primary care were at higher risk.
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Forced abortion for eight-month pregnant Chinese woman
When feminists fought so hard to obtain the right of women to have an abortion, I am sure that the following horrid, heart-breaking scenario is not what they had in mind. Xiao Aiying was eight months pregnant when Chinese communist party officials knocked on her door. What should have been a joyous time, during which she prepared to give birth and to meet her new baby, turned into a brutal nightmare. Xiao Aiying had violated China’s one-child policy, and so “comrades” from the local “neighborhood office” came to correct her mistake – she was taken into custody, and Communist party officials looked as a staff at the family planning office administered a poisonous injection that killed Xiao’s baby, nearly at term.
Xiao, waiting to give birth to her dead baby. Credit – Al Jazeera
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Hungarian homebirth midwife arrested
Hungary’s most senior midwife Ágnes Geréb was arrested and taken into custody last week, in a shocking culmination to decades of homebirth hostility in the EU-member country. Ágnes Geréb turned into the public face of homebirth advocacy as the legal climate became increasingly problematic, and eventually paid for her activism with her freedom.
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