Archive for the ‘In the news’ Category
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Illinois CPS removes baby after homebirth
One Illinois family was recently torn apart when Child Protective Services (CPS) removed a newborn baby after a homebirth. The allegation? CPS accused the parents of baby Ruth, Ryan and Melissa Light, of medical neglect after choosing to give birth to their breech baby at home, assisted by a midwife. Instead, they should have had a c-section, as recommended by obstetricians.
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Lamaze criticizes maternity care system
On the 50th anniversary of a document entitled “Cruelty in maternity wards”, Lamaze International, the organzation that runs childbirth classes and advocates for natural hospital births, warns that there is still much to be done to improve maternity care in the United States. They point out that maternal death rates have crept up again, and stress the fact that there is often a big difference between the interests of birthing mothers and their babies, and the actual practices on maternity wards. The face of “cruelty in maternity wards” may have changed, but there is still a lot of work to be done. What have you got to say about the US maternity system 50 years after “twilight sleep” was done away with?
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Don’t want your son circumcized? They might just do it any way
Baby Mario was circumcized in a South Miami hospital, after his mother explicitly stated that she did not give her consent for the operation repeatedly. This happened last month, so perhaps it is not “In the news” any more, but it is still appalling. Baby Mario was eight days old and staying at the NICU for a suspected infection, and the doctors swept in and cut off his foreskin when Mario’s parents went home to get a change of clothes for an hour. Read the rest of this entry »
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Higher c-section rates at for-profit hospitals?
Have you ever wondered why the cesarian section rate is as high as it is? An interesting piece of news came to us this week from California Watch – a larger percentage of births at California’s for-profit hospitals across the state end in a c-sction than at non profit hospitals. The analysis showed that women giving birth at hospitals that rely on profits are as much as 17 percent more likely to have a surgical birth. Does this confirm that the bottom line sometimes matters more than the health of mothers and babies?
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New study criticizes US c-section practices
More than a third of all American women giving birth will now have a cesarian section. Numerous organizations have called to make US hospitals more friendly for mothers and babies, and bring down the general c-section rate as well as the number of repeat cesarians. Recently, even the American College of Obtetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) joined their ranks. If you are concerned about the American c-section rate, you’ll definitely want to take a look at a new study into the contemporary cesarian section delivery practice in the United States.
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CBS poll wants readers to decide if homebirth is “too risky”?
After the recent Lancet editorial about the “risks” of homebirth, many news networks have jumped on the anti-homebirth bandwagon. CBS news is no different. They are currently running a poll to let their readers decide of “homebirth is too risky for babies”. “Women who choose to give birth at home may be putting their babies at needless risk. That’s the blunt message of a sure-to-be controversial editorial in The Lancet, a leading medical journal published in England,” CBS says. After quoting the Wax metaanalysis (here it is again!), CBS asks readers what they think.
After voting, I was pleased to find out that 94 per cent of the voters does not believe that babies “should always be born on a maternity ward”. You can cast your vote on the CBS website.
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The Lancet’s editorial – read with caution
An anti-homebirth editorial in the British medical journal The Lancet (titled “home birth – proceed with caution”) caused a lot of commotion this week. The Lancet is telling women that homebirths are not safe, and that they have to proceed with caution. Anti-homebirth folks are now using this editorial to attack homebirth as a valid and safe choice. It’s hard not to comment on this editorial, isn’t it? Sadly, a quick look at this editorial shows that it is little more than a “filler”, not based on real data, which was put together by the journal’s editors very quickly and without much thought. Let’s take a look at what is wrong with it.
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Las Vegas mother wins placenta battle
Every pregnant woman grows a placenta to sustain and nourish their unborn baby for the whole duration of pregnancy. Once the baby no longer needs it, after birth, who does it belong to? This seems a weird question to be asking. Is it not obvious that your internal organs should belong to, well, you? Not to one Las Vegas hospital, the Sunrise Hospital, who refused to let a post-partum mom take her placenta home to encapsulate it and consume it. Ann Swanson had to sue Sunrise Hospital to get her placenta back, and although she won, it took her three months – too long to still be able to eat her placenta.
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World Breastfeeding Week
It’s World Breastfeeding Week again, which means raising awareness about breastfeeding. This year, for me, that means participating in the Leaky B@@b’s blog carnival, which is collecting essays on “Perspectives: Breastfeeding from every angle”. This is my angle. Sadly, I don’t have much to say about breastfeeding. I can’t tell you how to overcome your breastfeeding struggles, or how to get breastfeeding off to a great start. That is because I never thought much about it. When my daughter was born, I simply started nursing, and never had any problems. I don’t think breastfeeding is a big deal. I don’t think it requires anything special. All I can say from personal experience is “just do it”!
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Midwives criticize new homebirth safety study
A new study on the safety of homebirth recently created great controversy among everyone who has strong views about birth. Why? Because this study reached the conclusion that, while homebirth does not impact maternal safety, it is significantly less safe for babies. The study caused many to jump on the “anti-homebirth bandwagon”, without reading what the study said, and how the researchers collected the data that led them to conclude that homebirth is not safe. The American College of Nurse-Midwives now issued a statement criticizing this homebirth safety study. Read the rest of this entry »
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