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Home-birth baby dies
A newborn died after a woman ignored the pleas of doctors and nurses and gave birth at home without medical support.
The tragedy, which has been referred to the coroner, confirms the fears of maternity experts who are alarmed at the trend of women shunning the health system in favour of risky, unsupervised home births.
Whilst some people may want to give birth at home - is it worth it? A newborn died after a woman ignored the pleas of doctors and nurses and gave birth at home without medical support. ... more -
10 facts on maternal health
More than half a million women die every year of complications during pregnancy or childbirth. Most of these deaths can be avoided as the necessary medical interventions exist and are well known. The key obstacle is pregnant women's lack of access to quality care before, during and after childbirth.
Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5) aims to improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality by 75% by 2015. But, so far progress in reducing mortality in developing countries has been too slow to achieve the target.
WHO is supporting countries in delivering integrated, evidence-based and cost-effective care for mothers and babies during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. Investing in health systems -- especially in training midwives and in making emergency obstetric care available round-the-clock -- is key to reducing maternal mortality.
Read more in the fact file: http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/maternal_health/m... More than half a million women die every year of complications during pregnancy or childbirth. Most of these deaths can be avoided as ... more -
Equality laws are holding women back: maternity rights damage career
The radical extension of maternity leave and parents’ rights is sabotaging women’s careers, according to the head of the new equalities watchdog.
Nicola Brewer said that it was an inconvenient truth that giving women a year off work after the birth of each child - soon to be paid throughout - was making employers think twice before offering a job or promotion. Ms Brewer said that generous maternity benefits had entrenched the assumption that only mothers brought up children and failed to hasten a social revolution where both parents were equally responsible for caring for their family.
Business leaders have criticised the new maternity laws, saying that they are a headache for employers and that it is difficult to plan the workforce if parents go part-time. But this is the first time that a criticism has come from an organisation that campaigns on behalf of women.
Although the latest legislation allows for the last six months of maternity leave to be transferred to the father if the mother goes back to work earlier, but that misses the point, she says. “The way it is framed means it is up to the women to transfer the leave to the man. It is not his right,” she said. Ms Brewer said that it was not a case of taking away the new rights from mothers but of extending them to fathers.
Katherine Rake, director of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for equality between women and men, said that she shared the commission’s concerns about the effect of legislation on women’s careers. “Under EU law employment rights once given cannot be taken away, so there is no point regretting past decisions,” she said. “The Government should both better protect pregnant workers and introduce paid parental leave that supports mums and dads to share care.”
(Excerpts / Rosemary Bennett and Murad Ahmed; The Times) The radical extension of maternity leave and parents’ rights is sabotaging women’s careers, according to the head of the new equalitie... more -
Having a baby all alone: free birthers on the rise
As the British health service is criticised for failing women with its maternity services, Viv Groskop at the Guardian reports on women who are going it alone, and giving birth at home without any kind of medical support or intervention: the free birthers.
"Giving birth is as personal as having sex," says Sarah, 24, from Essex. "You don't want someone else sitting there watching you."
"Some people think you must be superwoman. Others think it's reckless. You get every reaction from awe to horror. I just feel like it was the most normal thing. It felt somehow life-changing and extremely ordinary at the same time." says Laura, 31, from Atlanta, Georgia.
I know some amazing doulas who specialise in helping women during homebirths, and they describe amazing scenes, calm deliveries, quick recoveries and magical moments for new parents who can cuddle up on the sofa together with their brand new baby within minutes of all the bloody, gory stuff being over (doulas will even help clear up the goop!).
And I know friends who've recently had babies in hospital and had the most horrendous experiences - being moved and poked and prodded and examined internally without any warning or consideration of their feelings, being left alone when they were anxious and needed help, being cut as a matter of course when they asked for that to be a last resort, being forced to lie in uncomfortable positions because it was easier for the doctor, and babies being taken away immediately after birth to be 'cleaned up', before the new mum even gets to have a hug.
If I had a baby, and my pregnancy was healthy and normal, I'd definitely opt to give birth at home, and make use of my body's incredible self-sufficiency (as well as a nice pool of warm water). It's pretty shocking that hospitals are now considered too risky or too unpleasant to give birth in. What would you do? As the British health service is criticised for failing women with its maternity services, Viv Groskop at the Guardian reports on wome... more -
Ekizibu - a short film about midwives in Uganda
Ekizibu means 'an issue' in Swahili Luganda.
I heard the midwives say, 'it's an issue,' a lot while I was shooting this film.
This short film exposes the issues midwives deal with everyday in Uganda, including communication and transportation, electricity, clean water and lack of supplies.
From mud huts to small health centers to busy district hospitals, these midwives work on the frontline in the fight of maternal health care. In Uganda the maternal mortality rate is 1 in 16, in America it is 1 in 4000. Ekizibu means 'an issue' in Swahili Luganda. ... more -
The Birth of iBaby
Say goodbye to those grainy black and white ultrasound print offs that never really looked like a baby anyways. That's right. Now pregnant women can get their high-definition ultrasound pictures to go. The innovative development, launched yesterday by the private Portland Hospital in London, will allow proud prospective parents to download the high-tech "4D" scans to their iPod or mobile phones and take them wherever they go. How technologically touching. Say goodbye to those grainy black and white ultrasound print offs that never really looked like a baby anyways. That's right. Now... more
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'Silent Tragedy' of Maternal Mortality
The Women Deliver global conference addressing maternal and newborn mortality worldwide convenes in London today. It is aimed at an often underrepresented global tragedy that results in a loss of 10 million women for each generation. Also, according to the conference website www.womendeliver.org, there are huge disparities in survival rates between rich and poor countries, and between the rich and poor within each country. "In the ten top-ranked countries, where women are guaranteed good-quality health and family planning services that minimize their lifetime risk, fewer than one in 16,400 women will die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. One in 4,800 women will die of these causes in the United States. The rate for black U.S. women in 2000 was nearly four times that for white non-Hispanic women. In sub-Saharan Africa, where high fertility multiplies the dangers women face over their lifetimes, one in every 22 women will die in pregnancy or childbirth. In Niger such complications kill one in every seven women."
The conference assembles minds and hearts dedicated to bringing greater visibility to this issue in hopes of attracting resources and funding needed for further research and prevention. The Women Deliver global conference addressing maternal and newborn mortality worldwide convenes in London today. It is aimed at an of... more -
U.S. maternal death rate higher than Europe's: report
The United States has a sharply higher rate of women dying during or just after pregnancy than European countries, even some relatively poor countries such as Macedonia and Bosnia, according to the first estimates in five years on maternal deaths worldwide. The United States has a sharply higher rate of women dying during or just after pregnancy than European countries, even some relativel... more
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Maternity
