So, this week I wanted to share some links to articles I read recently:
Three Minute Interview with Ginger Garner (yoga therapist) from the National Association of Mothers' Centers focusing on "Childbirth in America: Why it Needs to Change."
A quote I enjoyed from the article: "Birth is valuable. It gives rise to our entire future. There is power in our ability to give birth to the future of our planet. We need to reclaim that power."
Pregnant Prisoners article. In one residential parenting program mentioned in the article, "Another perk for pregnant women at the prison is access to a volunteer doula program. A non-profit group called The Birth Attendants offers monthly prenatal care, labor and delivery assistance, postpartum services, and family planning education courses."
Also getting a lot of attention in birth activism blogs are the new international infant mortality rankings.
Or directly from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db23.htm
Key findings
Infant mortality rates for preterm (less than 37 weeks of gestation) infants are lower in the United States than in most European countries; however, infant mortality rates for infants born at 37 weeks of gestation or more are higher in the United States than in most European countries.
One in 8 births in the United States were born preterm, compared with 1 in 18 births in Ireland and Finland.
If the United States had Sweden’s distribution of births by gestational age, nearly 8,000 infant deaths would be averted each year and the U.S. infant mortality rate would be one-third lower.
The main cause of the United States’ high infant mortality rate when compared with Europe is the very high percentage of preterm births in the United States.
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Molly
CfM Blogger
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2 comments:
Interesting that infant mortality rates are higher in the US for term infants (37 weeks or greater). Could this be due to our higher cesarean rate, higher rate of interventions in normal birth, and the philosophy of modern obstetrics? As a midwife, I see hospital births every day where routine interventions are carried out, despite evidence that they are not beneficial and may indeed be harmful. I believe we need to look closely at why we have more infants dying after 37 weeks than other countries.
(((HUGS)))
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