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According to a new study conducted by the American Association of Birth Centers and published in the Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health (Jan-Feb 2013), increasing the number of women who choose birth centers to have their babies would significantly decrease the number of cesarean sections and save "billions" in healthcare dollars.
In a story on Weekend Edition Sunday on January 6, Monica Ortiz Uribe recounts an effort to reduce the high Mexican maternal mortality rate, especially in poorer, more rural and isolated areas of the country, by training modern professional midwives. Many of these "new" midwives are the daughters and grand-daughters of traditional midwives who have provided care for centuries.
Categories: For Midwives
This is fascinating - although an oxymoron (natural cesarean?), it immediately and instinctively appealed to me as a midwife. (Photo is of a cesarean in rural Nepal)
Categories: Cesarean Birth
As reported in the Yale News (Karen N. Peart, Aug 8, 2012) "Vaginal birth triggers the expression of a protein in the brains of newborns that improves brain development and function in adulthood, according to a new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers, who also found that this protein expression is impaired in the brains of offspring delivered by caesarean section (C-sections)."
Categories: Cesarean Birth
According to the June 25, 2012 issue of Time, midwives delivered 8% of all babies born in the U.S. in 2009 — an all-time high. In New Mexico, with the most midwife-attended births, the rate is 24%. Time's story is based on a study just published in The Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health (Vol 57(4) July/Aug 2012).
Categories: For Parents
Recent Articles
The New York Times writes in the Sunday, June 17, 2012 edition that midwives have suddenly become a "status symbol." I guess that, after years of struggling to become known as a profession, we should feel good about that. But I am not sure this is a new phenomenon. Midwives have given superb care to thousands of women, many of them indigent, immigrant, and underserved, for many years.
According to the International Confederation of Midwives, a midwife is "a person who meets the ICM Definition of the Midwife who has been educated and trained to proficiency in the ICM Essential Competencies for Basic Midwifery Practice, demonstrates competency in the practice of midwifery and is legally permitted to use this title."
Categories: For Parents
Consumer Reports.org has just published an excellent article about ten procedures that may be more harmful than helpful during pregnancy and birth, as well as ten things to do during your pregnancy and five things to do before you become pregnant which can optimize your chances for a positive outcome. Tops on their list of things to avoid is a cesarean for a low-risk first birth.
Categories: For Parents
Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, says in the foreword of this important document, "We know what is needed to make pregnancy and delivery safe: access to health services, including skilled birth attendants and a functioning health care facility."
Categories: For Midwives
Reported in an article by KJ Dell'Antonia in the New York Times on April 2, "births during the last decade take longer than they did in the early 1960s — 2.6 hours longer for women having their first baby, and a little less than two hours longer for women who have given birth before."
Categories: Labor and Birth
