Childbirth complications increased 75% from 1999-2009

iris427 · December 2012

Crazy.

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324339204578171531475181260.html?KEYWORDS=birth

Sorry I can't seem to make it clicky.

Any thoughts on this article? The first factor they mentioned was that mothers are too old/fat/whatever. Then they go on to discuss the increase in cesarean rates as being another factor. They talk about how to handle these emergencies when they happen but didn't really talk about preventing them in the first place by having a less interventive model of medical care.

So I think they kind of missed the big picture. But overall it's good to see this getting attention in the mainstream media.

junie216 · December 2012

My only thought is that the number of interventions during pregnancy and delivery has likely gone up also, and I'd bet there is a correlation.

wifeofadam · December 2012

There are so many factors that I think play a role in this. Of course, our birth culture is #1. I think part of it is the doctors - wanting control of the birth, not allowing birth to evolve and flow naturally, pushing interventions, not education themselves on simple things like breech birth, etc. The other part of it is mothers who are all too willing to just blindly do what they are asked to do. People just don't care to be informed.

I think overall health is huge. The average pregnant woman eats like crap and feels like they have an excuse to do so. Our culture eats way too many carbs and not enough protein in general, and during pregnancy that's a recipe for all sorts of complications. And then as the article mentioned, obesity in general.

I'm not sure that maternal age plays a huge role. Women have always been having having babies well into their thirties - they just used to start earlier and have larger families. But I think the difference now is that women who traditionally could not get pregnant in the past are now using technology to achieve and sustain pregnancies when unfortunately, their bodies aren't able to completely handle it. So we're seeing more complications because of that. In the past that didn't happen as much.

I think that the instant gratification of our culture plays another role. People aren't patient anymore - not just doctors - but women. They aren't willing to go overdue, or even wait until their due dates, to have their babies. This impatience can lead to early inductions and a bunch of complications. I think that this is the danger of sticking to a concrete due date and not stressing the fact that it is only an average.

But let's face it. People are just less healthy now than they were ten years ago. It's everything from the chemicals we put in our bodies to the lack of activity to lack of fresh air to diet. All of this effects the baby and the outcome of our births. My midwives say that they can tell whether or not a woman is eating a good diet just by looking at the placenta after the birth. Women who have had a high protein, nutrient-dense diet have healthy, rich placentas even well after their due dates. Also, women who are active during pregnancy have less complications during labor.

I'm rambling. I guess my point is that we need to change not only our attitudes about birth and our lifestyles, but also our attitudes in general, and just be much more patient and let the body do its thing.

pdilly2b · December 2012

I worry that people will see that article and conclude that we need a more medicalized mode of birth to protect us against all of the things that can go wrong. Agree that they miss the big picture and the connection that it's likely many of the interventions (esp things like inductions and c/s) that are contributing to the rise of complications.

Runaway22 · December 2012

pdilly2b:
I worry that people will see that article and conclude that we need a more medicalized mode of birth to protect us against all of the things that can go wrong. Agree that they miss the big picture and the connection that it's likely many of the interventions (esp things like inductions and c/s) that are contributing to the rise of complications.

Unfortunately, that's usually how the thinking goes. It's flawed, but when someone only reads an article or two and gives it a few minutes of thought, it's easy to come to an assumption like that.

julyjennifer · December 2012

pdilly2b:
I worry that people will see that article and conclude that we need a more medicalized mode of birth to protect us against all of the things that can go wrong. Agree that they miss the big picture and the connection that it's likely many of the interventions (esp things like inductions and c/s) that are contributing to the rise of complications.

I saw the article too and I agree they didn't really even address the issue of whether something about the hospital environment and medical model of care is behind some of the complications. It was good to see an article bringing up the increased complications, but the article kept mentioning how "people think childbirth is so safe but sometimes it's just not." I have the same worry as Pdilly. I would have been interested to see more comparison between rates in other industrialized nations.

bornmommy · December 2012

+adamwife+:
I'm rambling. I guess my point is that we need to change not only our attitudes about birth and our lifestyles, but also our attitudes in general, and just be much more patient and let the body do its thing.

Yes

sbevmc09 · December 2012

I too dislike the tone of the article. On one hand I love to see these kind of stats out in mainstream media, as you said. However, the first thing they mention is mother's health. While I do definitely believe that mother's health plays a big role in a healthy pregnancy/delivery I hate how it's often thrown out there like this is why there are so many complications, this is why we have to do so many C/S, etc. It's a piece of the puzzle, but it's not the simple. Not to mention we're looking at a relatively short time span. I'm supposed to believe that mother's health has declined rapidly enough in just 10 years time to cause such a significant impact? No way.

But yeah, overall, I feel like the tone of the article was definitely pushing the medical model of care. It was very, thank goodness we have modern medicine to save us from ourselves! Especially the part about the special drills, etc. Why don't we try to figure out what's causing these problems in the first place rather than waiting until there is an emergency? If mother's health plays a large role let's teach people about the importance of living healthy lifestyles and how to have a healthy pregnancy (and I'm not talking about the typical, eat healthy and don't gain too much weight that most OBs spit out at your first appointment. Let's talk about WHY we need to eat good foods, what the bad stuff does to your system, the importance of healthy fats, and protein! No one ever told me how important protein is during pregnancy. I didn't find out until this time around. Last time it was just blahblah eat plenty of lean meats and fresh fruits and veggies.)

Thanks for sharing.

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