http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090614/NEWS/906140351/1006
Seventy percent of women who died from pregnancy-related causes in New York state underwent cesarean-section births, more than twice the rate at which cesareans are performed in the state.
The findings come from a report on maternal mortality obtained under the Freedom of Information Law from the state Health Department, which sponsored the study. The research was performed by the New York chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
The study, which was not dated, analyzed case files of 33 of the 141 women who died as a result of pregnancy and childbirth from 2003 to 2005. There were two deaths among Ulster County women in that time, and none in Dutchess, but it is not known if they were part of the study.
The Poughkeepsie Journal reported in March that the rate of cesarean sections soared 42 percent in New York state from 1999 to 2007; one in three babies was delivered surgically in 2007, many for nonmedical reasons such as mothers’ concerns over labor and physicians’ liability fears or time constraints. At the same time, the rate of maternal mortality in the state is rising; it went up 70 percent from 1997 to 2007, the Journal found.
http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/05/midwives_urge_psychological_care_after_miscarriage_724153.html
Women who suffer miscarriages are not getting enough support from the health care community, says the Finnish Union of Midwives. They say that while miscarriages are usually outpatient cases, the women’s mental health is largely ignored.
One in six pregnancies in Finland ends in miscarriage. This is around 17,000 cases a year.
“Bleeding might start in the middle of the workday and you have to rush to the hospital. If needed, dilatation and curettage is performed and the patient is on the ward for a few hours. After that, she goes home and that’s the end of it,” says Union deputy chair Päivi Perttu, who is also a working midwife in Oulu.
She feels that women and their families are often left to deal with the sorrow on their own. Perttu feels that midwives need to be given more time to follow up with miscarriage patients, and offer them psychological help if needed.
Last year, a widely distributed report from the group Save the Children, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, tied the United States with Malta and Slovakia for the second-worst infant-mortality rate among developed nations (at about six per 1,000 live births). “I’m always amazed to see where the United States is,” a Rand researcher said of the list. “We are the wealthiest country in the world,” a Save the Children spokesperson agreed, yet many “are not getting the health care they need.”
http://www.slate.com/id/2161899/
At least 78,000 women die every year in India during pregnancy and childbirth, according to a report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“This means on an average, every seven minutes, one woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth,” UNICEF said in a press release.
http://keralaonline.com/women/78000-indian-women-die-pregnancy-childbirth-annually-unicef_18473.html
Women living in poor countries are 300 times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than if they lived in rich countries, UNICEF said in a report released Thursday in Johannesburg.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090115/hl_afp/healthchildrenwomenunsafrica
Every day in the United States, thousands of women and families experience one of the most joyous occasions in their lifetime — the birth of a child.
That joy is certainly not as often the case in many parts of the world. Women in the least-developed countries are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from complications related to pregnancy than women in developed countries.
Half a million women die due to pregnancy or childbirth complications every year.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/01/22/veneman.childbirth/index.html
I started my mothering journey with high hopes and misinformation about breastfeeding. Although I was able to breastfeed my first three children, it was with formula supplementation and early weaning. After my fourth child was born, I fell into the cloth diapering community through a twist of fate and found myself immediately drawn to the attachment parenting community. For the first time I was given solid information about breastfeeding that encouraged me to think outside the box and recognize the bumps in the road of my past experiences as just that: bumps. I realized that my pattern of weaning at the six-month mark could be overcome with a little diligence and understanding of what was happening with my child at this age. His disinterest wasn’t a sign he was ready to wean, he was simply more interested in the world around him and easily distracted. All this information paid off as my son and I continued our nursing relationship into his second year. Little did I know what an impact this would have on me as I headed into my biggest challenge as a mother.
http://mothering.com/articles/new_baby/breastfeeding/lactation-after-loss.html
It is one of the world’s greatest hidden epidemics, but the search for a solution is hopelessly underfunded. On average, every minute of every day a woman somewhere dies in childbirth or pregnancy, the overwhelming majority in developing countries. It is estimated that they number more than half a million every year, in what Norway’s Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, told the United Nations last week was ‘the biggest expression of brutality to women I can imagine’.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/28/sierraleone.internationalaidanddevelopment