Birth Matters Virginia

Fetal Monitoring's Role in Cesarean Deliveries

   Most American women will give birth in a hospital.  Most of these women will become very familiar with the external fetal monitor.  Two belts will be placed around the abdomen.  One, the tocometer, will tell the care providers how often the mother is contracting.  It does not determine contraction strength, or indicate pain level, just whether or not she is having contractions and how often.  The second belt uses ultrasound to detect fetal heart rate.  For many women, this tool will be used to determine whether or not the baby is tolerating labor well.  In some cases, the results are misleading.

"No test is perfect. But almost every time we whisked a mother back to the operating room, and I cut through skin, fat, fascia, and finally the muscle of the uterus, expecting a blue, floppy baby, the child I delivered emerged pink, healthy, and a little bit angry.

Were we saving lives and averting disaster? Or were we performing unnecessary surgery?"

Click here for Alex Friedman's full story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Midwives for Haiti

*May 5th is International Midwives' Day.  One wonderful way you can honor a midwife in your life is by making a donation to Midwives for Haiti.  Midwives for Haiti is based in Richmond, and is a non-profit organization that organizes midwives and other clinicians from around the world to instruct Haitian women in delivering prenatal care and serving as skilled birth attendants.  This year, Om Mama hopes to raise $5,000.00, which will enable a Haitian midwife to practice for an entire year. 

For more information, or to make a donation on-line, click here.

* This is NOT a BMV event.

Breastmilk Versus Cancer

A brief article from Fox News Health: 

"Swedish researchers have discovered that a substance found in human breast milk has the ability to kill cancer cells, according to a study published in the PLoS One Journal.

The substance known as HAMLET (Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made Lethal to Tumor cells), was discovered years ago, but has just recently been tested on humans.

In the trial conducted at Lund University in Sweden, patients suffering from bladder cancer were treated with HAMLET. After each treatment, the patients excreted dead cancer cells in their urine, healthy cells remaining intact.

Previous laboratory experiments showed that HAMLET has the ability to kill 40 different types of cancer cells, but this was the first test conducted on humans. The next step will be to test the substance on skin cancer and brain tumors.

The trial breakthrough increases the hopes that HAMLET will be developed into a cancer treatment medication in the future."

 

New Birth-Related Documentary: DOULAS!

Check it out!

The High Cost of not Breastfeeding

  From CNN Health:

"If most new moms would breastfeed their babies for the first six months of life, it would save nearly 1,000 lives and billions of dollars each year, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

"The United States incurs $13 billion in excess costs annually and suffers 911 preventable deaths per year because our breastfeeding rates fall far below medical recommendations," the report said.

The World Health Organization says infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life "to achieve optimal growth, development and health." The WHO is not alone in its recommendations."

Some of the biggest culprits to the lackluster breastfeeding rate in America: maternity care practices that inhibit early breastfeeding and lack of support.  To read the full article, including how much experts believe we could be saving by breastfeeding, and how many moms need to breastfeed to achieve that savings, click here. 

Epidurals: Separating Fact from Fiction

When most women ask about epidurals, they are simply told they are very safe.  While this may be what they had hoped to hear, it also leaves out quite a bit. 

From Today's Parent:

"In 2002 the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology published two different analyses of past research aimed at identifying any effect epidurals might have on labour. Both studies found:

• Longer labor [...]
• Higher rates of augmentation (induction) and cesarean section [...]
• More forceps deliveries, tears, and episiotomies [...]
• Fetal distress [...]"

To read the complete article, including details about each of the 4 side effects above, click here.

ICAN on-line webinars!

In honor of April's International Cesarean Awareness Month, we'd like to present another way to educate yourself and others about VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean).  ICAN is offering webinars.  They are easy to access and affordable.

Click here to see the complete list of topics and times.

Better Births at Lower Costs

From FitPregnancy:

"America spends a larger percentage of its gross domestic product on health care than any other industrialized nation, yet its citizens aren’t healthier for it. This is especially true when it comes to childbirth. Having a baby is the No. 1 reason for hospitalizations in the U.S., and a Cesarean section is the most common operation."

Click here to see more about the Agency for Healthcare Quality reports, as well as ways to avoid interventions, click here.

Rape Victims at Higher Risk for Complications

A small Norwegian study has found that women who were raped as adults are at a higher risk for certain types of birth-related complications and interventions. The study found that during their first birth, the women who had been raped had an increased risk for cesarean section and assisted vaginal delivery when compared to women in the control group. On average, women who had been raped also had a longer second stage of labor than the control group.

Read the full study here.

If you are in need of help, please contact a Rape Crisis Center or RAINN.