Ten Facts About Maternity Care You Should Know

A profession that recommends best practice care yet shuns evidence-based care is contradictory and in danger of implosion if the receivers of that care discover the contradiction.  Therefore, a combination of fact distortion and suppression of education is the key to avoiding revelation and implosion.

1.    The maternal mortality rate in the US is 12.1 deaths per 100,000 live births.  This number is greater than 40 other countries in the world. (Source: Amnesty USA Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA, 2010).
 

2.    Cesarean sections are partly to blame for the rise in the US Maternity mortality rate. (Source: California Maternity Quality Care Collaborative, 2011).

3.    The FDA has not approved the drug Cytotec for use as an induction agent for childbirth.  http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/ucm111315.htm

4.    The US Food and Drug Administration has issued alerts about the use of vacuum extractors used during labor/birth, including fetal hemorrhage, shock and death. http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/AlertsandNotices/TipsandArticlesonDeviceSafety/ucm230309.htm

5.    The Joint Commission, the body that accredits US hospitals, encourages a reduction of cesarean rates to the limit suggested by the World Health Organization ~ 15-20%. (Source: The Joint Commission Specifications Manual for Joint Commission National Quality Core Measures, 2010).

6.    “A baby born by cesarean surgery is more likely to be admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit or NICU physically separated from his or her mother, thus making establishing breastfeeding more difficult.” (Source:  Impact of Birthing Practices on Breastfeeding, 2011).

7.    Women’s birthing preferences are shaped by economic position and availability of local birthing options. (Source:  Social Science & Medicine, 2012 Aug. 75(4) 709-16)

8.    All drugs given to a mother during labor cross the placenta to the fetus/baby.   (Source: Anesthesiology 1995 83(2) 300-308)

9.    The US breastfeeding rate on initiation is 76.9% (2009), 47.2% at 6 months, and 25.5% at 12 months. (Source: CDC Report Card, 2012)

10. There are 14 risks of formula feeding infants.  INFACT Canada has a brief annotated bibliography that is in a pdf format and easy to print and give to parents and care providers.  http://www.infactcanada.ca/fourteen%20risks%20of%20formula%20feeding.pdf