Let’s face it – most women believe birth is safe….. because we have so much technology. It stands to reason that as technology becomes better, birth becomes better and safer, right?
How many women believe this?
I am going to guess that most women believe this.
How many women can back this up with facts?
Hmmmm…. Probably none.
As a society we have been mesmerized and brainwashed by technology. There has been no better time in history to give birth, especially in the United States where we have the most advanced technology at our disposal.
Let’s look at some birth statistics in the US….
The maternal mortality rate for 2004 was 13.1 deaths per 100,000 live births. Black women have a substantially higher risk of maternal death than white women. The maternal mortality rate for black women was 34.7 deaths per 100,000 live births, roughly 3.7 times the rate of
9.3 for white women.
REFERENCE:(page 12/120)
[also "The maternal mortality rate rose to 13 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2004, according to statistics released this week by the for Health Statistics.
The rate was 12 per 100,000 live births in 2003 — the first time the maternal death rate rose above 10 since 1977." REFERENCE]
Here are maternal death dates for the world:(p 30/48 lists the table)
Why are we not in the blue??? http://www.who.int/research/en/
Countries highlighted in blue have maternal death rates below 10/100,000: Canada, Australia, most European Countries, New Zealand, Japan. Not the US!
Our infant mortality rate MUST be the lowest in the world, right?
Here are the facts. Infant mortality increase from 2004 to 2005:
6.89/1000 in 2005
6.79/1000 in 2004
REFERENCE:
Here are the neonatal and infant mortality rates for the world:
http://www.who.int/child-adolescent-health/OVERVIEW/CHILD_HEALTH/Mortality_Rates_03.pdf
or http://www.who.int/making_pregnancy_safer/publications/neonatal.pdf
The neonatal mortality rate in the US is 5/1000 births. Most of our European neighbors have lower neonatal mortality rates. Who attends most births in Europe? Midwives! Homebirth is not uncommon for many European nations.
Now let’s look at c-section rates!
The US c-section rate in 2007 was 31.8%, a record high and the 11th consecutive year the cesarean rate increased: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_12.pdf (see page 19 for state by state rates)
The US c-section rate in 2006 was 31.1%
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_07.pdf (see pages 1 and 4)
also
Reference: http://www.childbirthconnection.org/pdfs/cesarean-section-trends.pdf
The individual state c-section rates are here:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_07_tables.pdf (see table D)
Worldwide c-section rates from WHOSIS:
http://www.who.int/whosis/en/ (Click “Query the online database”; click “all countries” in the top box and then “Births by caesarean csection (%)”. Click submit
[http://www.who.int/whosis/database/core/core_select_process.cfm#]
NOTE: some of the info on world c-section rates is a bit outdated
C-section birth rates in US from 1990-2003: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr54/nvsr54_04.pdf (page 3)
1990: 22.7%
1991:22.6%
1992: 22.3%
1993: 21.8%
1994: 21.2
1995: 20.8
1996: 20.7%
1997: 20.8%
1998: 21.2%
1999: 22.0
2000: 22.9%
2001: 24.4%
2002: 26.1%
2003: 27.5%
2004: 29.1%
2005: 30.3%
2006: 31.1%
C-section rate in the 1980s: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=1647267&pageindex=2
1980: 16.5%
C-section rates 1970- 1978: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=1422801&pageindex=3
1970: 5.5%Does this get your attention??
In 2004, the NJ maternal death rate was 21 deaths per 100,000 live births.*
{reference: ; birth data from the Center for Health Statistics, electronic birth certificate file)
In 2004, the US maternal death rate was 13.1 deaths per 100,000 live births.
REFERENCE:(page 12/120)
The NJ maternal death rate is 60% higher than the US average
NJ 2005 information
In 2005, the NJ maternal death rate was still 21 deaths per 100,000 live births
In 2005, the number of NJ maternal deaths was 23 (reference), while the number of births was 110.302 (reference: Center for Health Statistics, Electronic birth certificate data)
* Note: in 2004, there was a change to the NJ death certificate expanding the check boxes for pregnancy related deaths so it is possible that more women are being included in the NJ maternal death rate than in prior years in NJ and it is possible that more women are being in included in the NJ maternal death rate than other states in the US who do not routinely ask about pregnancy (or as many pregnancy related questions) on death certificates.
