A Newsweek article points to a systematic review (a study of studies) finding that doctors perform cesareans in the belief that it will protect them from being sued, but that isn't the half of what the review found. The review revealed host of other non-medical...
According to provisional U.S. data for 2017, after four years of inching downward from 32.9% in 2013 to 31.9% in 2016, the overall cesarean rate rose by a tenth of a percentage point to 32.0% in 2017. The pain (pun intended) wasn't distributed evenly. The rate in...
Consumer Reports announces the publication of the latest U.S. birth statistics. The 2016 cesarean rate was 31.9%, continuing a decline for the fourth year in a row, but don’t break out the pom-poms because the 4-year reduction amounts to a mere single percentage point...
Several articles on U.S. maternal mortality rates have popped up over the last month or so, most of them using an NPR report as their primary source. Working conjointly with ProPublica, NPR spent six months conducting an in-depth investigation to uncover why the...
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a press release highlighting a study finding that planned cesarean or induction before 39 completed weeks increases the odds of developmental deficits at school age. Let’s look at the study in more detail, but let’s look...
Henci’s latest guest post on Connecting the Dots looks at the recent analysis of trends in U.S. maternal mortality from 2000 to 2014 together with other related research and media responses that offer explanations for the upward trend.
Amy Tuteur has managed to score a commentary in the Washington Post entitled “How the natural birth industry sets mothers up for guilt and shame.” You would think that the inflammatory rhetoric would have given the Post’s editors a clue that they should get their fact...
Women's eNews summarizes a New York City Department of Health report on maternal mortality between 2006 and 2010 finding that women of color were more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes during pregnancy or within 1 year of delivery than white, non-Hispanic...
The first in Henci’s new Take Charge of Your Birth Series, Labor Pain: What’s Your Best Strategy? delivers up-to-date access to the best medical research plus practical strategies for developing your plan and putting it into action. Also available in audiobook.
