Around the Web…

Some compelling links for your Wednesday afternoon:

• Identical triplet boys born Friday are sent home from a New York City hospital — Associated Press
• Five female police offers in Detroit are suing the city for pregnancy-related discrimination — Brattleboro Reformer
• The mother of missing 3-year-old Caylee Anthony has been charged with murder — ABCNews
• This Halloween, have your children trick-or-treat for UNICEF — lilSugar
• Though childbirth is risky in undeveloped countries like Sierra Leone, it can also be deadly in the United States — Jezebel

Comments

Poor Caylee – but she would have been 3, not 4.

- Nicole on October 15th, 2008

The reason the US has such a bad ranking for maternal and infant mortality is the amount of interventions into the childbirth process. Being pregnant is not an illness, but it is treated as such. We would be so much better off if midwives were caring for most pregnancies/births. Leave the high risk births to OB’s and Perinatologists.

- KellyC on October 15th, 2008

KellyC,

I have normal healthy pregnancies, but I don’t want a midwife or a birthing center or a home birth. I want a doctor in a hospital. Would it be ok for me to have that choice or do you think you know what’s best for everyone? Gesh.

- LolaBean on October 15th, 2008

Lola-

Kelly was just stating a fact. I don’t think she was trying to be mean. It’s well documented that most of the interventions used in childbirth are unnecessary and can lead to complications. In other countries where midwives are the primary care givers (like the majority of Europe), infant mortality rates are lower.

- ashley on October 16th, 2008