A better way to give birth [U.S]
Posted almost 9 years ago by Nicholas M Perrino
"I would argue that as childbirth in the United States moved from the home to the hospital, mothers lost one of the most effective resources for healthy childbirth: midwives.
Midwives are trained professionals who specialize in pregnancy and childbirth. In most countries, they also provide prenatal and postnatal care. Midwifery has existed as an occupation for millennia. One of the first recorded references to midwifery is in the Ebers Papyrus from Ancient Egypt, which recognized midwifery as a female profession. In Ancient Rome, midwives were highly valued by their male doctor counterparts.
For the vast majority of women who die from childbirth in the world, access to doctors, hospitals and the latest medical interventions and technology would likely have saved their lives and the lives of their babies. The same is true for women with high-risk pregnancies. But for the 85% of American women every year whose pregnancies are considered low-risk, there need to be viable alternatives to standard hospital delivery practices.
Midwifery should be incorporated into pregnancy care at hospitals across the country, so expectant mothers can make a fully informed decision on how and where to give birth. True, the United States has better maternal care than many other countries. But to decrease our maternal mortality rates, midwives could be, for the U.S. health care system, just what the doctor ordered."