Preach It!

No one can tell a woman what is best for her and her baby ... waterbirth, homebirth, hospital birth, doctor, midwife, Unassisted Childbirth (UC) or cesarean surgery ... it is for her and her baby to know. The best we can do is support her to access, trust, and know her own inner wisdom and communicate with the Being within her - the One whose birth it is through her womb and the man. - Janel Mirendah, Attachment/Birth trauma therapist, Filmmaker of The Other Side of the Glass.

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Thursday, October 9, 2008

High Interventions deliver huge childbirth bill

Study: High-tech interventions deliver huge childbirth bill
By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY

Childbirth is the leading reason for hospitalization in the USA and
one of the top reasons for outpatient visits, yet much maternity
care consists of high-tech procedures that lack scientific evidence
of benefit for most women, a report says today.

U.S. hospital charges for maternal and newborn care jumped from $79
billion in 2005 to $86 billion in 2006, the authors write. More
than $2.5 billion a year is spent on unnecessary C-sections, which
now represent nearly a third of all deliveries.

Reducing expensive techniques such as C-sections and increasing
low-cost approaches such as childbirth assistants called doulas
would improve mothers' and babies' health while cutting costs, the
authors say.

The report was produced by the Milbank Memorial Fund, the Reforming
States Group of government health policy leaders; and Childbirth
Connection, a research and advocacy group.

"Everybody recognizes that our health care system's in trouble,"
says Childbirth Connection's Maureen Corry, co-author with colleague
Carol Sakala. "But when it comes to maternity care, no one talks
about it."

Yet, she says, with 4.3 million babies born annually, nearly one
in four people discharged from U.S. hospitals are new mothers or
newborns. On the outpatient side, only checkups, follow-ups and
coughs rack up more visits than maternity care.

In 2005, the average hospital charge for an uncomplicated vaginal
birth was $7,000, compared with $16,000 for a complicated C-section,
Corry reports. "I think a lot of people have no idea about the
cost," she says.

The University of Wisconsin's Douglas Laube, a former president of
the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, blames
"very significant external forces" for the overuse of expensive
technologies in maternity care.

"I don't like to admit it, but there are economic incentives" for
doctors and hospitals to use the procedures, says Laube, who reviewed
the new report before its release.

For example, some doctors might get bonuses for performing more
labor inductions, which adds costs and increases the risk of
C-sections, which, in turn, increase hospital profits because they
require longer stays.

In addition, some doctors order unnecessary tests and procedures
to protect against malpractice suits, Laube says.

Bonnie Jellen, head of the American Hospital Association's maternal
and child health section, hadn't seen the report. She says women's
preferences and doctor's malpractice concerns have helped raise the
C-section rate.

Says Corry: "A lot of people think pregnant women are accidents
waiting to happen. It's just crazy."

Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-10-08-childbirth-costs_N.htm

2 comments:

Birthkeeper said...

and what the article fails to mention is that hospital charges are only about half of the bill...there is a separate doctor's fee. sorry I missed you when you were in SC--keep up the amazing work you do!

Janel Baby Keeper said...

thanks for visiting and for your addition here.

sorry i missed you too.

your site is awesome and i love your name ... b'earth ... haven't seen that one. Love it.

Buy It!

Part One: The Other Side of the Glass: a Birth Film for and About Men officially released in digital download format on June 2, 2013. Go to www.TheOtherSideoftheGlass.com to purchase a digital download.

Men have been marginalized in birth for a long time. The old joke is that a man was sent off to boil water to keep him busy. I believe they were making the environment safe. Birth moved to hospitals and for forty years women were separated from their partners who was left to wait in smoke filled waiting room. Finally, he would see his baby from "the other side of the glass." Now a man can go in the birthing room and even get to hold his partner's hand during surgery. But they are still marginalized and powerless, according to the fathers I interviewed around the country.

Historically, birth has been defined by the medical establishment. The midwifery and natural birth movement now advocate for need "to educate and prepare men to protect their wife and baby" in medical environment. Seems logical ... if we process with the same illogic that got us here.

Through the voices of men - and doctors and midwives - men share heart-touching stories about how this is not workin' out. A man is also very likely to be disempowered and prevented from connecting with their newborn baby in the first minutes of life.

Now is the time for men to take back birth.

The film is about restoring our families, society, and world through birthing wanted, loved, protected, and nurtured males (and females, of course). It's about empowering males to support the females to birth humanity safely, lovingly, and consciously.

Donors, check your emails or email me at theothersideoftheglassfilm@gmail.com for info to download. Release on DVD is not planned at this date.

FREE online! watch Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 10 at www.vimeo.com/75767434

"Doctor's Voices" - Stuart Fischbein, MD - Part 1

Doctor's Voices - Michael Odent, MD

Human Rights Violations

Resources - Healing Birth Trauma

"The Other Side of the Glass" has the potential to open up feelings that have been denied and ignored for a very long time. How to heal the trauma of birth at any age will be addressed in the film. Meanwhile, these are pioneers in the field.

Raymond Castellino and Mary Jackson - www.BEBA.org

David Chamberlain, Ph.D. - www.BEPE.info

Judith Cohen - www.judithleecohen.com

Myrna Martin - www.MyrnaMartin.net

Karen Melton - www.HealYourEarlyImprints.com

Wendy McCord, Ph.D. - www.WendyMcCord.com

Wendy McCarty, Ph.D. - www.WondrousBeginnings.com

And, many, many more all over the world at www.BirthPsychology.com
In both relationships and life trust begets trust.
Generosity begets generosity.
Love begets love.
Be the spark, especially when it's dark.

--Note from the Universe, www.tut.com

"Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so children have very little time with their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world." - Mother Theresa