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Honored to get up at 'o'dark thirty' to give two live presentations to the European Armed Services annual conference broadcast out of Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany. Plans to be with them in person in April were changed due to COVID.
Thanks to Stephanie Shivers, CNM for her assistance in moderating both sessions today, and to all the US Midwives serving in the Armed Forces.
Today: Beyond the Bundles and Collegiality in Care, tomorrow morning, Care in the Postpartum Period
If you want to know who provides care with lowest percentage of maternal deaths/100,000 - look to the Military Health System. Thank you all!
We are celebrating the second year of a widely valued book on preparing for and the early weeks of parenting.
If interested in a chance to win a free book, read below.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Listen in to learn more about what we do at #GrowMidwives
We work with individual midwives, midwifery practices, hospitals, physician groups, developing midwifery programs and birth centers. Let us know if you have questions. Thank you to those who have reached out for advice!
Grow Midwives fills the gaps in the midwifery community. We act as the gardener to help our clients grow into the successful careers they have always wanted!
Perhaps — when greater known and more influential national organizations promote integration of Midwives into US Maternity care others will listen?
ABSTRACT
Issue: Most maternal deaths are preventable, but they have been increasing in the United States. Other high-income countries with success in preventing maternal deaths offer potential lessons for the U.S.
Goals: To compare maternal mortality rates in the U.S. with 10 other high-income countries and identify differences in maternal care workforces, postpartum care access, and paid maternity leave policies that may help account for observed differences.
Methods: Analysis of the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and grey literature.
Key Findings: The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries. Obstetrician-gynecologists (ob-gyns) are overrepresented in its maternity care workforce relative to midwives, and there is an overall shortage of maternity care providers (both ob-gyns and midwives) relative to births. In most other countries, midwives outnumber ob-gyns by severalfold, and primary care plays a central role in the health system. Although a large share of its maternal deaths occur postbirth, the U.S. is the only country not to guarantee access to provider home visits or paid parental leave in the postpartum period.
Conclusion: The U.S. has a relative undersupply of maternity care providers, especially midwives, and lacks comprehensive postpartum supports.
#GrowMidwives
#Facts
www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/nov/maternal-mortality-maternity-care-us-...
Maternal Mortality and Maternity Care in the United States Compared to 10 Other Developed Countries
www.commonwealthfund.org
Overview of differences in maternal mortality, maternal care workforce, and access to postpartum care and social protections in the U.S. and 10 other countries.A story you need to know. I’ve visited with the incredible Dr Ogburn about maternity care and politics of ‘along the border’ a few months ago. He gets it, but so many do not.
“Within days of when the public charge policy became public, followed by wall-to-wall coverage on Spanish-language news outlets and dire warnings on social media, medical clinics saw no-show rates for prenatal care appointments rise sharply. Midwives say that requests for home births from undocumented women who wanted to avoid going to a hospital soared. Doctors said they saw a spike in the number of women arriving in emergency rooms with serious complications, or already in labor, without having been to a single prenatal appointment. The problem has been particularly pronounced in Texas, which has the second-largest population of unauthorized immigrants in the country.
“Are we going to fall off a cliff soon with the health of immigrant women?” said Dr. Tony Ogburn, an obstetrician at DHR Health, a busy hospital in Edinburg, Texas, near the Mexican border, where between 8,000 and 9,000 babies are delivered every year. “I think we’re already there.”
Families are suffering, maternity care systems are not collaborating across systems to improve functioning, and answers to these alarms are not changing fast enough.
#GrowMidwives
www.nytimes.com/2020/11/22/us/undocumented-immigrants-pregnant-prenatal.html?referringSource=arti...
Undocumented and Pregnant: Why Women Are Afraid to Get Prenatal Care
www.nytimes.com
Undocumented women are risking their health by postponing prenatal care and giving birth at home in response to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.