Introduction
Birth complications are common around the world, but they are on the rise in the United States. Death or injury during childbirth can have serious consequences for both mothers and children. In this article, we will discuss severe birth complications on the rise in the United States, what could be causing the increase, and what can be done to address the issue.
What are Severe Birth Complications?
Severe birth complications refer to life-threatening events that occur during pregnancy, childbirth or in the postpartum period. These complications can include hemorrhage, sepsis, preeclampsia, and eclampsia. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these complications can lead to death or long-term disability.
Rise in Severe Birth Complications
In the United States, there has been a significant increase in severe birth complications in recent years. According to a report from NPR, the rate of severe maternal morbidity has more than doubled since 1993. Additionally, the maternal mortality rate in the United States is higher than in most other developed countries.
Research suggests that there are several factors contributing to this increase in severe birth complications. These factors include a rise in chronic health conditions among pregnant women, an increase in the number of older mothers, and a lack of access to quality prenatal and postpartum care.
Impact on Mothers and Children
Severe birth complications can have a devastating impact on both mothers and children. Mothers may experience long-term health problems, including chronic pain, infection, infertility, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Additionally, children may be born premature, have low birth weights, or experience developmental delays.
What Can Be Done?
To address the issue of severe birth complications, there are several steps that can be taken. First, there needs to be a greater focus on providing high-quality prenatal and postpartum care. This can include increasing access to healthcare for pregnant women and improving the quality of care provided by healthcare providers.
Secondly, more research needs to be done to identify risk factors for severe birth complications and how to prevent them. This can include studying the impact of chronic health problems on pregnant women and understanding how to identify and treat pregnancy complications early.
Conclusion
Severe birth complications are on the rise in the United States, and it is important to understand the causes and consequences of this trend. By improving access to quality prenatal and postpartum care and investing in research, we can work to ensure that mothers and children have the best possible outcomes during childbirth.
Severe complications like kidney failure and heart attacks during and immediately after labor and delivery are rising nationwide, says a CDC report. The report, published in the November issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, has serious implications for pregnant women, attorneys in the malpractice field, obstetricians, midwives, and other birth professionals.
Because the study the report was based on was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, it could examine a very large, nationwide sample of births. The Nationwide Inpatient Sample, used by the study, includes information on over five million patients annually at approximately 1,000 hospitals. According to these samples, having a baby is the single most common thing that Americans do in hospitals—labor and delivery accounted for more hospital intakes than any other single cause.
Out of about 50 million births recorded during the period from 1998 to 2009, about 600,000 involved severe complications in delivery or in the immediate period after delivery. Women were recorded as having severe complications if they had to receive a blood transfusion or had a serious infection or other illness.
Some of these events had seen a significant increase over the eleven year timespan. For example, the rates of blood transfusion went up over 180 percent. Embolisms were also more common, as were tracheotomies and heart attacks.
However, not all of the news was negative. Maternal death rates are on the decline even as overall complication rates have gone up. The rate of in-hospital maternal death is just over one in 10,000—a 37 percent reduction overall from what the maternal death rate was at the beginning of the study.
Several theories have been proposed to explain the increasing rates of complications. One of the reasons for the increase may be that minority women are still unable to get equal access to healthcare. They experience both fetal and maternal death more frequently than white women across the board.
Uninsured mothers are another component of the increase in complications, because the greatest risks for complications occur in women who have not received routine prenatal care. Higher rates of obesity in the American population have also led to an increase in complications like high blood pressure and diabetes, which can make giving birth significantly more risky even with modern medical technologies.
Older women are also significantly more likely to experience birth related complications, especially women over the age of 40 who are giving birth for the first time. In recent years, more women in this age group have been able to successfully conceive and give birth thanks to assisted reproductive technologies. While these technologies have benefited many people, they also put more high-risk patients into obstetrics wards every year.
According to the CDC, the best ways for women to avoid pregnancy related complications and maternal mortality involve taking good care of their bodies before getting pregnant. Losing weight, stopping smoking, and getting untreated diabetes or hypertension under control before becoming pregnant is critical to a healthy mother and baby.
Source: cdc.gov
