Thursday, 28 April 2011

Not a good statistic

One in three women worldwide who give birth (or nearly 48 million a year) do so without a trained birth attendant present.  As a result 1000 women and 2000 babies die each day from birth complications that could be easily prevented, according to a recently published report from Save the Children.

It is also true that home births are back in vogue in some developed countries, although they do usually have a midwife present.  The problem is that while the vast majority of births are uncomplicated, in a small number of cases things can rapidly go wrong, and suddenly acute medical intervention is required.  Giving birth in a hospital environment is one of the reasons why there has been a massive decline in maternal and perinatal mortality in developed countries.

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