RSS Feed
Archive for November, 2009
Oi! A Midwifery Set-Back in Australia.
On Nov. 9th their was a protest outside the Australian Prime Minister’s office. Apparently the Australian government has announced its intention to make amendments to the Medicare for the Midwives Bill that will force private midwives who attend home births to work in collaboration with a doctor.
This excerpt from the report:
Australian College of Midwives president Jenny Gamble told protesters an amendment to the Medicare for Midwives Bill will give doctors the choice about how women give birth.
Birth- Web 2.0 Style
Wow! Did you hear this? A 23 year old woman from Minnesota broadcasted her labor and delivery on the internet. Thousands of people signed up to watch the 7 hour labor. She even ‘chatted’ with many of the viewers until things got too intense! Oh, and this was a midwife assisted birth! YAY! This is believed to be a first. It’s so hard to believe that just 40 years ago, the dad was typically not allowed in the room during a hospital birth, and now this……amazing. Here’s the recap- in her own words.
A Healthy New Approach To Health Care
This is a great New York Times magazine article about healthcare. Well, really it’s an article about one man (Brent James) who is trying to change health care by trying to standardize doctors approaches to certain health issues based on evidence. Apparently doctors don’t particularly care to be ‘standardized’ and his approach actually loses hospitals money but, patient outcomes are significantly better and his approaches eliminate waste in the form of needless tests and procedures.
Don’t take Sulfa During Pregnancy
As a women who used to get chronic urinary tract infections, the news from the Center of Disease Control (CDC) was a bit alarming. Apparently, they recently conducted a study which links certain antibiotics to birth defects. The two antibiotics, nitrofurantoins and sulfonamides (typically called ‘sulfa’ drugs) have been found to increase risk of anencephaly, (a fatal malformation of the skull and brain), congenital heart defects, and various other soft-tissue defects.
