Doubling of maternal deaths in U.S. 'scandalous,' rights group says

[SirJosephPorter]

Deaths from pregnancy and childbirth in the United States have doubled in the past 20 years, a development that a human rights group called "scandalous and disgraceful" Friday.
In addition, the rights group said, about 1.7 million women a year, one-third of pregnant women in the United States, suffer from pregnancy-related complications.

Most of the deaths and complications occur among minorities and women living in poverty, it noted.

Quite a damning indictment of the ‘best health care system in the world’, where they cannot look after their pregnant women.

Amnesty International issued a report Friday that calls on President Obama to take action.
"This country's extraordinary record of medical advancement makes its haphazard approach to maternal care all the more scandalous and disgraceful," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

"Good maternal care should not be considered a luxury available only to those who can access the best hospitals and the best doctors. Women should not die in the richest country on earth from preventable complications and emergencies," Cox said in a news release.

But then Amnesty has been on USA’s case before, they have condemned the use of death penalty in USA as against human rights, as a violation of basic rights. That indictment was ignored; I assume this one will be ignored as well.

The report, "Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA," notes that the lifetime risk of maternal deaths is greater in the United States than in 40 other countries, including virtually all industrialized nations.

Well, I used to claim that life expectancy in USA is just about lowest among the developed countries, infant mortality is just about the highest. Now we know that deaths during pregnancy and childbirth are just about the highest in USA among developed countries.

The report also noted that severe pregnancy-related complications that nearly cause death -- known as "near misses" -- have increased by 25 percent since 1998.

And here is the shocking part.

Up to 40 percent of near misses are considered preventable with better quality of care, according to a 2007 study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

This again comes down to the lack of preventive care. In this forum we have been discussing the ill effects of user fee; I have outlined plenty of them. Add one more to it, user fees will probably result in increased maternal deaths.

Minorities, women living in poverty, Native Americans, immigrants and those who speak little or no English are particularly affected, Amnesty International said.

"The thing that really struck us was that these problems hit women of color, low-income, particularly hard," said Nan Strauss, researcher and co-author of the Amnesty report. "But every woman who is going through pregnancy in this country is at risk."

The best health care system in the world? USA can keep it; we don’t want it here in Canada.

Doubling of maternal deaths in U.S. 'scandalous,' rights group says - CNN.com

 

[JLM]

"Well, I used to claim that life expectancy in USA is just about lowest among the developed countries, infant mortality is just about the highest. Now we know that deaths during pregnancy and childbirth are just about the highest in USA among developed countries."

Yep, pretty sad, has there been a count made of how many of these are attributable to living "too high on the hog"?

 

[SirJosephPorter]

"Well, I used to claim that life expectancy in USA is just about lowest among the developed countries, infant mortality is just about the highest. Now we know that deaths during pregnancy and childbirth are just about the highest in USA among developed countries."

Yep, pretty sad, has there been a count made of how many of these are attributable to living "too high on the hog"?

How can maternal death be caused by living too high on the hog? It is more likely to be caused by lack of medical care, lack of preventive care.

If living high on the hog was the cause of maternal death, that would mean that in impoverished countries like Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, North Korea etc, where number of maternal deaths is very high, women must be living very high on the hog indeed, much higher on the hog than they do in USA.

 

[JLM]

" How can maternal death be caused by living too high on the hog? It is more likely to be caused by lack of medical care, lack of preventive care."

Very simple, many ways- too much street drugs, poor diet, not enough exercise and care of the body, too much smoking, too much alcohol intake, many of the habits the "rich and famous" get into.

 

[ironsides]

Now this is the most important topic we can discuss. First question is why is this happening? I do know that prenatal care is available to any and everyone including so called illegal immigrants. Those free clinics (county and state run) we talked about earlier SJP are where this service is offered as well as clinics specifically for this purpose operated by charities.For some reason the poor do not take advantage of these unless there is a problem. After a child is born, they do have medical coverage till they reach their 18th birthday. Again, I ask what can be done to get the poor to get prenatal care, this new health care package won't change anything, you still have to get them to go. (there are TV promo's all the time telling people about the importance of prenatal care)

 

[Tonington]

I wonder if the increasing age of mothers could have some impact. The age of mothers is on the rise still... This figure from the CDC shows age as well as race ratios of mortality:

 

[JLM]

I wonder if the increasing age of mothers could have some impact. The age of mothers is on the rise still... This figure from the CDC shows age as well as race ratios of mortality:

Excellent point and we know that Down's syndrome is more prevalent in babies born to women who are in their 30s and 40s.

 

[Tonington]

Yup, Down's and other trisomies, and a whole whack of other defects increase with age of the mother. I think the report mentions somethign about California being the state where the problem is the worst. Most of it in California was attributed to underlying cardiac disease.

Pre-existing chronic conditions. Sad.

I also seem to remember something about infant moralities being on the rise here in Canada, though I think it was just a small jump in the last few years, not anything significant yet. But these indicators should always set off warning bells.

 

[JLM]

Yup, Down's and other trisomies, and a whole whack of other defects increase with age of the mother. I think the report mentions somethign about California being the state where the problem is the worst. Most of it in California was attributed to underlying cardiac disease.

Pre-existing chronic conditions. Sad.

I also seem to remember something about infant moralities being on the rise here in Canada, though I think it was just a small jump in the last few years, not anything significant yet. But these indicators should always set off warning bells.

Yep, California doesn't surprise me, one the most if not the most progressive state in the U.S., as I said earlier living too high on the hog (heart disease) is a big part of it. I'm not for a moment thinking that is the cause of ALL heart disease.

 

[Tonington]

There's a strong racial component too. That could be related to all sorts of other factors though.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

I wonder if the increasing age of mothers could have some impact. The age of mothers is on the rise still... This figure from the CDC shows age as well as race ratios of mortality:

That could possibly be a factor. Also, women are having babies later in life. However, marriage age is on the increase in almost all of developed countries. If that was a major factor, then we would expect an increase in maternal deaths in most developed countries. But that has not happened; the increased rate seems to be applicable only to USA.

So increased marriage age may be a minor factor. The major factor seems to be inadequate health care and insufficient preventive care.

Also, these days many women have babies without getting married, which again tends to indicate that marriage age may not be a major factor.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

I also seem to remember something about infant moralities being on the rise here in Canada, though I think it was just a small jump in the last few years, not anything significant yet. But these indicators should always set off warning bells.

I am speculating here, but it may be due to increased number of women here from the third world. In most of third world, prenatal care is unheard of, so they may not be in the habit of going for prenatal check ups. Plus illiterate women from Islamic countries, those who are in veil, may not wish to visit a male doctor. If a female doctor is not available, they may not visit a doctor at all. More information, getting them to visit the doctor for prenatal check ups may well reduce the infant mortality.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

There's a strong racial component too. That could be related to all sorts of other factors though.

I think racial factor may be intricately linked to poverty. Minorities in general tend to be much poorer than white population, so it follows that black and other minorities may not have access to prenatal care. So minorities may be hit with double whammy, they are visible minorities and they are poor. Both factors may be contributing to the high incidence of maternal death.

 

[Tonington]

Also, these days many women have babies without getting married, which again tends to indicate that marriage age may not be a major factor.

Marriage age? I don't think marriage age is a factor. I think pregnancies later in life is...as the chart I posted shows.

 

[JLM]

Marriage age? I don't think marriage age is a factor. I think pregnancies later in life is...as the chart I posted shows.

I think you've probably hit on the main cause which could probably conclude this thread. :smile:

 

[YukonJack]

How many of these women who died in childbitrth died because there were no fathers to support them? Who, potentially, could have saved their lives, except for the fact that they were to busy pimping and singing the "I AM VICTIM" tune of "Reverends" Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Jeremiah Wright?

 

[ironsides]

I think racial factor may be intricately linked to poverty. Minorities in general tend to be much poorer than white population, so it follows that black and other minorities may not have access to prenatal care. So minorities may be hit with double whammy, they are visible minorities and they are poor. Both factors may be contributing to the high incidence of maternal death.

You start off quite good, then drift off into inadequate U.S. health care right off the bat. I'll quote you "black and other minorities may not have access to prenatal care. So minorities may be hit with double whammy, they are visible minorities and they are poor. Both factors may be contributing to the high incidence of maternal death." As I mentioned before that you want to dismiss so easily, the poor (minorities and whites alike) have access to free prenatal care and even free health care for the child till age 18. The problem is that for some reason the Black community (not so much the Hispanics and Asians) do not take advantage of the services available to them. Why, is the problem to solve.


Here is one possible reason:
Could it be getting married later in life coupled with having medical assistance to help a women carry full term, ovulation-inducing drugs causing multiple births hoping atleast one survives.


(You can carry 6+ embryo's and have only 1 survive to delivery and the other 5 do not survive delivery.) Thus 1 in 6 survive in this case.
I know this is not the main cause, but it might be one.

 

[taxslave]

The age of the mother at pregnancy as well as the poor American diets and drug use have a real effect on infant mortality.
What II did not see reported is how much the pregnancy rate has increased. If that has doubled as well as the infant mortality rate then there is no change, only a manipulation of statistics.

 

[JLM]

The age of the mother at pregnancy as well as the poor American diets and drug use have a real effect on infant mortality.
What II did not see reported is how much the pregnancy rate has increased. If that has doubled as well as the infant mortality rate then there is no change, only a manipulation of statistics.

I think you pretty well have it all summed up in a nutshell there, taxslave, and maybe add in a little drinkin' and smokin'.

 

[YukonJack]

What a load of utter hypocrisy!

Crying the blues about the death of adults, who should be in complete control of their lives, while fully endorsing - nay, promoting - abortion, which is nothing but killing of innocent little human beings.

And to add insult to injury, these same hypocrits are also hell bent on protecting the lives of career murderous criminals.