Maternal Mortality & Disrespect for American Women

A couple weeks ago, right before Christmas I was struggling for a couple great post’s that were not focused around Christmas over on Babble’s Being Pregnant blog. I needed something to just write about for the day, and then it appeared in my google alerts. An article on maternal mortality rates, and how they have slowly been on the rise since the low in 1986. Granted the reporting before that had not been all that accurate, and heck today it still isn’t very accurate. Unfortunately, the CDC just like any government agency isn’t going to make a huge change until something major happens. Basically besides the point though.

I wrote a pretty simple, and straight forward blog post sharing the numbers, which I cited from the original article, and added my personal two cents into. This is something I have been watching, and blogging about in the childbirth community for some time on. I also worked on a post last year about the decline in VBAC rates, and the increase in repeat c-sections along side of the maternal mortality rates increasing. While it is speculation, and just opinion… it is something I have been watching for some time. I am not a doctor, nurse, medical professional, or someone who has any special training in statistics. Although I did get a pretty bad ass grade in statistics in high school many moons ago.

The point being, it is something I care about. I care about mothers, their babies, and their options for childbirth. I am a true birth advocate, and I support a woman’s choice when it comes to her own medical care, birth, and care options. As long as women are truly educated about their choices, more power to them…

Anyways, back to the post I wrote. In the blog post I included all kinds of information, including the speculation of American women being unhealthy prior to pregnancy and birth, the lack of proper prenatal care in many minority communities, and of course the increase in surgical birth. All of which have been cited by major medical organizations as speculation for the increase. Concluding that in the end, healthier mothers are the ones having healthier outcomes, less need for medical intervention during labor and delivery, and often having the healthiest babies, although we never know when life is going to throw a curve ball at these healthy women.

The general gist of the blog post was not only to provide these numbers and information to the readers, but help bring awareness to these women, and their untimely deaths. Just like Amnesty International has been working on with the publishing of Deadly Delivery, and of course the Safe Motherhood Quilt Project has been doing. Awareness we need way more wide spread across our country.

What happened next was probably one of the worse internet battles and show of disrespect for the mother’s who have lost their lives. Chiming in first, was a comment about home birth, which really had nothing to do with the price of tea in China. In reality, like most bloggers do, I ignored this commenter. She is known for creating fights, and honestly with Christmas coming, and the increasingly busy nature of my life in general, I didn’t have time.

Then a couple days later, the famous author, and midwife Ina May Gaskin chimed in. Someone I have read several of her books through my studies, and at that moment I felt pretty star struck. But again… not really the point of my post today.

The next week or so, and 205 comments I saw a horrible argument about midwives verses doctors, and really a whole bunch of blame being tossed back and forth, but very little attention to the real issue at hand. No one was saying “How can we change this?”  or “How can we work to save these mothers?”  No concern for human life, no pity or sympathy for the mothers who died… Just arguing over different agendas.

The article got insane attention once two high profile internet birth personalities started arguing. So much that the argument and post was featured on the Motherlode blog on The New York Times. During this time my e-mail box also went off the wall, along side my facebook inbox, and wall. It was certainly a crazy day. But the argument continued over there. Blame here, blame there… but again… no comments or concern for the dying women. No human reaction to dead mothers! No question of what we can do for better reporting of maternal mortality rates… No question of what we can do to prevent the deaths of these mothers… Nothing.

Just more arguing, drama, and finger pointing.

I stopped replying. I couldn’t handle much more of the arguing. The blatant disregard for human life was making me ill. The comments continued, which I had to read through moderating them, but I stopped replying.  There is NO reasoning with people like that. It is a lost cause.

Today, in true internet style… the poster who started it all tried to call me out, and this is when I knew I needed to have my final word.

“And where’s Danielle who claims to care so much about mothers and babies? Why isn’t she demanding that MANA release their death rates?”

Was what was said, or I should say… asked of me.

Reply?

@Amy – There is no reasoning with someone like you. I care about women, I work on a local level, I work in my community, and I have actively been working for better maternal outcomes since entering the birth community 6 years ago, before even having my first child.
I am not going to feed into this debate anymore because it is clearly useless. You do not care about mothers, you care about demonizing midwifery. You do not care about making changes, or better maternal outcomes for mothers, you care about fighting on the internet. Nothing more, nothing less.
I will continue to work for women, and their choices, and you can continue to complain on the internet all hours of the night and day.

I am done.
There is no reasoning with people like her.
There is no reasoning with anyone brainwashed by any one side of a debate.
But I had to get my own take on it all out here… in my safe place. MY website where I make the rules, and can say however I feel. And man did it feel good to get out.

Why don’t we all focus on keeping these mothers alive, better reporting of maternal mortality, and research on why these women, especially in the minority communities are losing their lives at such a higher rate!

And now in the words of Clark W. Griswold:

HALLELUJAH! HOLY SHIT! Where is the Tylenol?

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