Childbirth deaths

A mother tries to bring a life into the world, instead ends with tragedy. From AP-

ATLANTA - U.S. women are dying from childbirth at the highest rate in decades, new government figures show. Though the risk of death is very small, experts believe increasing maternal obesity and a jump in Caesarean sections are partly to blame.

*****

The U.S. maternal mortality rate rose to 13 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2004, according to statistics released this week by the National Center for Health Statistics.

The rate was 12 per 100,000 live births in 2003 — the first time the maternal death rate rose above 10 since 1977.

To be sure, death from childbirth remains fairly rare in the United States. The death of infants is much more common — the nation's infant mortality rate was 679 per 100,000 live births in 2004.

*****

Some health statisticians note the total number of maternal deaths — still fewer than 600 each year — is small. It's so small that 50 to 100 extra deaths could raise the rate, said Donna Hoyert, a health scientist with the National Center for Health Statistics. The rate is the number of deaths per 100,000 live births.

Excessive bleeding is one of the leading causes of pregnancy-related death, and women with several previous C-sections are at especially high risk, according to a review of maternal deaths in New York. Blood vessel blockages and infections are among the other leading causes.

My son Daniel was born in January 2003. He lived 14.5 hours before dying of sepsis. Afterwards I heard from people that I was lucky Leonita wasn't killed by the same infection. Actually my wife had a swift physical recovery after giving birth to our son.

Considering the risk sepsis posed both to my wife and son, why didn't my wife's perinatologist deliver Daniel when Leonita's water broke instead of waiting 11 days till labor started? My wife was only twenty-seven weeks when PROM occurred, but there was no risk to my wife at the time. Sometimes I wonder.

Also mysterious was the death of Tim Davis' 37-year-old wife, Elizabeth, who died a day after a vaginal delivery at a Danville, Va., hospital in September 2000.

She had a heart attack after a massive blood loss, Davis said. It's not clearly known what caused the heavy bleeding. There was no autopsy, he said, a decision he now regrets.

Two previous births had gone well.

"Nothing led us to believe anything was wrong with this pregnancy. She was like a picture of health," he continued, noting she had been a YMCA fitness instructor.

Daniel, born at 28.5 weeks, was born breathing without need of assistance. He wasn't tubed till about two hours after birth. When Father Tomasz baptized my son, Daniel was crying. That was about an 1.5 hours after my son was born.

At 9:30 in the evening or a little after five hours after Daniel was born, no one at the hospital was concerned. I talked to the nurse before going home. If I'd known what was going to happen, I would have never left. It was such a quick reversal. Again, I sometimes wonder if what I was told about Daniel's death is the truth. He was doing so good, then hours later he was gone.

Like Mr. Davis, we never had an autopsy done. God bless Tim Davis and his three children.

Linked to- Adam, Blue Star, Church and State, Outside the Beltway, Woman Honor Thyself,