More babies across the country are being born underweight, and our country's caesarean rate is approaching double of what the WHO recommends as safe.
Some of this can be attributed to more women putting off their childbearing years to later in their life. Some of this is yet another consequence of the obesity pandemic. Some of this can be attributed to an increase in multiple births as reproductive technologies are more widely used.
But a good deal of this can be attributed to the medicalized shift in obstetric care. Ask your mothers and your grandmothers. Who delivered their babies? Family doctors, General Practitioners, Midwives. Only a generation ago a woman in Edmonton would have paid out of her own pocket to see an OB for her normal pregnancy. Our healthcare system would not have paid for such a specialized professional to care for healthy, normal pregnancy.
We can't make light of the fact that the vast majority of Canadian women are cared for by a surgical specialist while she's pregnant; is it any wonder our surgical birth rates are climbing?
Trust yourself, trust your body, trust your baby, trust birth - avoid unnecessary obstetric intervention .... it has a price, it may be your baby's health.
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I have heard this bit of news over and over in the last few weeks. I was really bothered that the medical establishment was essentialy blaming women for having babies later in life, instead of admiting it may be due to common medical intervention. I am referring to the fact so many women are being induced as early as 37 weeks for fear that baby may become "too big". Then when baby is born, it is discovered that the ultrasound was wrong and baby is actually quite a bit smaller and often yonuger then (s)he was believed to be.
This may also attribute to the rise in Cesarean rate. A mothers risk of having a cesarean quadruples if she chooses to be induced early. The reason the Dr's officially give on record"failure to progress".
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