Friday, February 01, 2008

The grim toll rises

There have been a further 2 homebirth deaths on MDC in the last 6 months, bringing the grim toll to at least 16 deaths at homebirth in the past 2 years. One of the two recent deaths was an intrapartum death due to a cord accident. The second was a catastrophic uterine rupture; the baby died and the mother needed a hysterectomy and spent weeks in the hospital.

In addition, there is follow up from a homebirth that I discussed a few months ago. This was a woman who was extremely postdates and was encouraged by the others to just keep "trusting" birth. The baby was born non-responsive and was transferred to the hospital and then a regional NICU. The baby is home now and tests indicate significant hypoxic brain damage. He is on anti-seizure meds, is unable to breastfeed, and for a while had difficulty bottle feeding.

How many deaths and how many brain damaged babies is it going to take before homebirth advocates wake up to the reality that homebirth kills babies?

0 Old Comments: