Fearing childbirth may prolong labor

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/27/fearing-childbirth-may-prolong-labor/ Dr. Stuart Fischbein chuckled when he read the title of the press release: “Women with a fear of childbirth endure a longer labor.” The release was promoting a study published this week in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.  Researchers at Akershus University Hospital in Norway found women who feared giving birthContinue reading “Fearing childbirth may prolong labor”

The Most Scientific Birth Is Often the Least Technological Birth

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/the-most-scientific-birth-is-often-the-least-technological-birth/254420/ If you look at scientific literature, you find over and over again that many interventions increase risk to mother and child instead of decreasing it.  When I ask my medical students to describe their image of a woman who elects to birth with a midwife rather than with an obstetrician, they generally describe aContinue reading “The Most Scientific Birth Is Often the Least Technological Birth”

Childbirth: What to Reject When You’re Expecting

http://www.consumerreports.org/doctors-hospitals/childbirth-what-to-reject-when-youre-expecting/ 10 procedures to think twice about during your pregnancy Despite a healthcare system that outspends those in the rest of the world, infants and mothers fare worse in the U.S. than in many other industrialized nations. Infants in this country are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday as thoseContinue reading “Childbirth: What to Reject When You’re Expecting”