News Article

I have been meaning to share this interesting and disturbing news article for a few days now, but have been putting it off.

A snippet:
Once reserved for cases in which the life of the baby or mother was in danger, the cesarean is now routine. The most common operation in the U.S., it is performed in 31% of births, up from 4.5% in 1965.

With that surge has come an explosion in medical bills, an increase in complications -- and a reconsideration of the cesarean as a sometimes unnecessary risk.

And along with that, increased difficulties with breastfeeding, increased formula use, increased risk of future medical problems for both the mother and the child.

As the No. 1 cause of hospital admissions, childbirth is a huge part of the nation's $2.4-trillion annual healthcare expenditure, accounting in hospital charges alone for more than $79 billion.

I strongly suggest everyone see the movie The Business of Being Born.  It covers that in much more detail.

"Cesarean birth ends up being a profit center in hospitals, so there's not a lot of incentive to reduce them," said Dr. Elliot Main, chief of obstetrics for Sutter Health, a Northern California hospital chain.

And that right there is a huge crux of the problem.

What is sad is even though our country is great, we don't exactly have the lowest rate of infant mortality.  According to the World Fact book (updated May 14, 2009 so VERY recent), Cuba does better than us.

These numbers are per 1,000 live births.

180 United States 6.26
181 Guam 6.05 
182 Cuba 5.82  
183 European Union 5.72  
184 Italy 5.51
185 Isle of Man 5.37
186 Taiwan 5.35  
187 San Marino 5.34  
188 Greece 5.16  
189 Ireland 5.05  
190 Canada 5.04  
191 Wallis and Futuna 5.02 
192 Monaco 5.00  
193 New Zealand 4.92 
194 United Kingdom 4.85 
195 Gibraltar 4.83  
196 Portugal 4.78  
197 Australia 4.75 
198 Jersey 4.73  
199 Netherlands 4.73 
200 Luxembourg 4.56  
201 Guernsey 4.47  
202 Belgium 4.44  
203 Austria 4.42  
204 Denmark 4.34  
205 Korea, South 4.26 
206 Liechtenstein 4.25  
207 Slovenia 4.25  
208 Israel 4.22  
209 Spain 4.21  
210 Switzerland 4.18  
211 Germany 3.99  
212 Czech Republic 3.79  
213 Andorra 3.76  
214 Malta 3.75  
215 Norway 3.58  
216 Anguilla 3.52  
217 Finland 3.47  
218 France 3.33  
219 Iceland 3.23 
220 Macau 3.22  
221 Hong Kong 2.92  
222 Japan 2.79  
223 Sweden 2.75 
224 Bermuda 2.46  
225 Singapore 2.31

Because they list from worst to best, I did a mental flip to see where we would be if they listed from best to worst.  We would be #45.  That means 44 other countries/properties/whathaveyou do a better job when it comes to infant survival.