Born in the USA (51 page)

13
. S. L. Clark et al., “Amniotic Fluid Embolism: Analysis of the National Registry,”
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
172 (1995): 1158–67.

14
. Clark has testified in legal depositions that he destroyed these records because he had no space to store them.

15
. F. Cunningham et al.,
Williams Obstetrics
, 20th ed. (Stamford, Conn.: Appleton & Lange, 1997).

16
. Cunningham et al.,
Williams Obstetrics
, p. 792.

17
. ACOG,
Prolog: Obstetrics
, 4th ed. (Washington, D.C.: ACOG, 1998), p. 99.

18
. R. W. Martin, “Amniotic Fluid Embolism,”
Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology
39 (1996): 101–6.

19
. ACOG Practice Bulletin number 10, “Induction of Labor,” November 1999.

20
. D. Wing and R. A. Paul, “A Comparison of Differing Dosing Regimes of Vaginally Administered Misoprostol for Preinduction Cervical Ripening and Labor Induction,”
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
175 (1996): 158–64; Wagner, “Adverse Events Following Misoprostol Induction of Labor”; Medwatch: The FDA Medical Products Reporting Program (see
www.fda.gov/medwatch
); Searle Pharmaceutical Co., Searle Drug Experience Reports (see
www.pfizer.com
; Searle is now part of Pfizer); M. Friedman, “(Searle) Manufacturer's Warning Regarding Unapproved Uses of Misoprostol,”
New England Journal of Medicine
344 (2001): 61.

21
. M. Wagner, “From Caution to Certainty: Hazards in the Formation of Evidence-Based Practice. A Case Study on Evidence for an Association between the Use of Uterine Stimulant Drugs and Amniotic Fluid Embolism,”
Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology
19, no. 2 (2005): 173–76.

22
. M. Kramer et al., “Amniotic Fluid Embolism and Medical Induction of Labor,” accepted for publication in The
Lancet
.

23
. S. Daniels and L. Andrews, “The Shadow of the Law: Jury Decisions in Obstetrics and Gynecology Cases,” in
Medical Professional Liability and the Delivery of Obstetrical Care
, ed. V. P. Rostow and R. J. Bulger (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1989), 2:161–93.

24
. B. Sachs, M. Castro, and F. Frigoletto, “The Risks of Lowering the Cesarean-Delivery Rate,”
New England Journal of Medicine
340, no. 1 (1999): 54–57.

25
. Sachs, Castro, and Frigoletto, “Risks of Lowering the Cesarean-Delivery Rate.”

26
. ACOG news releases: “ACOG Statement on Senate Failure to Pass Liability Reform,” April 7, 2004; “Medical Liability Pressures Hurt Career Satisfaction among Ob-Gyns,” April 30, 2004; “Medical Liability Survey Reaffirms More Ob/Gyns Are Quitting Obstetrics,” July 16, 2004; “ACOG's Red Alert on Ob/Gyn Care Reaches 23 States,” August 26, 2004; “Statement Regarding Medical Liability Reform by ACOG President,” March 15, 2005;
“ACOG Endorses Bipartisan Legislation, ‘Fair and Reliable Medical Justice Act,'” July 1, 2005; “Wisconsin Supreme Court Ruling Eliminating Caps on Non-economic Damages Will Have Devastating Consequences,” July 14, 2005; “Statement of ACOG on the State of the Union Address,” February 1, 2006.

27
. Wagner, “Adverse Events Following Misoprostol Induction of Labor.”

28
. P. Baker, “Bush Campaigns to Curb Lawsuits: President Says ‘Junk' Litigation Is Driving Small-Town Doctors Out of Business,”
Washington Post
, January 6, 2005.

29
. J. Queenam, “Professional Liability: Our Role and Responsibility,”
Obstetrics and Gynecology
100, no. 2 (2002): 217–18; quotations are from p. 217.

30
. ACOG news release, “Nation's Obstetrical Care Endangered by Growing Liability Insurance Crisis.”

31
. ACOG news release, “Medical Liability Survey Reaffirms More Ob/Gyns Are Quitting Obstetrics.”

32
. ACOG news release, “Statement of ACOG on the State of the Union Address.”

33
. Sachs, Castro, and Frigoletto, “Risk of Lowering the Cesarean-Delivery Rate.”

34
. The data on the rates of maternal mortality in the United States, their causes, and how much they are underreported can be found in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Safe Motherhood: Preventing Pregnancy-Related Illness and Death,”
Obstetrics and Gynecology
88 (2001): 61–67; M. McCarthy, “US Maternal Death Rates Are on the Rise,”
Lancet
348 (1996): 394; and G. L. Rubin et al., “Maternal Death after Cesarean Section in Georgia,”
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
139 (1981): 681–85. That the real rate of maternal mortality is twice that reported is from the McCarthy paper.

35
. M. Hall and S. Bewley, “Maternal Mortality and Mode of Delivery,”
Lancet
354 (1999): 776; U.K. Department of Health,
Why Mothers Die: Report on Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths
(London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1999).

36
. ACOG editorial, “Use of Misoprostol in Pregnancy,”
New England Journal of Medicine
344, no. 1 (2001): 59–60.

37
. I wish to thank Dr. K. Prown for her excellent work on pregnant women's legal rights and for her generosity in permitting me to use some of her material in the following pages.

38
. See K. Prown, “Childbirth and the Law,” posted at
www.birthpolicy.org
.

39
. See
www.dgcenter.org/acp/pdf/psda.pdf
.

40
. See
www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/consumer/patient/patient.htm
.

41
. See
www.forensic-sych.com/articles/artmedmal.html
.

42
. 
For further information, see K. Prown, “Childbirth and the Law,” posted at
www.birthpolicy.org
; or contact National Advocates for Pregnant Women, 39 West 19th Street, New York, NY, 10011, telephone (212) 255–9252, e-mail:
[email protected]
.

43
. For further information, see K. Prown, “Childbirth and the Law,” posted at
www.birthpolicy.org
; or contact National Advocates for Pregnant Women, 39 West 19th Street, New York, NY, 10011, telephone (212) 255–9252, e-mail:
[email protected]
.

44
. For further information, see K. Prown, “Childbirth and the Law,” posted at
www.birthpolicy.org
; or contact National Advocates for Pregnant Women, 39 West 19th Street, New York, NY, 10011, telephone (212) 255–9252, e-mail:
[email protected]
.

45
. ACOG, “Ethical Principles” section of “Surgery and Patient Choice,” in
Ethics in Obstetrics and Gynecology
, 2nd ed. (Washington, D.C.: ACOG, 2004), posted at
www.acog.org/from_home/publications/ethics/
.

46
. ACOG Committee Opinion number 306, “Informed Refusal,”
Obstetrics and Gynecology
104 (2004): 1465–66, available for download (for a fee) at
www.greenjournal.org/cgi/reprint/104/6/1465
.

47
. “Jehovah's Witnesses, Pregnancy, and Blood Transfusions: A Paradigm for the Autonomy Rights of All Pregnant Women,” posted at
www.aslme.org/aslmesecure/shop/show_product.php?prod_id=500
.

48
. ACOG news release, “Nation's Obstetrical Care Endangered by Growing Liability Insurance Crisis.”

EIGHT. VISION OF A BETTER WAY TO BE BORN

1
.  For further information on the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services and its mission, see
www.motherfriendly.org
.

2
.  M. Wagner, “Fish Can't See Water: The Need to Humanize Birth,”
International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics
75, supplement (2001): s25–37.

3
.  E. K. Adams et al., “Transitions in Insurance Coverage from before Pregnancy through Delivery in Nine States,”
Health Affairs Journal
22, no. 1 (2003): 219–29.

4
.  See data on
www.cdc.gov/nchs
.

5
.  A. Enthoven, “Employment-Based Health Insurance Is Failing: Now What?”
Health Affairs Journal
, Web exclusive, May 28, 2003.

6
.  Data on the rates of maternal mortality in the United States, their causes, and by how much they are underreported can be found in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Safe Motherhood: Preventing Pregnancy-Related Illness and Death,”
Obstetrics and Gynecology
88 (2001): 61–67; M. McCarthy, “US Maternal Death Rates Are on the Rise,”
Lancet
348
(1996): 394; and G. L. Rubin et al., “Maternal Death after Cesarean Section in Georgia,”
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
139 (1981): 681–85.

7
.  See
www.fda.gov
.

8
.  U. Reinhardt et al., “U.S. Health Care Spending in an International Context,”
Health Affairs Journal
23, no. 3 (2004): 10–25.

9
.  G. Anderson et al., “It's the Price, Stupid: Why the United States Is So Different from Other Countries,”
Health Affairs Journal
22, no. 3 (2003): 89–105. Emphasis added.

10
. See
www.cdc.gov
;
www.nih.gov
;
www.who.int/reproductive-health
.

11
. Anderson et al., “It's the Price, Stupid.”

12
. R. Lu and W. Hsiao, “Does Universal Health Insurance Make Health Care Unaffordable? Lesson from Taiwan,”
Health Affairs Journal
22, no. 3 (2003): 77–88.

13
. P. Krugman, “First, Do More Harm” (op-ed),
New York Times
, January 16, 2006.

14
. The case is
Meador v. Stahler and Gheridian
.

15
. See data on
www.cdc.gov
. Click on HAI.

16
. M. Wagner, “Choosing Caesarean Section,”
Lancet
356 (2000): 1677–80.

17
. Wagner, “Choosing Caesarian Section.”

18
. See
www.cdc.gov
. Click on MRSA.

19
. I was contacted by the midwife, by other midwives in the area, and by local and regional media.

20
. A. d'Oliveria et al., “Violence against Women in Health-Care Institutions: An Emerging Problem,”
Lancet
359 (2002): 1681–85.

21
. D'Oliveria et al., “Violence against Women in Health-Care Institutions,” p. 1683.

22
. Personal communication, Rudy Fedrizzi, M.D., and Heidi Rinehart, M.D.,
[email protected]
.

23
. A. M. Durand, “The Safety of Home Birth: The Farm Study,”
American Journal of Public Health
82 (1992): 450–53.

24
. B. Starfield et al., “The Effects of Specialist Supply on Population's Health: Assessing the Evidence,”
Health Affairs Journal
, Web exclusive, March 15, 2005.

25
. Many obstetricians have told me that their insurance premiums have risen if they provide backup to midwives, and they often use this as an excuse to refuse to provide backup.

26
. J. Queenan, “Professional Liability: Our Role and Responsibility,”
Obstetrics and Gynecology
100, no. 2 (2002): 217–18; quotation is on page 218.

27
. I attended the inquest and then, when the recommendation was made to the government to look into the reestablishment of midwifery, the government consulted me—a full-time WHO staff member at the time—about midwifery.
At my suggestion, the government sent a group to several European countries to study midwifery, and I assisted this study-tour. I then continued to stay in touch with midwives, lawyers, and government officials as midwifery evolved in Canada.

28
. M. Wagner, “Midwifery in the Industrialized World,”
Journal of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada
20, no. 13 (1998): 1225–34.

29
. See “History Information” on the Web site of the Frontier Nursing Service, at
www.frontiernursing.org/history/history.shtm
.

30
. Personal communication from a contact in the professional education division of the Department of Health and Human Services. In 2005, I had a series of telephone discussions with various individuals responsible for programs to provide funding of hospital postgraduate training for obstetric residents.

31
. Personal communication from ACOG staff involved in ACOG's efforts to appraise obstetric manpower needs and make recommendations to the federal government.

32
. J. P. Bruner, S. B. Drummond, A. L. Meenan, and I. M Gaskin, “All-Fours Maneuver for Reducing Shoulder Dystocia during Labor,”
Journal of Reproductive Medicine
43 (1998): 439–43.

33
. Personal communication from a professor of obstetrics in the Philippines.

NINE. HOW TO GET WHERE WE NEED TO BE

1
.  See data at
www.who.int/reproductive-health
.

2
.  P. Krugman, “Pride, Prejudice, Insurance,” originally an op-ed piece in the
New York Times
, reproduced in the
International Herald Tribune
, November 8, 2005;
www.cdc.gov/nchs
.

3
.  Personal communication from the president of the German midwives organization. In 1990, I visited the only out-of-hospital birth center in Germany, located in West Berlin. In 2004, I talked with the then president of the German Midwifery Association, who told me about the exodus of German midwives from hospitals and that there were now more than seventy out-of-hospital birth centers staffed with some of these midwives.