Born in the USA (52 page)

4
.  When making a visit to New Zealand in the early 1990s, I talked with many midwives and doctors and journalists who confirmed the story of the randomized experimental trial and its effect on women and politicians.

5
.  See
www.who.int
; also see A. Betran et al., “Rates of Caesarean Section: Analysis of Global and Regional Estimates and Correlation with Indicators of Reproductive Health System Development,” paper presented at the International Forum on Birth, Rome, June 2005, and accepted for publication in
Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology
.

6
.  D. Rattner, “Sobre a hipotese de estabilizacao das taxas de cesarea do Estado
de Sao Paulo, Brasil,”
Rev. Saude Publica
30, no. 1 (1996): 19–33; Secretariat of Health, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, 1999.

7
.  World Health Organization, “Appropriate Technology for Birth,”
Lancet
2, no. 8452 (1985): 436–37.

8
.  For a summary of the conference and the resolution, see M. Wagner, “Fish Can't See Water: The Need to Humanize Birth,”
International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics
75, supplement (2001): s25–37.

9
.  Wagner, “Fish Can't See Water.”

10
. J. Potter et al., “Unwanted Caesarean Sections among Public and Private Patients in Brazil: A Prospective Study,”
British Medical Journal
323 (2001): 1155–58.

11
. B. Shields,
Down Came the Rain: My Journey through Postpartum Depression
(New York: Hyperion, 2005); Tom Cruise interview on
Today
(NBC), June 25, 2005; B. Shields, “War of Words” (op-ed piece),
New York Times
, July 1, 2005.

12
. The reporter in San Francisco eventually found me and after interviewing me told me the reactions of the other doctors she had interviewed.

13
. 
Dateline NBC
, November 4, 2001.

14
. Susan Brink, “Too Posh to Push? Cesarean Sections Have Spiked Dramatically. Progress or Convenience?”
U.S. News and World Report
, August 5, 2002, pp. 42–43.

15
. The FDA alert in May 2005 on the risk of use of misoprostol in labor and delivery may be found at
www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/misoprostol
; the article covering it is B. Tansey, “Ending the Silence: FDA Moves to Warn Patients of Drug's Possible Side Effects,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, June 9, 2005.

16
. D. Goodman, “Forced Labor,”
Mother Jones
, January/February 2001, pp. 17–19.

17
. I. M. Gaskin, “Induced and Seduced: The Dangers of Cytotec,”
Mothering
, July/August 2001, pp. 51–55.

18
. For documentation linking litigation and obstetricians attending low-risk birth, see 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), 2:161–91. For documentation linking obstetricians attending low-risk birth with unnecessary interventions, see M. Wagner, “Midwifery in the Industrialized World,”
Journal of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada
20, no. 13 (1998): 1225–34. For documentation linking obstetricians attending low-risk births with increasing infant and maternal mortality or other adverse outcomes in low-risk births, see M. MacDorman and G. Singh, “Midwifery
Care, Social and Medical Risk Factors, and Birth Outcomes in the USA,”
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
52, no. 5 (1998): 310–17.

19
. M. Wagner, “The Public Health versus Clinical Approaches to Maternity Services: The Emperor Has No Clothes,”
Journal of Public Health Policy
19 (1998): 1, 25–35.

20
. For further information on this book, see
www.citizen.org/hrg
.

21
. See
www.medicalconsumers.org
.

22
. For more information on the case in Utah where a woman was charged with murder after refusing a cesarean section, contact National Advocates for Pregnant Women, 39 West 19th Street, New York, NY, 10011, telephone (212) 255–9252, e-mail:
[email protected]
.

23
. See
[email protected]
.

24
. See
www.ican-online.org
.

25
. T. Parker-Pope, “Growing Number of Physicians Warn of Serious Risks from Vaginal Deliveries,”
Wall Street Journal
, June 4, 2002.

26
. “Birth Trauma Is Result of Interfering with Nature,” letter to the editor,
Wall Street Journal
, June 25, 2002.

27
. See
www.cfmidwifery.org
.

28
. The largest is the International Childbirth Education Association. See
www.icea.org
.

29
. See
www.motherfriendly.org
.

30
. In January 2006, the Maternity Care Association changed its name to Childbirth Connection, and its Web site is now
www.childbirthconnection.org
.

31
. See
www.childbirthconnection.org
.

32
. “The Nature and Management of Labor Pain,” supplement to
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
186, no. 5, part 2 (2002).

33
. Maternity Center Association,
What Every Pregnant Woman Needs to Know about Cesarean Section
(New York: Maternity Center Association, 2004). See
www.childbirthconnection.org
.

34
. Potter et al., “Unwanted Caesarean Sections among Public and Private Patients in Brazil.”

35
. See
www.childbirthconnection.org
.

36
. See
www.whiteribbonalliance.org
.

37
. See
www.motherfriendly.org
.

38
. See
www.babyfriendlyusa.org
.

39
. Wagner, “Public Health versus Clinical Approaches to Maternity Services.”

40
. Data are from “Mothering Perinatal Healthcare Statistics,”
Mothering
68 (Fall 1993): 44–45.

41
. The data table from which I am drawing was published in 1993 and so of course the data are dated. But I know of no more recent such table and all indications are that things have gotten steadily worse the last decade-plus:
costs are certainly way up given the rapid rise in C-sections, the use of epidurals for normal labor pain, and so on.

42
. The reason the ranking of the United States on the global list of national infant mortality rates has varied in this book between ranking number 20 and ranking number 41 is because there is a slight variation from year to year in the rates. In any case, in the past ten years the international ranking of the United States in infant mortality has never been better than twentieth.

43
. This statistic has been updated from the table published in 1993 from which I drew the other statistics.

44
. Personal communication, D. Rattner, National Ministry of Health of Brazil, Brasilia.

45
. Betran et al., “Rates of Caesarean Section.”

46
. MacDorman and Singh, “Midwifery Care, Social and Medical Risk Factors, and Birth Outcomes in the USA.”

47
. K. Johnson and B. Daviss, “A Prospective Study of Planned Home Births with Certified Professional Midwives in North America,”
British Medical Journal
330, no. 7505 (2005): 1416.

48
. J. Pang et al., “Outcomes of Planned Home Births in Washington State: 1989–1996,”
Gynecology and Obstetrics
100, no. 2 (2002): 253–59.

49
. See
www.midirs.org
.

50
. M. Wagner, “Whose Data Is It Anyway?”
Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology
2 (1988): 7.

The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below

abandonment of care

ABCs (alternative birth centers)

doctors' views of

abortion, medical

accountability

improving

litigation and

ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)

authority/power of

basis of recommendations

C-section policy/support

on Cytotec induction

flawed home birth study presented to

on home birth

on litigation crisis

on medicine as a profession

on midwifery care

on off-label drug use

on oxytocin use and AFE

patients' rights guidelines

political activities

public relations efforts

VBAC policy

on videotaping of births

activism

coalitions

adverse outcomes: doctor-caused

hospital complaint processes

patient attempts to get information.
See also
litigation; malpractice

advertising, by hospitals

advocacy groups

AFE (amniotic fluid embolism)

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality episiotomy review

alternative birth centers.
See
ABCs

AMA patients' rights guidelines

AMCB (American Midwifery Certification Board)

American Academy of Family Physicians VBAC policy

American Association of Nurse-Midwives

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
See
ACOG

American Medical Association patients' rights guidelines

American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB)

American Public Health Association (APHA)

amniotic fluid embolism (AFE)

amniotic sac rupture

anesthesia.
See also
epidural block

antibiotic-resistant infections

anti-precautionary principle

APHA (American Public Health Association)

artificial reproductive services

attention deficit disorders

authoritative knowledge

autism

autonomy of birthing women

ACOG guidelines

global cycles in

high-risk births.
See also
control issues

informed consent

patients' rights

autonomy of childbirth educators

autonomy of midwives

Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative

battery

Beth Israel Hospital (Boston)

birth certificate data

birthing beds/chairs

birth position: of baby

of mother

blood pressure drops, epidural block and

board qualification

book recommendations

brain damage.
See
fetal brain damage

Brazil

breast-feeding

Breckenridge, Mary

breech position

Britain.
See
United Kingdom

British Medical Journal

Bush George W.

California: midwife investigations/prosecutions

midwifery legislative hearings

California Medical Association

California State Board of Medical Quality Assurance

Canadian health care spending

Canadian maternity care

Carder Angela

CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Center for Medical Consumers

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service conditions of participation (CoP)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

cerebral palsy

certified midwives (CMs).
See also
direct-entry midwives

certified nurse-midwives (CNMs).
See also
nurse-midwives

certified professional midwives (CPMs)

Johnson-Daviss home birth study.
See also
direct-entry midwives

cesarean section

claimed benefits

costs

doctors' promotion of

EFM and

epidural block and

forced or refused

labor induction and

maternal/perinatal mortality

right to refuse

risks of.
See also
cesarean section rates; elective cesarean section; VBAC

cesarean section rates: activism to reduce

hospital vs. ABC births

international statistics

low-rate countries/populations

media coverage/controversy

New York disclosure law

optimal rates

perinatal mortality and

U.S. statistics

U.S. trends

women blamed for

checkbook science

Chicago maternal mortality rates

child abuse, home birth equated with

childbed fever

childbirth: autonomic nature of

intimate nature of

medical vs. humanistic views of

men's views of.
See also
humanized birth; medicalization of birth

Childbirth Connection.
See also
MCA

childbirth education organizations

childbirth educators

China

chiropractors

Christilaw, Jan

CIMS (Coalition for Improving Maternity Services)

Citizens for Midwifery

Clark, Steven

clinical judgment as litigation defense

CMs (certified midwives).
See also
direct-entry midwives

CMS conditions of participation (CoP)

CNMs (certified nurse-midwives).
See also
nurse-midwives

Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS)