Childbirth In Your Life and Around the World

The birthing experience that I would like to share is my own through the eyes of my mom.  I can’t remember this experience because I was too young.  However, I have a scar where tubes were that will always remind me of why I am here.  I was born at 28 weeks weighing 2 lbs. 6 oz.  My mom had to have an emergency cesarean due to severe preeclampsia.  Preeclampsia is a serious condition that affects about 5 percent of pregnant women and typically starts after 20 weeks of pregnancy.  Elevated blood pressure is the primary symptom, but there may be others such as protein in the urine, or liver or kidney abnormalities.   My mom had a lot of swelling beyond the normal pregnancy weight gain. The preeclampsia was so bad that she could have died having me.  She said looking back on the situation if she would have had proper prenatal care throughout her pregnancy this condition would have been detected earlier.   According to the Preeclampsia Foundation, proper prenatal care is essential to diagnosing and managing preeclampsia.  I feel prenatal care is very important.   I made sure I went to every appointment with both of my children.  The advice that was given at those appointments made me want to take care of myself mentally and physically.  Thank God my mom is still here to tell my story!  I am a healthy young lady, and if you look at me now you would never know I was born premature.

I read an article about childbirth in Africa.  Africa has a high maternal mortality rate due to childbirth.  One out of every six children in the continent dies before the age of five.  For women, the chance of dying in childbirth is three times higher in Africa than in industrialized nations.  The reason why the mortality rate is higher is because the lack of medical care in those places.  A lot of the childbirths happen at home.  There are countless numbers of women in Zambia and around the continent that have died from botched abortions. They also die from the delay to seek medical care and the lack of appropriate treatment.  Dr. Mulindi Mwanahamuntu, who headed a study on maternal mortality in Zambia, says that rural women who do manage to get to medical facilities often "are in such bad shape that we can't save them." Medical care is crippled by a lack of resources, he says.  Midwives are the front line fighters to try to reduce maternal mortality. But they are leaving the country because the government can't pay them enough.  After reading this story, I realize how blessed we are to have access to good medical care in the United States.  I couldn’t imagine having to give birth in some of the conditions these women experience childbirth in.

References:

http://www.preeclampsia.org/

http://www.babycenter.com/0_preeclampsia_257.bc

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5628726