Maternity Care: High Tech vs. High Touch

From Consumer Reports:
Back to basics for safer childbirth
Too many doctors and hospitals are overusing high-tech procedures

Noninvasive measures can mean better outcomes for baby and Mom.
When it's time to bring a new baby into the world, there's a lot to be said for letting nature take the lead. The normal, hormone-driven changes in the body that naturally occur during delivery can optimize infant health and encourage the easy establishment and continuation of breastfeeding and mother-baby attachment.

"Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What It Is and What It Can Achieve," co-authored by Carol Sakala and Maureen P. Corry of the nonprofit Childbirth Connection analyzed hundreds of the most recent studies and systematic reviews of maternity care. The 70-page report was issued collaboratively by Childbirth Connection, the Reforming States Group (a voluntary association of state-level health policymakers), and Milbank Memorial Fund, and released on Oct. 8, 2008.
Overuse of high-tech measures
The report found that, in the U.S., too many healthy women with low-risk pregnancies are being routinely subjected to high-tech or invasive interventions that should be reserved for higher-risk pregnancies. Such measures include:
Inducing labor. The percentage of women whose labor was induced more than doubled between 1990 and 2005
Use of epidural painkillers, which might cause adverse effects, including rapid fetal heart rate and poor performance on newborn assessment tests
Delivery by Caesarean section, which is estimated to account for one-third of all U.S births in 2008, will far exceed the World Health Organization's recommended national rate of 5 to 10 percent
Electronic fetal monitoring, unnecessarily adding to delivery costs
Rupturing membranes ("breaking the waters"), intending to hasten onset of labor
Episiotomy, which is often unnecessary
In fact, the current style of maternity care is so procedure-intensive that 6 of the 15 most common hospital procedures used in the entire U.S. are related to childbirth. Although most childbearing women in this country are healthy and at low risk for childbirth complications, national surveys reveal that essentially all women who give birth in U.S. hospitals have high rates of use of complex interventions, with risks of adverse effects.
The reasons for this overuse might have more to do with profit and liability issues than with optimal care, the report points out. Hospitals and care providers can increase their insurance reimbursements by administering costly high-tech interventions rather than just watching, waiting, and shepherding the natural process of childbirth.
Convenience for health care workers and patients might be another factor. Naturally occurring labor is not limited to typical working hours. Evidence also shows that a disproportionate amount of tech-driven interventions like Caesarean sections occur during weekday "business hours," rather than at night, on weekends, or on holidays.
Underuse of high-touch, noninvasive measures
Many practices that have been proven effective and do little to no harm are underused in today's maternity care for healthy low-risk women. They include:
Prenatal vitamins
Use of midwife or family physician
Continuous presence of a companion for the mother during labor
Upright and side-lying positions during labor and delivery, which are associated with less severe pain than lying down on one's back
Vaginal birth (VBAC) for most women who have had a previous Caesarean section
Early mother-baby skin-to-skin contact
The study suggests that those and other low-cost, beneficial practices are not routinely practiced for several reasons, including limited scope for economic gain, lack of national standards to measure providers' performance, and a medical tradition that doesn't prioritize the measurement of adverse effects, or take them into account. Article on the Web

Chiropractic and Ear Infections

I have 3 blogs, this one, one dedicated to FIF, and lastly my chiropractic blog. While I love them all, I take special pride in my chiropractic blog. As chiropractic has changed my life it brings a little joy to see all the visits from around the world on my chiropractic blog. The number one topic that gets hit is chiropractic and ear infections. I have had other authors link to my blog specifically for these articles. The articles weren't written by me, but are more easily accessible on my blog.

Yesterday when I arrived at the YMCA for Annika's music class I joined in a conversation that two mothers were having about their childrens recurrent ear infections. I mentioned they should see a chiropractor, to which I received a look of whatever crazy. As the conversation progressed it moved to the need for tubes. I took this as another opportunity to mention chiropractic, but with a more personal story to share. I have a friend who's daughter had entered the evil ear infection antibiotic cycle and the doctor had mentioned that the next step would be tubes in the ears. Wanting to avoid this at all cost she finally called me and asked for my chiropractors number. Her daughter went in for one visit, one, just one visit, the ear infection cleared up and has yet to return. Major surgery avoided for a $7.00 visit to the chiropractor. The women were suprised, and wanted to know how a "back" doctor could help with ear infections. I gave them a really quick explanation and one women asked if I had the chiropractors card. I also shared that my 17 month old hadn't had a single ear infection and that he had been adjusted at 6 hours old. She wanted to know why it would be necassary to adjust such a small baby. Think of the first thing that happens as soon as the babies head is out of the birth canal, your doctor pulls on it to help get the rest of the baby out. He may not pull hard enough to pull your babies head off (let's hope) but it doesn't take much to move those fragile bones out of alignment. Here is one of the articles from my other blog that explains how chiropractic works with ear infections, and it's not from some secret chiropractic journal it is from Ladies Home Journal.

"Chiropractic Helps in Prevention of Recurring Ear Infections.
In the October 1998 issue of the Ladies Home Journal appeared an article entitled, "Chiropractic Adjustments for Chronic Ear Infections." This article reviewed several studies showing the effectiveness of chiropractic care for preventing re-occurring ear infections known as Otitis Media or OM.

According to the article, reoccurring ear infections account for over 35% of all pediatrician visits in the United States. Sometimes these infections are due to bacteria and sometimes these are due to a virus. The most common medical care for this situation has been antibiotics, even though antibiotics have no effect on viruses. While the article mentions that the antibiotic may be effective in an acute bacterial infection, they do nothing to stop repeat infections. Research and statistics is now showing that repeated use of antibiotics is contributing to future infections by creating drug-resistant infections. The surgical approach has met with little long term results as the "tubes" placed in children’s ears often come out and usually require a child to be put under general anesthesia to do the surgery.

The article in the Ladies Home Journal states, "Chiropractic care is thought to prevent recurrent infections by correcting misalignments (called subluxations) and allowing normal fluid drainage from the middle ear." What the article took special note of was that 6 months after the chiropractic care was given to the children in the study, 80 percent had not suffered a recurrence of ear infections.

In closing the article did make a profound statement. They made a recommendation to parents on this subject. "If your child is between ear infections and his doctor suggests ear-tube surgery, ask if you can try chiropractic treatment first." While we agree with that sentiment, we suggest you not wait for a period between episodes, and you don’t have to "ask" permission from any other doctor to seek chiropractic care. As the sneaker company said, "just do it!"

Don't wait around for Danny to make it back to Utah, you can come and see him when he gets there. Help your kids be ear infection free take them to a chiropractor today! Article on the Web