Over the last decade, cesarean rates have increased all over the world; Canada is no exception, going from 17% in the 1990’s to 28% in 2009. This presents several health problems for both mother and baby: increased chances of infection, longer hospital stays, increased risk of delivering preterm, lower birth rates, and more.
We often take for granted that the people we need the most will be there exactly when they’re needed. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in the UK where midwives are concerned.
As we’ve reported on many on many occasions, babies will come whenever and where ever they please, regardless of your preparedness and that is exactly what happened to a midwife when she had to deliver her own baby using just a make-up mirror at home.
UK based charity Save the Children has brought into light the grave news that 48 million women around the world give birth each year without any expert help. This report also estimates that if the global shortage of midwives was met, 1 million babies could be saved each year.
A British midwife spending her 25th wedding anniversary on holiday in Queensland, helped deliver a baby girl in an evacuation center while Cyclone Yasi raged outside.
For most medical organizations, home birth is considered too risky and too dangerous for a mother to even consider. However, according to some at the Royal College of Midwives, home birth is being given an exaggerated bad name.
Vicki Penwell, a former midwife, has delivered more than 2,5000 babies in her life. The latest baby came in a different way, aboard a trans-Pacific flight 37,000 feet in the air.
