Embarazo y parto (Continuación)

ReflexionesSocial

Motherhood begins as a tempestuously physical experience but quickly becomes a political one. Once a woman’s pregnancy goes public, the storm moves outside. Don’t pile on the pounds! Your child will be obese. Don’t eat too little, or your baby will be born too small. For heaven’s sake, don’t drink alcohol. Oh, please: you can sip some wine now and again. And no matter how many contradictory things the experts say, don’t panic. Stress hormones wreak havoc on a baby’s budding nervous system.

All this advice rains down on expectant mothers for the obvious reason that mothers carry babies and create the environments in which they grow.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia, ,

While anatomically illiterate politicians in America babble about “legitimate rape,” a Filipino legislator opposed to birth controlhas been shedding crocodile tears in Parliament and plagiarizing speeches to bolster the case against reproductive rights.

On Aug. 13, the Senate majority leader, Tito Sotto, wept while addressing his assembled peers. The former actor told the Senate that birth-control pills, used by his wife in 1974, had led to the death of their newborn son a year later. The emotional scene shut down the day’s debate. It was the latest obstruction to passing a reproductive health law that has languished for 14 years.

Proponents of the reproductive health bill say it will address poverty, women’s rights, infant and maternal mortality, and overpopulation in a poor nation crowded with 94 million people.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica,

Through the dust kicked up by passing cars on a remote road in southern Rwanda, a striking image became clear as we approached: Four men carrying on their shoulders a man on a stretcher. The hospital in Nyakibanda was still miles away.

It was not only the determination of the four strong men that struck me, but also the fact that a herculean effort was required to get care for their friend or brother.

Unfortunately, examples of such extraordinary efforts to secure basic needs are quite ordinary in many parts of Africa. My travels have taken me to the outback of many nations, and I have been humbled by how people live with hope despite lacking what many consider essential goods, services and freedoms.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, ,

"She was my mother's best friend," the middle-aged woman told me over a cup of coffee in a trendy cafe overlooking the Bosphorus. "She died bleeding in a back alley because back then abortion was illegal. Every Ramadan my mother would pray for her soul and ask us children to do the same."

Because abortion was only legalised in Turkey in 1983, there are many women who are old enough to have memories of the preceding period – and they have rather dark stories to tell today. The problem is, very few of these women are in parliament. Politics, both at the local and national level, remains a male-dominated arena.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

My daughter was 2 days old, and dropping weight. I had been trying to feed her, but for some reason she wasn’t yet getting the liquid gold of colostrum, the earliest mother’s milk. When the hospital’s doctor paid his daily visit and mentioned her weight, my husband asked whether we should supplement with formula, gesturing at the little Similac bottles of hospital swag with the desperation of a business traveler eyeing vodka in the minibar — and with much of the same shame. The pediatrician swiftly confirmed our fears, intoning, “Formula is evil”. He was implying we were quasi-negligent for even considering it.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial

For most of human history, a woman who became pregnant after sleeping with more than one partner had no way of definitively knowing the identity of the man with whom she had conceived. Likewise, a man whose lover became pregnant had no way of knowing for sure whether his or another man’s DNA was gestating inside her.

Since the 1970s it has been possible to genetically link a father and his baby with increasing levels of accuracy. Then, a test using amniotic fluid let us test a baby’s DNA before birth, but the procedure increased the risk of miscarriage. Now a prenatal blood test has made the process far easier.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública

Giving birth in the UK is complicated. Antenatal checks, ultrasounds, blood tests, BMI indices, dating scans and more – and that's before delivery. Giving birth in sub-Saharan Africa is simple by comparison. You can walk five hours for a basic check-up, if able. Then again, you are far less likely to survive.

Across the developing world there are none of the integrated healthcare services for expectant mothers that are universally available in the west. That means mothers-to-be have to visit up to five different healthcare providers for services that could be provided by one clinic.

And that is after conception. The burning issue on maternal health in the world's poorest countries is for women to take control of their own bodies and for their choices to be respected: when to have children, how often to have children, if to have children at all.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial

The idea that we can plan our lives is fairly new and very western. For thousands of years people assumed that their destinies were not in their own hands, but in the unpredictable grasp of gods or demons or chance or family history or destiny. Man proposes but God (or something ineffable) disposes – that was how everybody thought.

Now, however, we in the rich world imagine we can choose our fates; we can eliminate diseases, double our harvests, split the atom, uncover the mysteries of the moon and even hold back time.

This feeling of being in control began slowly, not much more than 300 years ago in the West with the scientific revolution, but in the 20th century it suddenly burst forth as a new religious belief.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública

The Op-Ed page asked experts on women's health to suggest simple measures to improve the wellbeing of mothers around the world.

1) A BIRTH PILL. An inexpensive medicine could save lives.
By Amy Grossman

2) A DOSE OF CARE. Counseling should be an important part of food aid programs.
By Helen Epstein

3) AN EDUCATION. Make going to school affordable.
By Esther Duflo

4) A SAFER LABOR. Provide clinics with the basics to preform Caesarean deliveries.
By L. Lewis Wall

5) A CUSTOM DRUG. Research to better medicate mothers-to-be.
By Ruth Faden, Anne Drapkin Lyerly and Maggie Little

ReflexionesSocial,

Every minute, a woman somewhere in the world dies in childbirth or from complications of pregnancy.

But there is an inexpensive medicine that could save a great many of these women’s lives — misoprostol.

Misoprostol is a generic drug originally developed to treat ulcers, but it’s predominately used off-label for obstetrics. When a mother takes it immediately after delivery, it can effectively stop the leading cause of maternal death in most developing countries: postpartum hemorrhage or excessive bleeding. What’s more, it’s an easy-to-take tablet with a long shelf life, so it’s suitable for the vast majority of women who deliver at home, in remote villages, far from skilled medical care.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

Even as the United States Agency for International Development sends hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food to developing countries, a strange but important nutritional problem is being overlooked: The children of women who suffer from severe stress and poverty sometimes seem to give up and refuse to eat. Studies suggest that this stems from maternal detachment — the breakdown of emotional connection between traumatized mothers and their children.

It isn’t a new phenomenon. In the 1920s, Dr. Josephine Baker of the New York State Department of Health observed something similar among a group of severely malnourished babies in the chronic ward of the New York Foundling Hospital.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

For millions of girls around the world, motherhood comes too early. Those who bear children as adolescents suffer higher maternal mortality and morbidity rates, and their children are more likely to die in infancy. One reliable way to solve this problem is through education. The more affordable it is, the longer girls will stay in school and delay pregnancy.

I advise a nonprofit foundation called Innovation for Poverty Action that focuses on keeping girls in school. (We aren’t alone; lots of other terrific organizations do this, too.) In a pilot program we ran in Kenya a few years ago, around 5,000 sixth-grade girls in 163 primary schools were given a $6 school uniform free.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial

Motherhood is a blessing, but in many parts of the world childbirth leaves women permanently injured and turns them into social outcasts.

In West Africa, only about 1 percent of pregnant women have Caesarean deliveries because the procedure isn’t widely available. When labor is obstructed, the baby is trapped in the pelvis, and labor can last up to a week.

Women who survive this ordeal can develop a hole in the bladder called a fistula. This injury — caused by the prolonged pressure of the baby’s head on the soft tissues of the pelvis — causes continuous and uncontrollable loss of urine.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

When diseases like swine flu hit, pregnant women are especially at risk. And yet we know surprisingly little about how to treat them. In its guidelines for the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that pregnant women infected or at high risk for infection should take the recommended adult dosage: “Pregnancy should not be considered a contraindication” to taking the drugs, because the benefits of treatment “likely outweigh the theoretical risks of antiviral use.”

But we don’t know whether this is true. Concerns about the ethics of performing drug studies on pregnant women mean we know far less about how to treat them.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial

Rachida Dati, the French Justice Minister, has not won many friends among women this week, at least, not among right-thinking women. Not only did she return to work five days after having a baby - by Caesarean section - she was characteristically svelte for her Cabinet meeting: dark, manicured nails, spindly black heels, a jacket with leopard-print lining, the works.

The newspaper Le Figaro, ungallantly pointed out that she has a bit of a tummy, but it's hardly noticeable. Miss Dati has declared that she has no ambitions to be a role model for women. Just as well.

She is a controversial figure in many ways but quite her most revolutionary decision has been to reject the universal pieties about giving birth.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

I had a choice, and I chose life. Does that make me pro-choice or pro-life? Our political parties tell us we can't have it both ways. If I am pro-choice, then I must be for abortion. If I am pro-life, I may be lauded for a heroic choice when in fact none existed.

Ten years ago, I made a decision to continue a pregnancy that would lead to a child born with Down syndrome. My husband and I spent two exhausting weeks poring over medical prognoses and developmental research, worrying about inevitable discrimination and divisive family expectations and listening to sometimes bias-laden advice.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

Sarah Palin has a pregnant teenager. And, she’s not alone. According to a report published in 2007, there are more than 400,000 other American girls in the same predicament.

In fact, a 2001 Unicef report said that the United States teenage birthrate was higher than any other member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The U.S. tied Hungary for the most abortions. This was in spite of the fact that girls in the U.S. were not the most sexually active. Denmark held that title. But, its teenage birthrate was one-sixth of ours, and its teenage abortion rate was half of ours.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial,

The news isn't good for the morning-after pill. A constitutional court ruling in Chile recently banned the public health system from distributing free emergency contraception. In some parts of the US, there are legislative attempts to make access to the pill more difficult on the grounds that it is an abortion-inducing medicine. And while doctors in Italy who refused two women emergency contraception may face sanctions, there is no shortage of political and religious leaders supporting them.

Compared with these examples, emergency contraception is pretty accessible in the UK, but pharmacists still fall short in helping women get the morning-after pill when it's needed.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial

By Zoe Williams (THE GUARDIAN, 25/10/06):

A new study shows that women who give birth in their 50s are at no disadvantage to younger women. This doesn't surprise me greatly. Of course everyone's energy levels diminish over time, but there are pay-offs. Younger women waste a lot of their energy worrying. Plus, they're more likely to be on a stupid diet. That'll play havoc with energy levels.What is surprising is that this rather nebulous concept, "ability to cope", has been one of the cornerstones of NHS fertility strategy pretty much since IVF was invented. Women in their 50s and 60s have been barred from IVF programmes not, as I supposed, entirely for medical reasons, but also because of "parental stress".…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública

By Florence Wilcock, an obstetrician specialising in care during labour. Response to 'Yes, we do need to know' (THE GUARDIAN, 19/09/06):

Annalisa Barbieri claims that women are being bullied into having caesarean sections, despite the health risks (Yes we do need to know, September 11). "Once you've had one C-section you often have to fight for a vaginal birth," she said, adding that "women find themselves browbeaten into having a 'voluntary' C-section."As an obstetrician working in a maternity unit, far from "browbeating" women into having caesareans I spend a large amount of time counselling women regarding the pros and cons of a repeat caesarean and VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean).…  Seguir leyendo »