Childbirth has been a constant in human history. Unfortunately, death among mothers was far from rare. We discuss how dangerous it was and how far we have left to go.

Welcome, everyone. 

With this episode, I have over 20 podcasts under my belt.  It has been a lot of fun and I appreciate all

of you.  I have a completely self-serving

request of you.  I'm trying to make my

podcast better and I really need some good feedback to do so.  I would like to know your favorite episode

and one topic that you would love for me to discuss.  Simply go to my website sci-vs-fear.com and

click on the red contact button or if it is easier, email me directly at [email protected].  Again, I’d like to know your favorite podcast

so far and one topic you would like for me to discuss.  Thanks again for all of your support!

Today’s topic is:

Childbirth: There’s got to be a better way

As most of you could guess, the only direct experience I’ve

had with childbirth is being born and those memories are a bit fuzzy.  I have four kids and so I’ve had plenty of

experience on the Dad side, but doesn’t really count.  Not too long ago, we were in the hospital

with our daughter, welcoming our first grandchild into the world.  As I watched her struggle to bring my

grandson into the world, I thought “this has to be one of the most dangerous

things ever.”  This episode goes out to

my daughter and my wife.

Today’s podcast is going to look at how dangerous childbirth

is for the mother.  Making it to 5 years

old is a big gamble for the baby and is a topic for another podcast. 

US Childbirth deaths

In the US, about 700 women a year die due to complications

with pregnancy. https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/pregnancy-relatedmortality.htm

 For a country with the population of the

US, this is a pretty low rate.  Other

causes of death with similar rates are slipping and tripping falls, falls from

ladders, drowning in swimming pools, and freezing to death. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/preventable-death-overview/odds-of-dying/data-details/

As we will discuss in a minute, it has taken a lot of hard

work to get to this place.  The leading

causes of maternal death are cardiovascular conditions, hemorrhage, infection,

embolism, cardiomyopathy, mental health conditions, and

preeclampsia/eclampsia.  Interestingly,

the death rates were very similar for black and white women, except that deaths

due to mental health conditions were noticeably absent among black women.

Of these fatalities, a quarter occurred during pregnancy,

15% on the day of delivery, 18% 1-6 days postpartum, another 18% 7-42 days

postpartum, and the remaining quarter 43-365 days postpartum.

The fatalities can be categorized as preventable, and

non-preventable.  Hispanics had the

lowest rate of preventable deaths at 62%, blacks at 63%, and white at 68%.  I found it interesting that of the maternal

deaths in this CDC study, over 65% were still preventable. https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternal-mortality/erase-mm/mmr-data-brief.html