Voters from coast to coast made decisions last week not just about which candidates to favor but also about an array of health-related concerns from abortion to health insurance expansion to legalized ways to get high. Women’s reproductive rights: a big deal A major motivator in the 2022 midterm elections was the U.S. Supreme Court’s….
Continue ReadingBirth Injury
A reckoning for FDA fast drug approvals and moms’ mistreatment
Federal regulators have hit a highly public reckoning for their policies to provide speedy approvals for prescription drugs, benefiting Big Pharma’s profits but not necessarily patients — notably women in serious need of help with a shame of the U.S. health care system: the nation’s dismal state with injuries and deaths to expectant moms and….
Continue ReadingPandemic worsened already shameful U.S. maternal mortality problems
The United States, the wealthiest nation in the world, has a really bad record on maternal mortality. And it only worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. The National Center for Health Statistics found that 861 women died during pregnancy or shortly thereafter in 2020 versus the 754 comparable deaths in 2019, the New York Times reported,….
Continue ReadingParents beware: Silicon Valley hypes inaccurate prenatal blood tests
Expectant parents have gotten an ugly exposure to a rapacious aspect of modern medicine: Over testing, over diagnosis, and over treatment, specifically with a new, fast-growing high-tech twist. The grownups — whether over-reaching to safeguard the unborn or in a simply silly way to determine the gender of their hoped-for bundle of joy — are….
Continue ReadingHeavy marijuana use by pregnant women can harm babies, big California study finds
Although most states, including most recently Virginia, have eased restrictions on the recreational or medical use of marijuana, expectant moms should take note of serious studies that show pot, especially in heavy consumption, isn’t great for the health of unborn babies. Researchers at the University of California San Diego examined a decade of medical records….
Continue ReadingWith malpractice claims constrained, injured Florida kids and families struggle
When doctors, hospitals, and insurers bellyache about malpractice claims with little evidence on their prevalence or outcomes, patients and politicians should push back: And they can cite the nightmares people in grievous circumstance have suffered when their constitutional right to seek justice in civil lawsuits gets stripped away. The Miami Herald and ProPublica, the Pulitzer….
Continue ReadingA study finds black babies survive better when treated by black doctors
A recent study of deaths among black infants may provide another conscience jab to medical leaders who are confronted with mounting evidence of racial health care disparities in the United States. As the Washington Post reported, researchers examined records of 1.8 million Florida hospital births between 1992 and 2015, finding in their published study these….
Continue ReadingHeartfelt words from prominent moms on losing their pregnancies
Two women with significant star power have opened up to the public about a rarely discussed experience — that, even in contemporary times, pregnancies do not all go well and that parents who lose a pre-term child suffer a shattering grief that others should recognize and seek to help them with. It may be a….
Continue ReadingHundreds of moms die of preventable pregnancy-related complications
Hundreds of mothers die of preventable pregnancy-related complications up to a year after delivering their babies, with black and native women experiencing notably high maternal morality risks. The needless deaths of around 700 women nationwide each year due to cardiovascular conditions, infections, hemorrhages and other complications related to their pregnancies underscores the importance of improving….
Continue ReadingWhy do we tolerate up to 80,000 mothers each year suffering big injuries in childbirth?
Here is a sobering public health angle on Mother’s Day. Experts on international health and development, including the likes of Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent and columnist Nick Kristof, long have argued that a key way to major improvements in distant lands rests in boosting the lot of women and girls. It’s an issue that clearly also….
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