For much of history giving birth to a child was one of the most dangerous threats to a woman's health as she would face during her life.
This excerpt from an article "Childbirth in Early America" provides some context.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, between 1 percent and 1.5 percent of all births ended in the mother's death as a result of exhaustion, dehydration, infection, hemorrhage, or convulsions. Since the typical mother gave birth to between five and eight children, her lifetime chances of dying in childbirth ran as high as 1 in 8. This meant that if a woman had eight female friends, it was likely that one might die in childbirth.
The risks to women improved dramatically when women began having birth in hospitals under close medical supervision attended by a physician.
However, the trend in births from home to hospital did not begin until the early 20th century.
In fact, Jimmy Carter (elected 1976) was the first U.S. President born in a hospital (1924).
His successor Ronald Reagan (elected 1980, born 1911) was not.
Reagan's sucessor, George H.W. Bush (also born in 1924) was also not born in a hospital. He was the last President to be born at home.
Of the 46 U.S. Presidents to date, only Carter, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden have been born in a hospital---six in all.
In researching this topic I was also interested to find that health outcomes for mother and child did not necessarily improve at the outset when there were more births in hospital in the 1920's than at home.
In fact, mortality rates for birth injuries actually increased 40%-50% from 1915 and 1929 as hospital birth rates increased during that period.
At the same time, the maternal mortality rates for women who gave birth in the hospital did not begin declining until the 1930's when sulfa drugs were introduced to treat infections.
Why did birth mortality increase while there was no improvement in maternal mortality when women first starting going to the hospital from their homes for birth?
The answer appears to be that it was caused by operative INTERVENTION by physicians in the hospital.
While attempting to help during the birth process doctors unintentionally caused more harm to the mother, and especially to the baby, with forceps and cesarean deliveries, which increased the risks of birth injuries and infections.
Hospitals became safer places for birth in the 1930's and beyond as sulfa drugs could deal with infections and doctors learned to be more judicious in avoiding injuries to newborns in the birth process.
Why do I bring up this history?
I recently saw this headline.
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| Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/maternal-deaths-surge-to-highest-rate-in-60-years-in-us-report-3871270 |
The United States experienced one of the highest rates of maternal death in its history in 2021, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report also stated that black women experience more than twice as many maternal deaths as white women.
A total of 1,205 women died in the United States during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth in 2021, up from 861 in 2020 and 754 in 2019, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) said.
Maternal deaths were 60% higher in 2021 than they were in 2019!
What caused that?
Most of the stories about this increase suggest Covid as the the direct or indirect cause for the surge in maternal deaths.
However, Covid was also present in 2020 when maternal deaths only increased modestly from 2019.
Maternal deaths in 2021 were up over 40% from what they were in 2020.
However, there were also a lot of vaccinations being administered to pregnant women in 2021 on the recommendation of the CDC.
Some question if this might be a factor.
87% of women of childbearing age received at least one dose on the Covid vaccine .
Over 70% of women that age received both doses.
Most of those doses were received by August, 2021.
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| Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-demographics-trends |
I don't know what caused this spike in deaths.
However, shouldn't someone be looking into it and informing us?
What is frustrating to me is that the CDC should have the definitive data on all of this so there is no question about whether it is Covid , the vaccines or something else altogether.
The CDC should know exactly how many of those who died had Covid or who had it previously.
The CDC should know exactly how many of the women who died during childbirth had been vaccinated.
The fact that the CDC releases a report on a marked increase in maternal deaths in 2021 and ignores the elephant in the room speaks volumes in my mind.
What is going on?
You have to wonder if what reporter Matt Taibbi found in the Twitter files might be at play?
Taibbi reported last week that Twitter censored true content or facts as "misinformation" at the behest of government intermediaries because it might contribute to vaccine hesitancy.
In other words, let's be sure that people don't have all the facts for informed consent because they might make a decision that we don't like.
It is important to keep all of this in context.
Even with the increase in maternal morality in 2021, we are talking about a maternal death rate of 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births. In the 1700's, that number was at least 1,000 per 100,000.
For further context, the death rate from Covid for a woman of child-bearing age in the United States since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 has averaged about 14.6 per 100,000 per year during the three years of the pandemic. (26,203 Covid deaths for 18-44 year old women since 2020 out of 60 million women in total for that age group in the United States).
It all means that a young woman today has infinitely better odds of living a long life compared to that 18th century woman
Finally, a Fox News story on the same CDC report on maternal maternity also presented another factoid that I found interesting about the health of pregnant women.
Only about 40% of U.S. women who gave birth in 2019 had favorable heart health before getting pregnant, according to a new report by the American Heart Association.
If only 40% of U.S. women who give birth have favorable heart health before getting pregnant, that means 60% of those who get pregnant do not have favorable heart health.
60%!!!
We are talking about women who are almost all 45 years of age or younger.
The CDC reported in 2016 that the average age 20-39 year old woman weighed 167.6 pounds.
That is about the same weight that a man of the same age weighed in the 1960's.
The average woman (and man) of today weigh 30 pounds more than they did then.
60% of women between the ages of 20-34 are considered overweight or obese.
68% of women 35-44 are in the same category according to the CDC.
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| Credit: https://www.healthline.com/health/womens-health/average-weight-for-women#average-weight-around-the-world |
Increased weight (before pregnancy) may be the most important reason of all on why women have increased risks from childbirth, Covid or anything else today.
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