“’Caesarean sections are effective in saving maternal and infant lives, but only when they are required for medically indicated reasons,’ a 2015 report from the World Health Organization said. While C-sections can often be lifesaving for both mother and baby, the surgery involved also carries serious risks,” the article read. “One in three American mothers delivers her baby via cesarean section, a rate that has increased more than 500 percent since the 1970s. Ideally, that rate should be somewhere between 10% and 15%, according to the World Health Organization.Ī 2019 story in the New York Times stated that birth complications linked to surgical deliveries are among the biggest factors of maternal deaths. In the April meeting of the Iowa chapter of the International Cesarean Awareness Network, chapter leader Rachel Bruns cited statistics of VBACs (vaginal birth after cesarean) and cesarean births in the state. “We have to work on the nurse midwifery situation in this state,” Pedron said. However, they mostly work in hospital settings because of the difficulty in establishing birthing centers. Iowa is one of only a handful of states that don’t provide licensing for certified professional midwives.Ĭertified nurse midwives - registered nurses who have graduated from a nurse-midwifery education program - are available. ![]() One solution? Increasing midwife-led care. It’s not just treat and street.” There’s no silver bullet to improve pregnancy outcomes of Black and Brown women, but there are known solutions. But what are we doing to improve our ability to help with that in the moment? It’s on us. “Yes, absolutely patients can and should do things to improve their ability to maneuver health care systems. Sabbath Schrader, registered nurse at Broadlawns, argued that ultimately the burden falls on providers to recognize the needs and wants of the patient. We have to be mindful of people’s life situations.”īy doing that, health care providers also have the responsibility to help educate patients so they can make informed decisions and advocate for themselves. “It’s easy for a provider to say, ‘Pick up this prescription and come back in or give me a call if you have issues,’ but we often don’t take transportation or reliable phones into account. Sarah Bradbury, a certified nurse midwife at Broadlawns, emphasized the importance of providers being aware of barriers. Having an initial meeting with patients and not just handing them a pamphlet in a rush and hoping they’ll read it on their own time is important, said Ayah Bilbeisi, dentist at Cedar Ridge Dentistry in Urbandale. Stephen Pedron, maternal fetal medicine specialist at UnityPoint in Cedar Rapids, wasted no time listing off concrete examples: Medicaid eligibility and reimbursement, electronic health record efficiency, language, transportation, child care, trust, lack of providers in general and specifically providers of color and differences in culture.Īddressing these disparities starts with communication, panelists said. ![]() ‘Are we confident that we’ve made any progress on eliminating disparity? I’m not sure we have.’ĭisparities within the field of health care are plentiful. Here are four takeaways from a few of the sessions that I was able to attend. It would do these things because “stopping at disparities helps no one.”īorn after months of planning, A Celebration of Black Kin Conference, held during Black Maternal Health Week (April 11-17), did just that. It would create space for discussions around reproductive justice and bodily autonomy. ![]() It would be broadcast through a holistic lens where people could show up as their full selves. It would focus on solutions to the maternal mortality crisis. It would center Black birthing people, and the joy in Black parenthood. Samples, a nonbinary Des Moines-based doula who serves Black and queer families, decided the conference would uplift the positive things happening in the community. Last year, Olivia Samples had a dream of starting a conference around Black maternal health.
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