I watched it and don't think it was that medicalised for the simple reason that 63% (I think that's the right figure) are home births. Those who end up in hospital are likely to be seriously, seriously ill. I too would've loved to have seen one/some of the home births with the community birth attendants.
I personally felt so angry about the woman who died after the failed abortion. That really all she needed was antibiotics and didn't get them for days and then it was too late. This is my GBS thing, but we're looking at a neonatal mortality rate of 1/10000 and everyone is fighting to get the antibiotics yet there are women dying in less developed countries who could be saved with something as simple as antibiotics.
I said this in a thread in general chatter but I wish I could choose to send the antibiotics over there instead.
The maternal mortality rate was 1/12.
I missed the stillbirth statistic.
I was already aware how bad it is in other countries so it didn't exactly surprise but it was still sad and shocking to see. I was not surprised at the issues with with hospital facilities and when they mentioned the high turnover of midwives it's not surprising if there isn't a great skillbase. I did wonder about all the births on backs. Totally speculative of course but it made me wonder if perhaps that's done to emulate the West (particularly the States) in the misguided idea that it must be good practice and is one which can be easily implemented.
The English MW said about not being able nto make sweeping changes which of course is true but some of their practices (the ones not particularly resource dependent) struck as being a sign of the MWs simply not having training and not having access to current obstetric research and MW practice. A programme to better distribute current research would be valuable I think. But then we could argue the same here!
Sorry for the long post, I found it a thought-provoking doc!
