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Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney Blog | Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP
Philadelphia Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Attorneys serving the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania areas. Pomerantz, Perlberger and Lewis have extensive experience with serious injuries as a result of someone else's negligence.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
One Solution for Obstetrics Crisis
Who will deliver the babies? wonder the residents of New York as many obstetricians begin scaling back that part of their practice. It is a similar fate to what Pennsylvania residents may soon be facing as well, if subsidies for medical malpractice insurance are not renewed and obstetricians find they are unable to make the high level of payments so begin shifting away from that area of practice. So what can be done to make sure women aren't left out in the cold during this stressful moment of their lives.
Home Birth
One option that is advocated by a number of celebrity spokeswomen but is firmly opposed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is home births. In home birth, a midwife or nurse-midwife attends the mother at home in attempting to perform what is described as a normal physiologic process. Home birth is represented by advocates as being a life-affirming experience freed from the constrictions of constant monitoring, medication and restraint common in hospital births. They also say that some birth injuries are made more likely by the pressure of the hospital setting and the insistence of Ob/GYNs on more caesarean births. However, according to the official position statement by ACOG, "Despite the rosy picture painted by home birth advocates, a seemingly normal labor and delivery can quickly become life-threatening for both the mother and baby." Birth injuries resulting from complications during pregnancy, whose severity increases as the distress is lengthened can be exacerbated by the necessity of traveling to the hospital.
Birthing Centers
Birthing centers, however, may represent an ideal solution for most pregnancies if located proximately to hospitals or attached to a hospital. By providing lower-pressure surroundings for low-risk pregnancies, birthing centers can give women the best of both worlds. A bedroom-like setting with bathroom, shower, and birthing pool, that allows women to set their own pace for their labor while eating, walking, or socializing with friends, is combined with almost immediate access to hospital care should it be required, as it is in about one percent of all low-risk pregnancies. In addition, limiting the practice to only low-risk pregnancies dramatically reduces medical malpractice insurance rates for the centers.
If the pressure on Ob/GYN's continues to increase, we may see more of a move towardbirthing centers as the normal setting for modern births. And that may be a good thing.
If you or someone you love has suffered as a result of a birth injury, contact an experienced birth injury attorney at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.
posted by Dr. Candelaria at 5:09 PM
1Comments:
There is a very simple solution to the obstetric crisis. Start giving physicians, nurses and the hospital a monetary bonus every time they have a completely natural birth in the hospital. I mean---no induction, no I.V., no stitches, no pain medications, nada. It would have to be a healthy amount to grab their interest. Right now, they are jaded, burned out and could care less about the lifelong consequences of the interventions they casually throw at women and their babies. Whatever is the "standard of care" is okay with them. A truly large financial incentive would change everything. The only way to deal with a corporate mess is to create a corporate solution. Sad but true.
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