this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
197 points (96.7% liked)

News

23296 readers
3663 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
rjc@lemmy.world
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world
dezmd@lemmy.world
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
JonsJava@lemmy.world
gedaliyah@lemmy.world
Blackbeard@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
jeffw@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
197
Alabama cracks down on birth centers, leaving pregnant women with fewer options (www.nbcnews.com)
submitted 1 year ago by deconstruct@lemm.ee to c/news@lemmy.world
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Dr. Heather Skanes’ team at the Oasis Family Birthing Center in Birmingham, Alabama, started turning away patients this spring as state officials cracked down on alternative childbirth options.

The center had offered patients with low-risk pregnancies a place to deliver their babies outside of a hospital, where cesarean sections weren’t performed, epidurals weren’t administered and midwives took the lead. Some women labored in an inflatable aqua birthing pool, in what Skanes saw as a more supportive environment in which Black women in particular would feel more comfortable and heard.

But in March, officials with the Alabama Department of Public Health told Skanes that they considered the previously unregulated facility to be a hospital that didn’t have proper permission to be open, according to her attorneys.

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the state Public Health Department on behalf of Skanes over what it has called a “de facto ban” on freestanding birth centers. The court battle is unfolding as the agency is weeks away from implementing licensing regulations for the facilities.

Alabama has an alarming record on keeping expectant and new mothers alive, with a higher share of residents dying in pregnancy and during or shortly after childbirth than almost any other state. More than a third of counties in Alabama lack hospitals with labor and delivery units or practicing obstetric providers, according to a report last year from the March of Dimes.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] medgremlin@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

These birthing centers are just a small step above home births in the grander scheme of things. The regulations being imposed are absolutely necessary for the centers to actually be better options. Even if the pregnancy has had no complications and is very low risk, things like uterine hemorrhage, neonatal hypoxia, or other unpredictable complications can occur. When those things happen, being an hour away from proper emergency care is very likely to be lethal. The 30 minutes away from the hospital by ambulance rule isn't even taking into account the time it takes to recognize the problem and the time for the ambulance to arrive in the first place.

If these centers are going to exist and claim to be a safe option, they need to have adequately trained staff, appropriate facilities, and viable access to emergency care in case of unpredictable complications.

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So, if a facility that's 20 minutes away doesn't quite meet all the regulations, let's close it down and make people have to drive over an hour to a facility that does meet all the regulations?

I guess that leaves three options then, deliver at home, just hold it in, or break out the chainsaw...

https://allthatsinteresting.com/why-were-chainsaws-invented

[–] medgremlin@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Actual medical training and appropriate facilities are not high bars to clear if they want to actually do things right. The education requirements for being a midwife as opposed to a nurse midwife are appallingly lax. It's like saying that a class taught by a high school graduate is equivalent to one taught by someone with an education degree. The person interviewed in the article is an OB/Gyn, but it doesn't sound like her staff has any qualifications. Hell, EMTs get more education on how to actually deliver a baby and care for the mother than some midwives.

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Agreed. Yet still, once upon a time the solution was 'hey, let's invent a hand crank chainsaw'...

Just because a facility might not technically meet every single regulation doesn't mean that a woman can just hold her hoo-hoo shut for an hour or more to get to a proper facility.