"Medical risks of Epidural Anesthesia"

All too often women are pushed into having an epidural during labour- either through pressure from friends and family "oh don't be "brave" and suffer, get an epidural..." or from doctors and L&D nurses.... "oh there are no problems/risks with having an epidural...", and the media that publicizes the "pain-free birth' with epidurals.

Very rarely are women given full disclosure about any risks of the various medical procedures and interventions that are thrown at them during labour. Especially during labour.

Every woman needs to read this study BEFORE heading the the L&D floor of their local hospital. If you choose to have an epidural, then make the choice fully aware of the risks to both your self and your baby.

http://www.healing-arts.org/mehl-madrona/mmepidural.htm

Hospital Intervention & The Christmas Miracle

I'm sure you've all read the story of the "Christmas Miracle mother and baby" We are all relieved to hear that both mother and baby are doing well, and many would praise the medical personnel for making this miracle happen and saving the lives of this mother and baby.


Some very good articles have come out because of the horrifying experience this family went through. The biggest points that the mainstream media (for the most part) are not reporting are the causes of this nightmare. The media are well focused on the miracle of their survival, yet they have glossed over the blatant links between the medical interventions this woman received and the scary outcome. Both inductions/pitocin and epidural anaesthetic have serious and dangerous side effects, risks that are very rarely explained to labouring mothers in "full disclosure".

As Jasmine Jafferali for The Examiner writes

Whenever a mother receives pitocin, a synthetic form of oxytocin which comes from the pituitary glands of mammals, the mother may have the following side effects:

• More pain. Eighty percent of mothers reported more pain with pitocin than without
• Anaphylactic reaction
• Postpartum hemorrhage
• Cardiac arrhythmia
• Fatal afibrinogenemia
• Hypertensive episodes
• Nausea/Vomitting
• Premature ventricular contractions
• Pelvic hematoma
• Subarachnoid hemorrhage
• Hypertensive episodes
• Rupture of the uterus

Read FAQ's on pitocin at Childbirth.org

What often happens after receiving pitocin, the contractions are so intense the mother opts for the epidural. Pitocin forces the uterus to contract more and more often. Oxytocin which is released naturally from the mother in the body does the same thing, but not as intense.

Within one minute of Hermanstorfer receiving an epidural, she went to cardiac arrest. Approximately 95% of birthing mothers will opt for the epidural, here are its known side effects:

• Cardiac arrhythmias and/or cardiac arrest
• Nausea/vomitting/shivering
• Severe headache caused by leakage of spinal fluid (less than 1% experience this)
• Can cause labor to slow down and also make contractions weaker
• Makes pushing more difficult and additional interventions such as Pitocin, forceps, vacuum extraction or cesarean may become necessary
• Causes fetal heart rate to drop if mother is not repositioned periodically. Laying flat on the back forces the fetus to lay on a main artery that decreases blood flow back to the fetus

• 
  

Source: American Pregnancy Association and Childbirth.org

In her article Her Survival Was a “Christmas Miracle,” but the Disaster Was Man-Made

Henci Goer writes:

"...according to Dr. Martin, Tracy is an example of how things can go suddenly and horribly wrong for no discernable reason in a healthy woman having a normal labor. All I can say is that Dr. Martin must have slept through the class on epidural complications. Tracy’s story is the classic sequence that follows what anesthesiologists term an “unexpectedly high blockade,” meaning the anesthesiologist injected the epidural anesthetic into the wrong space and it migrated upward, paralyzing breathing muscles and in some cases, stopping the heart. High blockade happens rarely, and even more rarely does it result in full respiratory and cardiac arrest—one database analysis of 11,000 obstetric epidural blocks reported a rate of 1 in 1400 women experiencing a high block and 1 in 5500 requiring intubation, and no woman experienced cardiac arrest. It does happen, though, and I am willing to bet that high blockade and its sequelae happened to Tracy..."

It all comes down to "Full disclosure" of the real risks VS benefits of medical interventions used during the average Labour & Childbirth in North America. I have very serious doubts that many mothers would actively choose either the use of pitocin/induction or epidurals if they were truly made aware of the risks to both themselves and their babies.

For more information :

Medical Risks of Epidural Anesthesia During Childbirth
By Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D. and Morgaine Mehl-Madrona

Having posted that horrifying video this morning of an over sized barbie giving birth..... *shudder*.... I've been thinking on the topic of how medicalize birth has endangered women and babies. and thinking about the horrible truth: that it has become so mainstream, so "Normal", so Accepted, that women and their partners don't even question it any more.

Not a week, not a day goes by that I don't read comments on birthing/pregnancy forums about scheduled inductions and caesarean sections or about women planning their epidurals in advance. Birth stories of women told the most outrageous lies by the medical machine to validate the doctors opinion of why all these interventions are necessary.

I have days when I literally rant at the computer screen (these days apparently happen often enough that my kids no longer even take note, lol), and I want to scream, to tell these women that NO! They don't need to labour on their backs strapped to a plethora of monitors, with an IV and epidural in place. ...... ARGH!!!!

I tell people and try to educate people all the time- both in real life and online- I try to make people aware that THEY need to do the research and find out for themselves. And I post articles and studies to try to open the eyes of those that are blinded by faith in a medical machine that plays to a different drum.

This is one of my most favorite articles ever written on the topic of Birth and the dangers and risks of interventions. I have lost count of how many times I've posted this article on Forums, blogs, chats, web sites, Facebook...... If every pregnant woman and her partner read this article, I'm SURE that at least some of them would wake up from their stupor and see the reality of modern child birth.

Technology in Birth: First Do No Harm

By Marsden Wagner, MD

© 2000 Midwifery Today, Inc. All rights reserved.

A woman in Iowa was recently referred to a university hospital during her labor because of possible complications. There, it was decided that a cesarean section should be done. After the surgery was completed and the woman was resting post-operatively in her hospital room, she went into shock and died. An autopsy showed that during the cesarean section the surgeon had accidentally nicked the woman's aorta, the biggest artery in the body, leading to internal hemorrhage, shock and death.

Cesarean section can save the life of the mother or her baby. Cesarean section can also kill a mother or her baby. How can this be? Because every single procedure or technology used during pregnancy and birth carries risks, both for mother and baby. The decision to use technology is a judgment call—it may make things either better or worse.

We are living in the age of technology. Ever since we succeeded in going to the moon, we have believed that technology can do everything to solve all of our problems. So it should come as no surprise that doctors and hospitals are using more and more technology on pregnant and birthing women. Has it solved all the problems that can arise during birth? Hardly. Let's look at the recent track record.

Has the recent increasing use of technology during pregnancy and birth resulted in fewer damaged or dead babies? In the United States there has been no decrease in the past 30 years in the number of babies with cerebral palsy. The biggest killer of newborn babies is a birth weight that is too low, but the number of too-small babies born has not decreased the past 20 years. The number of babies who die while still in the womb has not decreased in more than a decade. While the past 10 years has seen a slight drop in the number of babies who die during their first week after birth, the scientific data suggest an increase in the number of babies who survive the first week but have permanent brain damage.

Is the increasing use of technology saving the lives of more pregnant and birthing women? In the United States the scientific data show no decrease during the past 10 years in the number of women who die around the time of birth (maternal mortality). In fact, recent data suggest a frightening increase in the number of women dying during pregnancy and birth in the United States. So it may be that the increase in the use of birth technologies is not only not saving more women's lives but it is also killing more women. This possibility has a reasonable scientific explanation: cesarean section and epidural anesthesia have both been used more and more in this country and we know that both cesarean section and epidural block can result in death....

HERE to read the complete article on Midwifery Today