
How to Fix the Baby Bust - jseliger
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/25/how-to-fix-the-baby-bust/
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morning_breeze
A topic I usually miss from the discussion: gynecology and obstetrics
practices. Here in Germany they are the most shitty medical professions.
Research seems to have been replaced with magical thinking and arguments like
"you just have to trust you body", "we shouldn't make childbirth too easy for
women", "caesarean section is against nature". In no other hospital department
homeopathy "medication" is part of the standard treatment. A lot of birth
departments are closing, the remaining ones often overcrowded with too few
staff, the only mandatory staff during birth seem to be midwifes (with a
chronic tendency to esoteric bullshittery), the examinations often more of a
joke, like using using ultrasound for weight estimates of the unborn baby
known as to imprecise for this purpose. We don't even have a central
evaluation for injuries babys and mothers receive during birth (to kick the
most dysfunctional hospitals a bit in the ass). As a result after giving
birth, a lot of women suffer of traumas for being mistreatet by overworked
staff or problems like incontinence, chronic panic and organ prolapse
sometimes to a degree they can't work anymore. Often in silence out of shame,
when they speak up, getting comments like "you wanted children you have to
live with the results". For one of the most severe injuries avulsions of the
musculus levator ani up to now there isn't even a working treatment. I guess,
having a life with a job they like and a lot of activities some women just shy
away from the risk or don't want to repeat an awful experience.

I'm looking forward to what the Chinese are doing at the moment: "The Born in
Guangzhou Cohort Study" is one of biggest cohort studies ever done and
hopefully it brings a bit more insight into pregnancy and birth and things
others call "that's just nature".

