Technology in Birth: First Do No Harm
By Marsden Wagner, MD
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Quotes:
“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.”
“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.”
“Having a cesarean birth also affects the future reproductive possibilities of the woman, because having a cesarean section means she has a decreased chance of ever getting pregnant again. And if she does get pregnant again, she is at higher risk that her pregnancy will occur outside her womb, a condition that will never result in a live baby and is life threatening for the woman.
If in her subsequent pregnancies she succeeds in making it to the end of pregnancy and goes into labor, she is also at higher risk of two serious complications during the birth, both of which can threaten her own life and the life of the baby: a placenta that blocks the outlet for the baby or a placenta that detaches itself before the baby is born.”
“There has been an epidemic of unnecessary cesarean section births because doctors like a quick, surgical solution for birth. Now another birth technology—epidural block for labor pain— is seeing a rapid expansion of epidemic proportions because doctors are selling it to women as hard as they can.
(Epidural block for cesarean section is another matter, as it is the preferred anesthesia for this major surgery.) A new subspecialty of doctors—obstetric anesthesiologists—is built entirely on the economic foundation of epidural block for normal labor pain. They need lots of birthing women to choose this form of pain relief if these doctors are to make a grand living. (Their professional journal contains advertisements for purchasing private jets.)
These new specialists go to prenatal classes to sell epidural block and prowl the halls of hospital maternity wards, popping in on women in labor to sell their epidural block. Their hard sell includes telling women that epidural block is “safe.” How safe is it really?
Twenty-three percent, or nearly one in four women, given an epidural block will develop a complication. One undesirable complication is death—epidural block for relief of normal labor pain results in a three times higher mortality rate for the woman than labor without epidural block. One out of every 500 epidural blocks results in temporary neurological problems, such as paralysis in the woman; and in one out of every half-million epidural blocks, this neurological damage to the woman is permanent.”
“Thus, epidural block presents many serious risks for the woman. Are there risks for her baby? Since it is unlikely any woman would choose a form of pain relief that puts her baby at risk, women are not told that in 8 percent to 12 percent of labors in which the woman is given epidural block, severe fetal hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the unborn baby) is shown on the electronic fetal monitor.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, after acknowledging the frequency at which birthing babies suffer hypoxia after the woman is given an epidural block, recommends that all women given epidural block have continuous electronic fetal monitoring so that fetal hypoxia can be identified.
Does this lack of oxygen have any permanent effect on the baby? Research has found that 1-month-old babies whose mothers were given epidural block during labor may have neurological test results that suggest possible minor brain damage. While this is a finding not yet completely confirmed scientifically, it is a possibility that is certainly worrisome and should be told to women offered epidural block. Epidural block carries another risk that is found in many of the interventions and technologies used during birth: the “cascade effect.”
This means that the use of one intervention leads to the use of another intervention, and the use of that intervention leads to the use of yet another intervention, and so on. If, for example, a woman is given a drug to start labor or to make labor proceed faster, this leads to more painful contractions. This in turn leads to the offer of pain relief, usually with epidural block, which, as we have seen, leads to an increased use of forceps or vacuum extraction, which leads to episiotomy or to cesarean section, which leads to fever in the mother, which leads to tests and treatments for the baby.”
“The present scientifically unjustified monopoly of maternity care by obstetricians in the United States is richly rewarding the obstetricians, and you can be sure they will fight to maintain the status quo, keeping out any competition such as midwives and out-of-hospital birth. This is why, as a consumer of maternity care, you must beware what you are told by doctors and hospitals and take full responsibility for ensuring you get the kind of pregnancy and birth experience best suited to your needs and no one else’s.”
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Jenny Hatch
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For details about this Unassisted Childbirth Support group, please go here!
Jenny Hatch
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It’s about time…
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Quote:
“Several Chinese health workers have reportedly been arrested or sacked over claims that they forced people to have abortions or sterilisations.
China’s state-owned media said the abuses had come to light in Linyi city in the eastern province of Shandong.
US magazine Time said last week that some 7,000 people had been sterilised against their will in Shandong.
Human rights groups often accuse China of forcing sterilisations and abortions – a charge Beijing denies.
China brought in a one-child policy 25 years ago in a drive to curb population growth.
Urban couples are offered strong incentives to have no more than one child, while rural families are allowed up to two.
However, the government does not authorise health workers to carry out forced sterilisation and abortions.
China is the world’s most populous country, with a population of more than 1.3 billion people.”
It will be a beautiful day in China when this disgusting policy is removed and families are once again FREE to welcome as many children into their homes as they want.
Jenny Hatch

~ Aromatherapy ~
Essential Oils Support for Mothers and Children
Tuesday September 27th, 2005
7PM-9PM
Cost $10.00
An evening of learning more about Essential Oils
with Jenny Hatch & Martha Oakes
This class is for those who would like to learn how to use Essential Oils in the home for Natural Home Health Care, and will be especially focused on the needs of childbearing women and small children. Martha has used the oils for nine years on her now three grown children, and her postpartum clients. After Jenny’s fourth birth she introduced her to the oils. Jenny has used the oils on her five children for the past nine years with great success and we will discuss and demonstrate simple hands on applications including:
How to do a quick emotional cleansing on a child
The most effective oils to have on hand for the busy mother
Oils for Labor and Delivery
Applications for Simple Spine Massage, Emotional Applications to the Ears, Vita Flex, and
Raindrop Therapy for Children and Parents
Jenny used the oils daily during her last Pregnancy in 2002 and has many stories to share on wellness and comfort supports for pregnancy and childbirth. Her number one tip – Di-Gize for the first trimester helps many, quickly, with early nausea!
Space is limited, so RSVP is requested
Jenny Hatch
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I’ve been doing some research on the Bird Flu after reading this article linked from Drudge:
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I skimmed through it and then read it again much more slowly, I felt like it was a topic worth blogging about. So did Hugh…
The telling lines from the article for me were these:
“As for the hospitals, there would be scenes like the ones this past month in the stadiums of New Orleans and Houston after Hurricane Katrina.
“There wouldn’t be equipment and personnel to staff them adequately that you could really call them a hospital,” Garrett predicts. “You might more or less call them warehouses for the ailing.”
And, as happened in New Orleans, there would be no place for the dead.
“If you look at the expected number of deaths that could occur in cities across the United States, we are wholly unprepared to process those bodies in a dignified and respectful way,” asserts Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. “We will run out of caskets literally within days.”
The prospects have become so bleak that in planning meetings held in New York City, veteran emergency responders have walked away.
“They just don’t know how we’re going to get through,” says Osterholm of those responders. “If we have a repeat of the 1918 life experience, I can’t imagine anything to be closer to a living hell than that experience of 12 to 24 months of pandemic influenza.”
For the six to eight million women in America who might give birth during a 24 month pandemic, I doubt many of them would be willing to go into a “warehouse for the ailing” in order to give birth.
Sisters, you have options! Please start reading now about how to give birth and breastfeed at home, and please start storing some food, water, and natural medicines in case the flu comes to your home.
I have written quite a bit on these topics, and some good places to start when researching are here, here, and here.
Jenny Hatch
UPDATE: September 18th
Info from the CDC:
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Quote
“What is the risk to humans from the H5N1 virus in Asia?
The H5N1 virus does not usually infect humans. In 1997, however, the first case of spread from a bird to a human was seen during an outbreak of bird flu in poultry in Hong Kong. The virus caused severe respiratory illness in 18 people, 6 of whom died. Since that time, there have been other cases of H5N1 infection among humans.
Most recently, human cases of H5N1 infection have occurred in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia during large H5N1 outbreaks in poultry. The death rate for these reported cases has been about 50 percent. Most of these cases occurred from contact with infected poultry or contaminated surfaces; however, it is thought that a few cases of human-to-human spread of H5N1 have occurred.
So far, spread of H5N1 virus from person to person has been rare and spread has not continued beyond one person. However, because all influenza viruses have the ability to change, scientists are concerned that the H5N1 virus could one day be able to infect humans and spread easily from one person to another.
Because these viruses do not commonly infect humans, there is little or no immune protection against them in the human population.
If the H5N1 virus were able to infect people and spread easily from person to person, an “influenza pandemic” (worldwide outbreak of disease) could begin. No one can predict when a pandemic might occur. However, experts from around the world are watching the H5N1 situation in Asia very closely and are preparing for the possibility that the virus may begin to spread more easily and widely from person to person.”
More sites to check out. Go Here and Here
For the record: Even if I was infected with this nasty flu, I would not use the vaccine or the anti-viral drugs the government is scrambling to purchase. I would confidently follow the steps outlined in my flu column, and use my essential oils, and keep our family quarantined at home and only leave my home if I was covered with Essential Oils.
A nice little legend gives me comfort. It is the story of the Thieves. Those spice merchants and purfumers who would bath themselves in the powerful anti-viral oils of Cinnamon and Clove and then would go out to rob the bodies of the dead from the european Plagues. They would bathe themselves after arriving at home and lived, even after being exposed to the disease from the corpses whose pockets they picked.
I have no intention of picking pockets, but if I need leave my home for any reason, I will bathe in the oils, and carry a face mask with the thieves oils infused into it to protect my airways. You can also purchase these powerful anti-viral oils. Go Here

THIEVES ESSENTIAL OIL BLEND
Ingredients: Clove (Syzygium aromaticum), lemon (Citrus limon), cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), Eucalyptus radiata and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis CT 1,8 cineol).
Thieves® was created based on research about four thieves in France who protected themselves with cloves, rosemary, and other aromatics while robbing plague victims. This proprietary blend was university tested and found to be highly effective in supporting the immune system and good health.
I will be teaching a class on Essential Oils next week here in my home in Boulder. For more information Go Here
I believe Liberals and Conservatives alike are setting themselves up for a Hurricane Katrina like blame game if and when this flu becomes a world wide phenomenon. Those who are writing about it in the Blogosphere are treating the Vaccines and Anti-Virals as the be all, end all. It is just residual thinking from the 20th century conspiracies of the Medical Profession, that the only way to treat illness is with toxic chemicals.
I can think of dozens of home remedies and treatments that can be used to strengthen the immune system, treat respiratory infections, and deal with this deadly flu that have nothing to do with Chemicals. Please take some time to learn for yourself the Natural Home remedies that you can use to help yourself.
Even if the government is able to get enough vaccine and anti-virals to help the people of America, who says you and your family are going to be able to purchase them? Or get them in time to help if someone is deathly ill in a matter of hours??? Or if your whole family is sickened at once, how do you know you will have the wherewithall to get out of your home and get the supposedly essential supplies???
Garlic Soup, Common sense prevention, Powerful Natural Medicine in the form of Essential Oils, and being willing to take personal responsibility will serve your family far better than getting in line for some governmental services that in the end may offer far too little, too late.
Please, take the time to get educated on the simple measures that can be taken NOW! Cold and Flu season is right around the corner!
PS Don’t let your kids go trick or treating….This one holiday that happens yearly on the eve of the Flu season sets most of America up for a complete immune system breakdown when all that candy is ingested quickly. Our family simply stays home and watches a movie on halloween night.
Jenny Hatch
UPDATE: September 20th
More articles on the Bird Flu:
Go Here
Quote:
“Word of caution
Some observers are urging caution amid growing discussion of “doomsday scenarios.”
Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation, writing in the Modesto Bee, acknowledged the virus is a serious disease for bird species capable of causing illness and death in humans.
But he noted the virus has not been detected in North America despite its presence in Asia since 1996.”
I always wonder if the Big Pharma companies who manufacture vaccine and anti virals are behind these types of chicken little “The sky is falling” articles etc… Especially since that WND article had an ad for Tamiflu right in the body of the article.
I can hear boardroom types snickering at the gullibility of the American People. But I was just reading this chapter in the Book of Mormon with my family, and I just thought, “well, even if this bird flu, or Sars, or Aids, or whatever is a source of toxin that makes many people ill, the bottom line is that we all should be doing things to strengthen our immune systems, and to be prepared should a pandemic suddenly come upon the world.
Jenny Hatch
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