If ultrasound destroys sperm, why is it safe for a fetus?

If ultrasound destroys sperm, why is it safe for a fetus?

Facts VS Bias: An Analysis of the Wax Study

** sigh **

I have to completely re-write and re-compile all the information from a "Note" I posted on my HBMS FaceBook page, because FB "decided" that the content of my note "violated [their] Terms of Use." GRRrrrrr...
.

The note itself contained nothing "hateful, threatening, or obscene," nor did it "attack an individual or group, or advertise a product or service."

Thus, I must conclude that the photo, included with the note, of naked new mother holding her newly born baby was the material considered "obscene" by FB or was reported by someone who viewed my note. This is the photo that I attached to my FB Note. Obscene, isn't it?


Well, any whooooo.... on with my "Facts VS Bias: An Analysis of the Wax Study" note...

I was recently asked by a new client about the Wax Study, "Maternal and newborn outcomes in planned home birth vs planned hospital births: a metaanalysis." Am J Obstet Gynecol, 2010; 203(3) DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2010.05.028, which concludes that babies born at home have a mortality rate THREE TIMES HIGHER than babies born in hospital.

Their conclusion is controversial because many large and rigorous studies have concluded that homebirth and hospital birth have essentially the same safety for mother and baby. Some recent studies, including one from British Columbia, Canada, reported that planned homebirths actually have better outcomes for the mother compared to planned hospital births.

The study originally intended for print publication in the September 2010 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG), was published online on July 1.  Researchers and critics suspect that the early release was politically motivated to discredit midwives who attend the majority of home births in the U.S. and to discourage legislators from passing increasingly pro-midwife state legislation such as New York State's Midwifery Modernization Act (Bill S5007a/A8117b), which passed on June 28 with overwhelming bipartisan support, providing autonomous practice for all licensed midwives working in all settings.

The Coalition for Improving in Maternity Services ~ CIMS' advisor, Dr. Michael C. Klein, a senior scientist at the Child and Family Research Institute in Vancouver and emeritus professor of family practice and pediatrics at the University of British Columbia believes this is "an unabashed attempt to have poor science cover-unsuccessfully-a political agenda.  I am very surprised that the [Journal] would publish it, let alone call it 'Editors Choice'."

So, how does one know WHAT to believe with regard to research, studies, meta-analysis, etc? How does one wade through the myriad of information available on the web to discover the FACTS and uncover BIAS, and political agendas?

Well, in THIS case, it is little 'ole ME to the rescue to help my clients and others interested in understanding quality research related to the safety of home birth. Thus, we begin with an exploration of much of the discussion surrounding this meta-analysis known as the Wax Study...

• Midwifery Today Responds to Study Questioning Homebirth Safety 
• U.S. analysis on home birth risks seen as deeply flawed
• New AJOG Home Birth Study Political?
• When Research is Flawed: The Safety of Home Birth
• ACNM Expresses Concerns Regarding Recent AJOG Publication on Home Birth
• Hospital: Home births riskier - Some midwives criticize the international study by doctors at Maine Medical Center as biased
• NHS Choices: Safety of home birth questioned
• NACPM press release in response to the Wax et al article
• Home birth should be considered a sage option for pregnant women
• MANA press release in response to the Wax article
• Meta-analysis: the wrong tool (wielded improperly)
• 'Garbage in - garbage out'? Assessment of the quality of primary studies in meta-analyses published in leading journals.
• Planned home birth and neonatal death: Who do we believe?
• Safety of planned home births: Findings of meta-analysis cannot be relied on
• The Birth Activist Blog: Sorry Guys, Home Birth is STILL Safe
• PushNews: OB/GYN Journal Fast Tracks Anti-Home Birth Study in Advance of Pro-Midwife Legislation ~ International Expert Calls Study Deeply Flawed and Politically Motivated
• U.S. home birth risk review 'political'
• Milbank Report: Evidence-Based Maternity Care
• Stand and Deliver Blog: Dutch home birth study
• “Being Safe”: Making the Decision to Have a Planned Home Birth
• Shake it up: Why we need research and activism to change maternity care
• Home Birth Study Reveals Bias, Politics?
• Where's The Birth Plan? 
• Childbirth Connection: Transforming Maternity Care: Blueprint for Action: Steps Toward a High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care System 
• Medscape: Home Birth Study Findings Raise Controversy
• Bring Birth Home Blog ~ Recent Study by AJOG may be 'Deeply Flawed'
• Mothering Magazine: Faulty Reporting on a Flawed Study on Home Birth
• Birth Sense Blog: Tripled risk of newborn death at home birth?
• RCOG statement on ‘Maternal and newborn outcomes in planned home births vs planned hospital births: a metaanalysis’

OK... So, now let us look at the research, articles, discussion and blogs regarding the Safety of Home Birth:

• Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives:
  large prospective study in North America.
• Outcomes of planned home birth with registered midwife versus planned hospital birth with midwife or physician.
• A qualitative study of women's experiences of home birth in Sweden.
• CDC Report: Trends and Characteristics of Home and Other Out-of-Hospital Births in the United States, 1990–2006
• Midwifery Today: Why Home Birth?
• Birth Wars: Who's really winning the home birth debate? 
• Childbirth Connection: Best Evidence for Choosing a Place of Birth
• Home Birth: The Wave of the Future?
• Meta-analysis of the safety of home birth
• [Outcomes after planned home births]
• Physician Supports Home Birth
• ACNM Position on Home Birth
• Perinatal mortality and morbidity in a nationwide cohort of 529 688 low-risk planned home and hospital births
• Place of birth and satisfaction with childbirth in Belgium and the Netherlands.
• Home Birth: Safely Protecting and Supporting Normal Birth
• Outcomes associated with planned home and planned hospital births in low-risk women attended by midwives in Ontario, Canada, 2003-2006: a retrospective cohort study
• Outcomes of planned home birth: an integrative review.
• MedScape: Staying Home to Give Birth: Why Women in the United States Choose Home Birth
• Outcomes of 11,788 planned home births attended by certified nurse-midwives. A retrospective descriptive study.
• Listening to Mothers II: Report of the Second National U.S. Survey of Women’s Childbearing Experiences
• CIMS: The Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative
• Home Birth: good outcomes and few interventions
• Stand and Delivery Blog: What Explains Physicians Beliefs About Home Birth
• Midwifery Today: Home Birth in the UK
• MANA, President's Letter: Doctors Ignore Evidence, AMA Seeks to Deny Women Choices in Childbirth 
• The experience of planned home birth: views of the first 500 women.
• Citizens for Midwifery: Midwifery and the Constitution
• Home Births: RCOG and Royal College of Midwives Joint Statement No.2  & Home Birth

So... I will leave the rants and raves to the scientists, researchers, writers and other Blogsters.
I have compiled quite a bit of reading material here for those interested in learning.

What I KNOW is that home birth is SAFE. Home birth is made SAFER with one-on-one midwifery care and a skilled attendant at the birth. Safer still when a second attendant is present to assist the first.

Home birthing families do not choose home birth because it is "trendy" or "cool" or because some celebrity says they should. Women and their partners choose home birth because its their BEST CHOICE. It speaks to their sensibility, to their hearts, to their intellect, to their joy, to their minds, to their partnership, to their peace, to their spirituality, to their togetherness, to their concerns, to their interests, etc... etc... etc...

Home Birth is SAFE... otherwise I, a home birth midwife of 17 years, WOULD NOT/COULD NOT do this work. It is my calling, my job, my joy, my heart, my hands, my mind, my spirit, my responsibility, my promise, to protect mother's and baby's safe passage. Within that promise is the understanding that I am only the hand-servant through which health and life passes. I am not in control, as much as I might have thought I was in my early career, I have learned life & death's lessons, bitter-sweet and beautiful. I, too, surrender to the power of birth.

Home Birth is NOT for everyone. But for those who choose to give birth with midwives at home, let not your hearts be troubled by the controversy of biased agendas. It has and always will be YOUR RIGHT, YOUR CHOICE where and with whom to give birth.

The effective labour contraction ~ Midwife Thinking's Blog

Such a GREAT post about labor contractions.... I have to share with my Blog Followers!

The effective labour contraction ~ Midwife Thinking's Blog