This study was designed to better understand how women in a developing region choose between the multiple options available to them for birthing. We conducted focused, open-ended ethnographic interviews with 38 nonindigenous, economically marginal women in Chiapas, Mexico. We found that although medical services for birthing were readily available to them, these women most often chose tradition...

to 50% of my homebirth clients and up to 10% of the birth center/hospital families ingested their placenta after delivery. There are approximately 20,000 live births per year in the Metro Portland area (Oregon Health Authority, 2011) and a 1.96% homebirth rate in Oregon (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). This implies that roughly 2,000 mothers per year consume their placenta in...

OBJECTIVES To quantify the extent of missing prenatal records at the time of patient presentation to a birth center, to document the age of the information in those records, and to discover how quickly missing records were retrieved. METHOD A survey form was completed over a three-month period for each patient presenting for care. RESULTS Prenatal records were unavailable 37% of the time at...

PURPOSE To describe the association between duration of breastfeeding and an illness requiring a visit to a health care provider within the past 30 days (IRHP) among infants </= 6 months. METHODS Participants were breastfeeding women who delivered at a birthing center in suburban Detroit, Michigan and women employed by a company in Omaha, Nebraska. Subjects were interviewed by telephone at 3,...

This study was performed with the objective of understanding the reasons why workers of a birthing center in southern Brazil use natural birth practices considered harmful by the World Health Organization. This exploratory study was performed in July 2009 through interviews with 23 workers. The analysis revealed three themes: Actions and behaviors dependent on health workers; Routine practices ...

The “home versus hospital” as places of birth debate has had a long and at times vicious history. From academic literature to media coverage, the two have often been pitted against each other not only as opposing physical spaces, but also as opposing ideologies of birth. The hospital has been heavily critiqued as a site of childbirth since the 1960s, with particular focus on childbirth and medi...

The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System is a confidential, statewide Internet reporting system to which all Pennsylvania hospitals, outpatient-surgery facilities, and birthing centers, as well as some abortion facilities, must file information on medical errors. Safety Monitor is a column from Pennsylvania's Patient Safety Authority, the authority that informs nurses on issues that can...

OBJECTIVES To trace the historical development of the Rankin Inlet Birthing Centre since its inception in 1993 in the context of plans to make it the nucleus of a system of community birthing centres throughout Nunavut. STUDY DESIGN This is an analytical historical study using a combination of oral history interviews, government documents and existing literature. METHODS Oral history interv...