Overhaul Maternity Care
Dear Editor,
The recent articles highlighting the state of health care got my attention. As a childbirth/parenting educator and birth/postpartum doula, I am acutely aware of the crucial need to look at what is happening (or not happening)Â in maternity care, not only in our state but in our country.
We spend more money on maternity care than any other country in the world, but are not even in the top 30 for maternal/infant mortality. (The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report that there has been no improvement in the maternal death rate in the United States since 1982 — despite ever increasing use of technology to “improve” outcomes. And, a New York Times article stated, “If the U.S. had an infant mortality rate as good as (impoverished and autocratic) Cuba’s, we would save an additional 2,212 American babies a year.”) Anyone looking at the research data knows there is something fundamentally wrong with the increasing medicalization of maternity care. It is not only costing money, but also costing lives.
Cesarean section is the most common major surgery performed in this country despite the fact that childbirth is a normal, healthy life event that only occasionally needs medical assistance. Hospital protocols implement procedures that have been shown to be ineffective, unnecessary and even harmful when used routinely. There is a known phenomenon called the Cascading Effect of Obstetrical Intervention that can negatively affect the course of labor and even the chance of successful breastfeeding. Most couples in labor are not fully informed as to the risks of these routine interventions, or even the fact that several medications have not been approved by the FDA for use in pregnancy or labor but, nontheless, are commonly used on our obstetrical units. So much for “informed” consent.
Dr. Don Creevy (retired OB-Gyn and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine) once said, ” … obstetrics should be both art and science … at least as typically practiced today, obstetrics cannot legitimately claim to be either.”
A medical overhaul is needed especially in the practice of maternity care. But, I’m afraid it will not happen unless women (health care “customers”)Â become informed and start demanding evidence-based, best-practice maternity care.
Jeanne Batacan
Vice President, Bay Area Birth Information
Fear of Reprisal and Apathy is Why Animal Shelter Services are Lacking
Dear Editor,
There are a few reasons for the lack of action to improve/replace our old, inadequate animal shelter, referenced in Kathleen Flynn’s Dec. 29 Morgan Hill Times letter to the editor. First, I totally agree with her about everything she said, and also with Evon Dumesnil’s letters. However, the chances of getting positive action appear to be slim to none because of apathy and fear.
The apathy rests with Supervisor Don Gage and Director of Agriculture Greg Van Wassenhove. To these individuals, the shelter is a pesky area of government services which is required and which they will provide at the most minimal level allowable.
The fear rests with the shelter employees (with good reason), and with FOSMAS itself. The reason the county shelter staff will not and cannot work with the community for the betterment of conditions for the animals is that they face the possibility of losing their jobs. Since Mr. Van Wassenhove oversees the shelter, one does not disagree with him. The last person who did is no longer the shelter program manager.
FOSMAS is another matter. In 2005, the Board of Supervisors, with Mr. Van Wassenhove’s approval, voted to close the shelter an additional day to “save money.” An effort led by Ms. Dumesnil with some help from other FOSMAS members, community involvement, a Dispatch editorial, and testimony before the Board from the Animal Advisory Commission, resulted in the Board rescinding that action.
After the success of this effort, we were strongly told by certain FOSMAS Board members that the FOSMAS mission does not include any political activism or “confrontational” actions. We were made to understand that our involvement was not welcome.
The fact that the shelter manager and FOSMAS ignored your invitation to bring a quantity of homeless animals to your large indoor pet fair is sad and incomprehensible. FOSMAS is quite content to have their monthly “pet fairs” at the local pet stores where they bring a few cats for possible adoption. I guess this qualifies as apolitical and non-confrontational.
Elaine Jelsema, Gilroy
Koran Logic Should Be Tossed With Bogus ‘Separation Doctrine’
Dear Editor,
After reading Lisa Pampuch’s column entitled “Separation of Church and State Protects the Most Religious,” I was reminded of the late Justice William Rehnquist’s statement that “The wall of separation between church and state is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned.”
Bill Van Workum, Mission Viejo
Letter Was ‘Irrational, Paranoid, Hate-Filled Rant’
Dear Editor,
I was getting ready to prepare a rational response in rebuttal to the irrational, paranoid, hate-filled rant from Dave Kaeini of Gilroy which befouled the Morgan Hill Times editorial pages on Tuesday, until I realized that I was, in fact, about to respond to an irrational, paranoid, hate-filled rant.
So instead I would like to suggest to Mr. Kaeini that he put the aluminum-foil lining back in his hat and seriously consider adjusting his dosage. Soon.
Steve Harkness, Morgan Hill
