Author: birthtopics

All too often our children’s potentials are decided at birth by avoidable birth trauma and injury. The goal of the ALLIANCE is to bring about a reduction of birth injury and trauma in newborns and their mothers through the sharing of scientific information and public information. Infant mortality in the U.S. is the highest of…

More and more women are becoming aware of the important advantages of breastfeeding to their babies and to themselves. Breastfeeding develops a special closeness between a mother and her baby that is beneficial to both. Your breast milk is the perfect food for your baby, ideally suited to his nutritional needs and bodily development. Breastfeeding…

By Estelle CohenEditors Note: The following article was written by an insightful mother who has worked tirelessly to call attention to the lack of scientific support for the use of the obstetric drugs and procedures commonly employed in hospital births, and their potential to adversely affect academic performance and human potential. In 1975, the College…

In the event of hospitalization, obtain and preserve a complete copy of your hospital medical records. If hospitalized for childbirth, also obtain and preserve a complete copy of your infant’s hospital and medical records, including nursing notes, lab reports, brand name of fetal monitor (long-term effects of ultrasound are unknown), any x-rays, fetal monitor strip…

Many states have laws which allow the patients to obtain a copy of their hospital/medical records. New York State’s Public Health Law 18: Access to Patient Records, which appears below provides for such access and could be used to see how your own state law measures up. New York State Law allows you, as a patient,…

A good childbirth experience should be happy and gratifying, as well as safe. You are much more likely to have a good experience if you establish early a good communication with your physician or midwife. Sometimes it is the expectant parents who must take the lead in establishing a rapport, but don’t let that hold…

Many pregnant women are not fully aware of their right of informed consent or of the obstetricians’ legal obligation to obtain their patient’s informed consent prior to treatment. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) first publicly acknowledged the physician’s legal obligation to obtain his or her pregnant patient’s informed consent in its 1974…

In December of 2000, decades after ultrasound was approved by the FDA for use in obstetric that Agency acknowledges that no one knows the delayed, long term effects of diagnostic levels of ultrasound on human development. Millions of women and their unborn children are being exposed to diagnostic ultrasound during pregnancy and childbirth without the…

Most women assume that the drugs offered them by their obstetricians during pregnancy, labor, birth and lactation have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as safe for use under those condition. The fact is, there is no maternally administered drug that has been proven safe for the fetus. Nor is there any…