We Should Be Better Than This

There is a great article written by, Lisa Girion in the L.A. Times about the maternity care in the U.S., my journalist daughter sent it to me.

If we really care first about the lives of mothers and their babies we need to do something about it. Yes, it would be really nice if Obama did something about this, he says we need to reform the health industry, and this would be a really good way to not only improve the lives of moms and babies, but also save money.

Once reserved for cases in which the life of the baby or mother was in danger, the cesarean is now routine. The most common operation in the U.S., it is performed in 31% of births, up from 4.5% in 1965.

With that surge has come an explosion in medical bills, an increase in complications -- and a reconsideration of the cesarean as a sometimes unnecessary risk.

It is a big reason childbirth often is held up in healthcare reform debates as an example of how the intensive and expensive U.S. brand of medicine has failed to deliver better results and may, in fact, be doing more harm than good.