Your Top Science Stories This Week
| | As my belly grows, I'm more and more stressed by a decision that's weighed on me for the last eight months. Where should I birth my baby?
In the U.S., studies show that women planning to deliver at home have fewer medical interventions like induced labor or cesarean delivery, and their babies have a higher rate of death, seizure or other serious medical conditions.
Last summer, when I found out I was pregnant, I initially envisioned, like most American women, a hospital delivery. In fact, that's where 99 percent of U.S. children are born. That's not a surprise: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends hospitals or accredited birth centers as the safest option for having a baby.
In fact, infant mortality plummeted in the last century as hospital births became more common. In 1900, when almost all U.S. births took place at home, 100 babies died for every 1,000 born. By 1997, modern medicine had reduced that rate by a whopping 93 percent, to seven infant deaths out of every 1,000.
Today, only about one percent of babies are born at home each year. Yet to judge by my particular social group here in the Bay Area, you'd think home birth was by far the norm. Last year, six of my friends gave birth in their living rooms. Afterwards they shared powerful photos from the experience, of birthing tubs surrounded by candles. And they warned me that physicians and nurses in a hospital would push me to have medical treatments I might not want, such as drugs to speed my labor, an unnecessary C-section or pain meds.
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| | | Texas Tech climate modeler Katharine Hayhoe says people can now see 'the chickens coming home to roost' when it comes to climate change and extreme weather events. | | |
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| | | What do you do when your child tells you from the very start that they are not the gender you think they are? A mother takes us through the difficult emotional journey her family had to travel. | | |
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| | | The storms known as 'atmospheric rivers' can be highly beneficial to California's water supply. They can also be deadly. A new scale helps sort them out. | | |
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| Solar and wind companies have asked the federal government to protect their power deals with PG&E. | | |
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| Langly the otter was rescued after a shark killed her mother. While recovering, Langly bonded with a stranded young otter named Sprout. Last week both were released into Monterey Bay. | | |
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Copyright © February 8, 2019 KQED. All Rights Reserved. |
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