The statistic we keep hearing about babies in Australia is 6 a day don't survive. 6 a day... we are not a third world country.. we have the best of the best here so why is this happening? Why are babies still dying before they even get a chance.
6 a day...
In our great grandparents time it was a common occurrence for babies to be born sleeping or die in the first year of life.. but these days??
6 a day...
Adrian was listening to drive radio last week about home births and mothers rights. This topic gets me going especially the VBAC crazies out there (that's a story for another time). Callers including a few Dr's were talking about how rare it was for complications these days and how safe a home birth is. He felt compelled to tell our story and was given over 5 mins on air without interruption.
He talked of holding his warm limp daughter and being told his wife may not survive. (If was across the road from the hospital and not in it I would have died.) He also spoke of the 6 a day statistic and our OB's comment about it 'it is a statistic we don't want getting out there'. The announcer who almost lost a child 7 years before finished the call with 'well there is to say about that'.
6 a day...
I don't believe it is right that the Dr's want to hide it to 'protect women'. Of course I don't mean scare ever pregnant woman on the planet, but I would rather have known these were possibilites and not thought from week 12 it was all plain sailing. If I had known I would have asked more questions and yelled so I was listened to and Sophie would BE HERE WITH US... but we trusted and we lost, and Adrian was almost a Widow.
I just don't see the harm in talking about it, I want people to talk about it. I want families to have the knowledge to change that. Imagine if it was 2 a day and not 6!
We all talk about Breast Cancer openly but did you know 'statistically' each year almost the same number of Women lose the battle with Breast Cancer as babies are born sleeping.
I hope we can change that someday soon.
Yes, yes, yes and YES!! This is precisely what I have been banging on about for the best part of two years now. This post is perfect and should be pinned up in ante natal waiting rooms around the country.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have heard obs and midwives say similar things - that they don't talk about it because they don't want to scare women. One said to me "oh if we talked about that you'd all be coming in here at 39 weeks and demanding a c-section." I don't think that's the case, I think on the whole we're smarter than that, but even still, SO WHAT IF WE DID!? If this did get that stat down to three babies a day, even four or five that is still less than six. Each baby that dies leaves such a huge hole in the family. One baby dying is too many.
One baby was Hope. One baby was Sophie.
Two babies too many.
I hope we can continue to get this important message out there.
I hope together, some how, one day, we can make change.
xo