Pregnant Women and Newborns At Greatest Risk During Pandemic
Posted by Advocate Aaron on May 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment
The other day I postulated that our government is more concerned with the swine flu, which as of this writing has killed three people in the United States, than the prenatal care inaccessibility epidemic, which kills more than 6,000 babies in the United States each year. Pregnant women and their babies are continually left to fend for themselves when it comes to political policy.
And so it should come as no surprise that the groups at greatest risk for suffering the devastating effects of a pandemic are pregnant women and newborns (http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=4970). The irony is thick, indeed.
At least some of us are watching out for the sake of pregnant women and their babies; and our cause gained even more momentum this week when a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center study published in the Emerging Health Threats Journal (http://www.eht-forum.org/ehtj/journal/v2/full/ehtj09002a.html?fileId=ehtj09002a&page=recent) concluded that priority must be given to pregnant women and their babies in the event of a flu epidemic.
Still, it’s unsettling that our country’s most precious resources are drowning in the bottom as everyone else steps on their figurative heads to get closer to the top of the bucket. Only slightly less unsettling is that the UPMC study found that while 78% of responding maternity hospitals had written plans for handling a sudden influx of sick patients, fewer than 44% of those same hospitals had written plans for stockpiling and replenishing resources to care for those patients.
From the UPMC study Abstract: “In conclusion, the majority of the Council of Women’s and Infants’ Specialty Hospitals maternity hospitals have preliminary infrastructure for pandemic influenza planning, but many challenges exist to optimize maternal and fetal outcomes during the next influenza pandemic.”
In one respect, this is just another heaping helping of hurt piled on the collective plates of Moms in the Middle. On the other hand, the study brings to light inherent problems in the maternity medical infrastructure – and that’s the first step to developing solutions.
Let’s bring all the problems to light, so we can solve each and every one.
