Pregnant Women and Newborns At Greatest Risk During Pandemic

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.

Women And Children First?

“Women and children first!” That’s the stereotypical cry from the chivalrous men of literature and the silver screen. When the ship is sinking, you save the most vulnerable first. Unfortunately, this ideology seems to matter primarily in the annals of fiction – in the real world, the practice of saving the most vulnerable first is rarely implemented. Especially evident in today’s economic climate, women and children are being allowed to drown, while the captains of their fate continue to prosper. No, America does not save women and children first, and captains do not go down with their ships.

When financial institutions are facing hardships due to the decisions the companies have made in the last decade or so, the government gives them hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. The captains of these industries then enjoy spa treatments and end-of-year bonuses presumably footed by hard-working Americans, while the citizens they employ are laid off, their positions are terminated, or pay and benefit cuts are sweeping.

And women and their children feel it the most. Take a look at this report from the National Women’s Law Center: http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/WomenEconomicRecoveryJuly2008.pdf. It details how women are in need of targeted assistance, especially during recessionary times, because they’re often the first to be tossed overboard. And because women are often the primary caregivers for American’s children, the youth of America is likewise cast aside.

Some facts from the report:

Women earn 23% less than men
Women are 40% more likely to live in poverty than men, and one in every eight American women is poor
Women are 10% less likely to receive unemployment benefits after losing a job
Women are 30 to 40% more likely to have subprime mortgage loans, despite comparable credit scores to men

These factors, combined with a lower average compensation, make it more difficult for women to maintain and care for their families and households. Single women with children face the toughest times of all, especially when state legislatures are considering slashing Medicaid budgets (four out of every ten single mothers receives Medicaid assistance).

America, the ship is sinking and women and children are drowning. Our captains, those who have steered us in this direction, are not subject to the consequences of a sinking ship. Instead, the American people are struggling to keep the ship afloat, bucket by bucket, and their collective efforts ensure the livelihood of their captains – who no longer have fear of financial ruin because public funds are readily available to assist them.

Do the heads of industries need assistance more than the heads of households? Of course not. Our women and children need assistance now more than ever, yet these are the last to be attended to. Greed and corruption are in abundance, while millions of women and children nationwide suffer as martyrs for their cause.

Advocate Aaron Rocks