#postpartum-complications

#postpartum-complications

"The idea of giving women a space to remember who they are - without trying to teach or fix them - is what resonates."

"[After] years of holding pain, you become really tight in yourself...you hold yourself tight and you don't want to take up space."

Since 1985, every time the U.S. elects a Republican president, global maternal mortality increases by about 10.5%, or about 44.7 additional deaths per 100,000 live births. This erodes roughly one-fifth of the average worldwide decline in maternal mortality achieved since 1985.

There is a piece of advice given to doctors in moments like this: Check your own pulse. Each person in the room has a role, and we perform it best with steady hands and measured voices.

Sofii Lewis described her experience, stating, "I knew I wasn't safe. But I didn't think I was out of control." This highlights the confusion many face with postpartum psychosis.

Pregnancy is the only condition where Florida courts have ruled that a patient can be forced to undergo unwanted treatment. Even a state prisoner on a hunger strike has more rights to make medical decisions.

While noting women 'were treated with kindness and compassion', a 'requires improvement' rating was given. Inspectors said hospital management 'did not always support staff well-being' and 'were not always visible within the service and were sometimes perceived as unsupportive'. Staff reported they were confident to report incidents, however, were not always assured action would be taken.

Fear of detention or deportation is leading many immigrants to avoid medical appointments, even when those visits are essential. This chilling effect is particularly acute among pregnant individuals, who may delay or forgo prenatal check‑ups out of concern that seeking care could expose them to immigration enforcement. The result is a growing public health crisis: expectant patients are left without consistent medical oversight, and communities face widening disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes.

When I took the assessment, shortly after leaving my partner, he scored an 8/10. If I had gone through with our pregnancy, he would have scored a 10. But we didn't have children because five years earlier, in a Chicago clinic, I'd had a medication abortion. At the time, the danger only registered as a faint sense of unease, nothing like the five-alarm fire my life would later become.

"I remember sitting in the ultrasound room," Mornhineway, 30, tells TODAY.com. "Our hearts dropped. They said there was nothing to be done. Most people terminate."

When I first found out I was pregnant, I did what most moms do-I started researching. I wanted to make the best possible choices for my baby and myself, and giving birth in a hospital just didn't feel like the safest option. So many women do it, but the more I learned, the more I realized that the reality of hospital birth in the U.S. is even less reassuring than I had thought. I wanted to birth at home.

We'd been working together for years to make my medication regimen-treatment for schizoaffective disorder-safe for potential pregnancy. Under her care, I was tapering off an antidepressant known to cause respiratory distress and hypertension in a newborn. I'd been experiencing wild mood swings, even suicidal thoughts. My beloved doctor's eyes were sad. "I'm saying no to a pregnancy, Meg." Even in the moment, I understood her priority as a physician was to keep me safe. Still, part of me hated her.

I just want to talk to whoever has romanticised the idea of being a new mom. When you're in a flurry of diaper changes, following a two-hourly pumping schedule and meticulously cleaning and mixing up bottles while running on less sleep than you've ever had, mommyhood ends up being more of a frenzied checklist of tasks to get done and not enough time snuggling and making babytalk with a babbling infant.

Anna af Ugglas, chief executive of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and one of the study's authors, said: Nearly 1 million missing midwives means health systems are stretched beyond capacity, midwives are overworked and underpaid, and care becomes rushed and fragmented. Intervention rates rise, and women are more likely to experience poor-quality care or mistreatment, she said. This is not only a workforce issue, it is a quality and safety issue for women and babies.

Hamilton makes it very clear that she and her fellow nurses are endlessly grateful for the gifts they have received from patients (like energy drinks, mints, donuts and hair ties). But at the same time, they don't expect them. And most importantly, the service they provide to their patients remains the same regardless of whether or not you give them a gift.