A Tale of Two Births: Differences in Prenatal Care

Of course the story hinges on this possibly polar comparison of prenatal care received in one area of the city v. that in another. But upbringing has come up far more than I expected it to.

My foray into Facebook guided me to a doula, a child birth educator, a midwife, a Pasadena public health official and a professor, among others.

For those who do not know what "doula" refers to (and I can tell you that until a few days ago, I counted myself among those ranks), it describes an individual who provides support to a woman during her pregnancy, labor or postpartum. Though often called a "helper," the doula is neither a doctor, nurse nor midwife. She does not assist the actual birth.

The doula supports the mother or soon-to-be-mother emotionally, psychologically, through physical therapy or through the giving of advice concerning preferable prenatal vitamins or exercise routines or those that would best ease the expecting process.

Thing is, those who can afford a doula likely face the best the prenatal care world has to offer. So the doulas may see fewer premature births. Those they do see tend to occur as a result of the fact that the pregnant woman are older, wealthier and have been given In vitro fertilization.

[It would be interesting to find how often the use of In vitro catalyzes premature birth and how often In vitro paired with higher age raises the risk for that premature birth.]

(More on background and the adverse effect of even distant childhood poverty on pregnant women to come in a few hours time)--