Why is childbirth still sometimes fatal for women, and what measures is modern medicine taking to reduce these risks?
In: Biology
A big part of it is that up until birth, the mother is delivering all the oxygen, food, and waste exchange the infant needs via blood contact with the placenta. It requires pushing an enormous amount of blood past the placenta every minute. When the child is born, the blood flow needs to stop and allow the placenta to leave the body without bleeding out. Sometimes it goes wrong, and the mother risks bleeding to death.
The changes in the blood circulation to support an infant can also cause high blood pressure, clots, diabetes, anemia, and other issues that risk the mother’s life. The exposure of the blood supply to outside bacteria via C-section, wounds, or incomplete removal of the placenta can lead to fatal infection.
The main successes of modern medicine have been better pre-natal monitoring to see if blood conditions are developing, better surgical/obstetric techniques to shut off bleeding as soon as possible, and better access to antibiotics. But none of those are perfect, tragically.
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