The State of Birth Around the World

This is by no means a complete list. These are just some of the issues brought up in recent news feeds.

Japan. The current situation is that a low birth rate is driving many obstetricians out of business, leaving many women without needed health care. Maternity wards are closing. This is a sad dilemma. Japanese women have a low fertility rate, which means their needs for obstetrical care are limited. They are also having children later in life, raising the risks for a complicated birth, which has historically produced more lawsuits. Not many obstetricians are willing to work long hours in a highly-litigious career for average pay, and who can blame them?

Asia. The mortality rate for babies is dismal in southeast Asia, where fully one third of all neonatal deaths (that's death occurring within 28 days of birth) occur. "South Asia has the highest rates of newborn deaths in the world, next to Africa. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, for example, up to six percent of infants die in their first month." Probably the most helpful thing for these areas would be government emphasis on and funding for better health care systems.

India. Here, "a woman dies in childbirth every five minutes." From the UNICEF website: "The reasons for this high mortality are that few women have access to skilled birth attendants and fewer still to quality emergency obstetric care." Infant mortality is as high as 63 per 1000 births (for comparison, in the US, infant mortality is about 7 in 1000).

Scandinavian countries. Sweden and Denmark are the top two countries for maternal and infant health. More on Swedish maternity leave policies here.

Poland. With the high cost of health care in Poland, many pregnant women have been giving birth in border clinics in Germany, citing better health care. And, by the way, under the EU agreement, Germany pays for it. But not anymore.

Ireland. The cesarean rate has climbed drastically over the past 10 years, from 7.5% of c-sections being elective, to 45% last year.