As societies evolve (or perhaps we should say they involve) and people work harder, eat worse, have a higher level of stress and live faster, premature birth rates increase. A premature baby has many more health risks than a full-term baby and science keeps looking for answers or methods that help lower those rates.
A recent study has just determined something that we could hardly believe, and it is that, in addition to the factors mentioned, it has been seen that when the pregnancy is followed by a midwife and when the delivery is also attended by them the risk of preterm birth is less than when an obstetrician does the control.
Data about the study
The study is a systematic review of more than a dozen studies with a total sample of more than 16,000 women, conducted by Cochrane. The researchers analyzed the data of all of them and compared the results of models of care for pregnancy in countries where the obstetrician has the maximum responsibility with models in which the singing voice is carried by the midwife and they saw that, in addition to decreasing the probability of premature delivery births are less instrumental, by decreasing the use of epidural anesthesia, episiotomies and forceps or suction cup. In addition, it was found that the risk of losing pregnancy in the first six months of pregnancy was much lower.
Less intervened births
To see it in data, pregnant women who were treated by midwives have 23% less risk of preterm birth and 19% less risk of losing the baby before 24 weeks gestation. As of week 24, the risk of fetal death is the same in both groups.
The number of births by caesarean section is practically the same, contrary to what one might think, and the labor of women with midwives is 30 minutes longer, probably because they have a less interventionist care model and leave more time for Childbirth is evolving.
If you are wondering what is the reason for all this, how can it be that the monitoring of pregnancy by a midwife can influence the type of delivery you are going to have, tell you that the answer seems to be in the confidence of mothers in their possibilities and in the process. Obstetricians tend to control pregnancy and childbirth more and, in a way, take a little responsibility for everything to go well. The midwives, on the other hand, cede the prominence to the mother and, from the beginning, try to give her tools and help so that she is responsible for her pregnancy and childbirth and she is the one who is able to do everything , with help if necessary, of course, but she alone who gives birth in the end.
In addition, when the care of the pregnancy was in charge of the midwife, between 63 and 98% of the women knew the person who attended the day of delivery, while in the rest of the models this only happened in the 0 -21% of births. Obviously, it is not the same to go to give birth and find professionals you already know and trust who go to give birth and meet unknown people.
But, risk pregnancies are missing
In most of the studies reviewed, the authors excluded women with high-risk pregnancies or addictions, in addition to all deliveries attended by non-professional or traditional "midwives" (between quotes because if they are not professionals, they are not midwives), births at home or those that occurred in poor countries.
This means that, if these deliveries were included, the results could be different (or not), and that the conclusions obtained should be limited to normal pregnancies, those that pass without complications, which on the other hand are the majority.
Here in Spain I do not know what model prevails, because the pregnancies of my children were controlled by both midwives and obstetricians (every month one visited us), and when we go to give birth we always find unknown professionals. Now, the second and third births, being the second premature, were treated entirely by midwives, since, at least in the hospital we went to, they only notify the obstetrician in case the delivery is complicated.
