According to current Russian law, women can ask for an elective abortion up until 12 weeks of pregnancy. Between 12 and 22 weeks, an abortion can only be made on the basis of medical or so called “social” indications laid out by the government. Over the years, the government has dramatically decreased the number of reasons that […]
Tag: obstetrics
Kate Chapman: Is it time to see sense about C-sections?
The UK’s caesarean section rates have risen massively, almost doubling in the past 20 years, so it was with interest that I heard the news that 4 PCT’s in southern England are to stop paying for caesarean sections above the national average rate of 23%. Each caesarean section costs £800 more than a vaginal birth, […]
Sarah Welsh: Giving birth in art
Why is the subject of birth rarely engaged with in contemporary art? This is what Birth Rite’s collection “Birth in Contemporary Art,” questioned at a symposium on 11 June. Held at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, the event also took place in Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery on 9 June. In today’s free thinking art world, there […]
Vasiliy Vlassov: The weekly rhythm of deliveries in Russia
Studies of biological rhythms used to be very popular. A quick check on Medline showed me that in 1964-1973, 2/10 000 publications were related to biorhythm studies and in 2001-2010 there were more – 8/10 000. The spectrum of publications is slowly changing in the collection reflected in Medline, but the number of studies of […]
Louise Kenny: Flying solo
After the blow to my confidence last week with obstetrics patients, I have developed a healthy fear of the uterus and have understandably been reluctant to see ante-natal, labouring, or post-natal patients. Any organ that bleeds 500ml a minute is a thing to be feared in my book. Of course the problem with my reluctance […]
Louise Kenny’s longest night
Before I arrived here, I was concerned about quite how bad my first on-call could be given the new environment, the language, and the vastly different presentations that I could see. I’d done my homework, I knew that Guatemala ranked highly in both maternal and infant mortality rates, but I’m not sure I’d taken the […]