The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS,
a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA
The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS,
a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA
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The federal government now says it's OK for pregnant women and young children to be injected with mercury in the H1N1 vaccine. However, if there were more mercury-free vaccine available, they would recommend that pregnant women and young children get that instead. Don't be fooled! Thimerosal is a form of mercury! Autism rates dropping in California—is phase-out of thimerosal the reason? [from 2005] Current thinking is that only genetically vulnerable babies will be affected by the thimerosol . . . maybe even as low as 1 out of 200 or 0.5%. But if it's your child, it's 100%. Read this mother's story about her children's recovery from mercury-related autism. |
SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health 1999;89:506-510.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited
April 6, 1999
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- Women who have a fever during labor are much more likely to have a cesarean section, and epidural anesthesia tends to increase the risk of fever, according to a study by Harvard researchers.
The findings suggest that fever may be one reason why women who have an epidural are more likely to have a cesarean rather than vaginal delivery, according to a report published in the American Journal of Public Health, the journal of the American Public Health Association.
A vaginal delivery is generally considered to be preferable to a cesarean section due to a quicker recovery time and a lower risk of complications.
In the study of 1,233 low-risk women undergoing childbirth for the first time at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, 301 women (24%) developed a fever over 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
About 25% of women who developed a fever underwent a cesarean section or an assisted vaginal delivery compared with 7% to 8% of women who did not have a fever.
Nine out of 10 women with elevated temperatures had received epidural anesthesia, but not all women receiving epidural anesthesia developed fever. Of the 736 women in the study who had an epidural, 37% developed an elevated temperature, compared with about 6% of women who did not receive an epidural, report Dr. Ellice Lieberman and colleagues from Brigham and Women's and Harvard Medical School.
While a fever can be associated with an infection, the researchers found that only a few cases of elevated temperature in the study were due to infection.
Previous studies have linked epidural use to a higher rate of cesarean and assisted vaginal deliveries, but the reason for the link was unclear.
"Our data suggest that the temperature elevation that is associated
with epidural use may in part explain the higher rates of cesarean and
assisted vaginal delivery," the authors conclude. "Given the widespread
use of epidural analgesia, we believe that it is essential that further
study be conducted to determine whether treatment or prevention of fever
during labor represents a practical means of lowering rates of cesarean
delivery and operative vaginal delivery."
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