Many years ago, I used to be a childbirth educator, and apprenticed as a lay midwife. I attended a couple of dozen births, and delivered one all by myself.
After all these years, this story made me cry. Preeclampsia is not a bolt from the blue. We’ve known for the past century it’s related to inadequate blood volume and nutrition (back when I trained, the research of Dr. Tom Brewer in Chapel Hill showed it to be the result of calorie, salt, and protein deficiency). Some research indicates strenuous exercise as a factor.
And yet, doctors persist in saying it can’t be predicted. As soon as I read this woman’s symptoms, I knew right away what it was. Why didn’t her doctors?
ProPublica Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment Donate Bryan Anselm for ProPublica The Last Person You’d Expect to Die in Childbirth The U.S. has the worst rate of maternal deaths in the developed world, and 60 percent are preventable. The death of Lauren Bloomstein, a neonatal nurse, in the hospital where she worked illustrates a…
