Reporter’s narrative illuminates little-researched birth defect
When Wisconsin State Journal reporter David Wahlberg investigated what appeared to be rural Wisconsin’s increase in gastroschisis, a rare birth defect in which the intestines grow outside of an infant’s body and must be replaced after delivery, the lack of institutional research, statistics or easy answers seemed to raise far more questions than it answered, particularly in relation to rural incidence and pesticide use.
Wahlberg’s solution to this roadblock is to dive headlong into the human component of the story. In a two-part narrative (Part 1, Part 2), he puts these larger questions on the back burner and instead follows a family, in real time, as they deliver an infant boy who had been diagnosed with the condition during an ultrasound. No amount of summary would do Wahlberg’s piece justice, so I encourage you to simply invest a few minutes and bury yourself in the details. You’ll exit with an understanding of the condition and the toll it takes that no amount of statistical analysis could match.
Calif. maternal death on rise, according to report
Filed under: Government, Hot Health Headline, Public health
Citing investigators who wrote a yet-to-be-released report, Nathanael Johnson of California Watch reports that the “mortality rate of California women who die from causes directly related to pregnancy has nearly tripled in the past decade.”
The state’s Department of Public Health has held the report without releasing it for the past seven months, according to Johnson.
In a Sentinel Event Alert sent to hospitals nationwide last month, the Joint Commission advised doctors to be aware of medical conditions that contribute to maternal death, including pre-pregnancy obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure. Johnson writes that the alert may signal that the problem is national.
The California report was presented to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 2007 - to gasps from the audience, Johnson reports.
The state of California has yet to share the report with the public. Researchers say that, after reviewing the report in 2008, officials in the Department of Public Health asked for technical clarifications. Revisions were complete and approved in the first half of 2009, according to [Shabbir Ahmad, the scientist in California’s Department of Public Health who organized the statewide review].
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