UK hospital apologizes after woman gives birth on floor

[natty bumppo 297]

So ... did an illegal mop up the mess on the floor?

[Dr. Obvious 49]

Scary! what would have happened had there been complications?

Meh. Women have been giving birth for thousands of years in worse conditions than a hospital floor. I think sometimes we worry too much about this process.

And the infant death rate was 10% and maternal death rate 1% before modern medicine.

[maggieNomar 0]

Scary! what would have happened had there been complications?

Meh. Women have been giving birth for thousands of years in worse conditions than a hospital floor. I think sometimes we worry too much about this process.

While I do not agree with doctors handing out c-sections left and right like m&ms just to reduce their liability, the advances in medicine in this field have proven immensely beneficial to both mother and child. If you want a control sample, a friend of mine from college spent (I think it was 6?) months with an African tribe, the masaai, and told me that child mortality is so high that they do not name the children until they are 2 years old. Medical attention for the mother and new born has a lot to do with this difference.

If we are going to go by the "we've done without x for thousands of years and survived", we might as well do without antibiotics, anesthesia, asepsis....

I agree with everything you've said. My point is that we tend to treat child birth as a more risky process than it actually is. Yes complications do happen, and thank god we have the facilities, experts, and advances that we have. But 999 out of 1,000 times (made up statistic) things work out just fine. So while this particular incident was inexcusable, the woman most likely wasn't in any danger anyway. It's much different than if someone with a heart condition had been ignored, for example. (which also happens, unfortunately.)

Especially with women.