Do you think before that the first world countries like the United Kingdom, which may have by far the most advance medical technologies, are struggling to the problem in particular the birthrate? The recent report in 2012 reveals the unexpected high birth rate of dead babies in Britain, while this cause is yet to be answered.
Why stillbirth remains a mystery (2012) reports the tragic event of the British singer, songwriter and the former member of Take That, Gary Barlow that he has just got lost his forth child on last Saturday due to stillbirth. It adds that among the rich nations Britain have a higher number of dead born babies or around 4,000 per year, or 11 per day, whereas the stillbirth rate of France and Austria, are the worst ones.
According to Anna-Marie Lever, the writer of this article reports exactly cause of this phenomenon is myth, because there is no scientific proof yet. To my mind, it should not be like this way, because I can’t believe the great developed country, the UK is confronting with the high stillbirth rate problems. I agree with some assumptions that smoking, drinking alcohol and obesity can give rise to the stillborn risk. My English friend told such British people have a lot of alcohol and smoking, especially in women. Conversely, many other European people might have the same amount of consuming alcohol as well as smoking. But the high number of babies’ born dead has been happened in a few European countries only.
Moreover, I also disagree about previous caesarean sections might lead to more risk, because this method is widely adopted and popular around the world, including in Thailand. I suppose there could be because of the UK health system problem such as the shortage of medical staffs, nurses and physicians. That’s way many pregnant women in Britain might not have enough health checking before delivering birth. My Philippine friend has settled down in England around 6 years as a nurse said her career is in high demand. Therefore, now a large number of Asian nurses, in particular from Philippine working in the UK. In addition, the hospital system there is quite complicate. People can see a doctor soon just in case of emergency, unless they have made an appointment to the hospital in advance. If ones have never registered to the local hospital, they cannot meet a doctor anyway.
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References
Why stillbirth remains a mystery. (2012, July 7). BBC News. Retrieved August 7, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19163712
The stillbirth is a pain interesting subject. I do not agree with you, I think it is normal any country, also the high income countries to have problems without solutions. That is life and humans, we always have problems to resolve, and the way we progress is to confront the problem and to try to have a solution for it. The develop countries has many problems to resolve.
ReplyDeleteI read the BBC article and apparently the problem is also a taboo problem. Maybe now with the fourth child of Gary Barlow and his wife Dawn delivered stillborn the people and the rich people are going to be sensitive to give money for stillbirth research, and not to consider like a Taboo. I think it is an opportunity for the science to have money for this kind of research because some of the money for research comes from private persons or companies and in time of crisis, like now in Europe, it is a good way to have money for this research.
By the way, does the health system in Thailand is cheaper for all? Does every body can afford to pay doctors and medicines? But the salaries are lower than in Europe; I just learn $1 000 US dollar per month is a high salary in Thailand, and in many countries in Europe you can not leave with that.
It is certainly a very sad event for people who had been looking forward to becoming parents.
ReplyDeleteI was actually interested in Tom's comment about whether previous caesarean sections increased the risk, so I checked the source. Lever reports that as a fact, but Tom disagrees and gives a supporting reason. How do we decide which idea is right?
How does the UK rate compare with the rate for still births in Thailand?
I would certainly agree with Tom that this is yet another example of the harm that dangerous addictive drugs like alcohol and tobacco cause to society and families, but I'm not sure that these drugs are used more in teh UK than they are in Thailand, France or Austria.
ReplyDeleteI haven't checked, so, I'm not sure about this. But I would be surprised if there was any great difference in alcohol use, and I'm sure that Thai people smoke more than the British. But if someone does the research and refers us to some reliable statistics, I will certainly update my belief if it's wrong.
I agree that my topic is pretty sad. I think this issue can't be study very easy because it's about human study. Unfortunately, I havn't heard about the stillbirth rate in Thailand, but there should be, because I believe many women don't want to deliver a born dead baby. I'm not sure about caesarean risky, but I certain that this way of giving birth is a common way of people in Thailand.
ReplyDeleteA lot of pragnancy women give birth in this way. To my mind, giving birth in a natural way may be the best method. I disagree partly with the idea of Christina that medical costs in Thailand may not cheap. In general, medical costs is much cheaper than in many countries especially in Europe. It's true that medical costs especially in private hospital is much more expensive than government hospitals.
One of my friend who lived in UK before told me that during her study, she had to fly back Thailand because the dentist treatment costs for removing her tooth is extremely expensive.
I just search some supporting about smoking prevalence in Thailand and UK. Like Tom's thought, from table of WHO report on The Global Tobacco Epidermic Thai people have less smoking than English people especially in women.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't disagree with Tom's idea that primary cesarean section might not lead to more risk and this is popular way to delivery in Thailand.
In fact, cesarean section is not common way to delivery if pregnancy did not have underlining condition or disease like elder, Diabetics or HIV. But now they have choose this because it's easy to make an appointment to giving birth. In Thailand, it's only 34% of pregnancy selecting this way; this is including who have complication. For me, I think popular way to delivery is epidural nerve block, which Thai people called Block-Rung,- that is delivery without pain.
Reference
- WHO report on The Global Tobacco Epidermic : http://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/mpower_report_prevalence_data_2008.pdf
- Birth in Thailand : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_in_Thailand#Caesarean_Section
Mo,
DeleteThank you for the useful link to some solid statistics. I must admit that I was surprised how wrong my belief about the smoking rate in Thailand was. The statistics you've cited clearly show that although Thai men smoke more than British men, the rate for Thai women is much lower than that of British women. Another excellent that "I think" is a poor supporting reason for any matter of fact about the way the world is: you need solid facts or statistics. This time my thinking was wrong.
I've also done a little research, to answer my own question: the stillbirth rate for Thailand is, like most of South East Asia, higher than the UK rate. For 2009, the stillbirth for Thailand was 4.4/1,000 compared to the UK's 3.5/1,000. Interestingly, though perhaps not surprising, Singapore shares the lowest rate in the world.
Reference
World Health Organization. (2012). Estimated Stillbirth Rates and Numbers for 2009 and 1995 [Excel table]. Available for download from http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/maternal_perinatal/stillbirth/en/index.html
I was also surprised at the large difference between the smoking rates for males compared with females in Thailand. In the UK, both sexes smoke about equally, and at a rate that also surprised me.
DeleteFor me, I wasn't surprised about the quite difference between the smoking prevalence for males and females in Thailand. Because now women didn't look good or kool when they smoked anymore that is attitude for new generation women. Moreover, many research said that if women smoked, it would lead them to have wrinkle easily, darker lips and look elder.
ReplyDeleteSo why have women to smoke for that reason?
Mo,
DeleteWhen I thought about it a bit more, your explanation of the statistics that surprised me sounds right.
It also suggests to me solutions to other drug problems that might be both more effective and more just than the current failures. Social acceptability and looking good both seem to me to be powerful motivating forces affecting behaviour: if these work for tobacco, aren't they worth trying for other popular recreational drugs of addiction?
In using drug prevalence, surely it will be higher rate for men more than women in Thailand again. I think that men have addicted to drug, alcohol and tobacco easily than women. Because risk, like trying out drug, is showing off their masculine. If any man deny this, his friend will tease him and be called weakness and so on. This is very hard to change this bad attitude like this.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago, I heard the campaign,JUST SAY NO(for drug and any bad thing), even it failed. But for me, this was very good one for the beginning to change social acceptability in good way. I agree with your idea. This is good solution by changing their value and mindfulness more than making drug illegal or legal, isn't it?