Word: fetal
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...four years since crack hit U.S. streets like hard rain, hospitals have experienced an epidemic of sick, undersized newborns. Crack affects the fetus by constricting the baby's blood vessels and restricting passage of nutrients and oxygen. Even one "hit" can cause fetal damage. At Oakland's Highland General Hospital, doctors say about 18% of some 2,400 births in 1988 were crack-afflicted babies...
Although many doctors have long advised women against having repeated C- sections, the high rate of surgical deliveries has continued for a number of reasons. Among them: advanced fetal monitoring, which is more sensitive to the signals of fetal distress; a trend toward larger babies, who are more difficult to deliver vaginally; and more requests from mothers exhausted by labor...
Another significant factor is that many doctors perform caesareans at the first signs of fetal distress to protect themselves from malpractice suits. Moreover, caesareans demand less time for physicians in the delivery room. "It's a lot easier for a doctor to schedule a woman for caesarean and come in at 8 in the morning and be done by 8:30," says Mortimer Rosen, director of obstetrics and gynecology at New York's Presbyterian Hospital...
...women who undergo repeat caesareans, and infants are at increased risk for respiratory problems and distress caused by anesthesia given to the mother. On balance, the benefits of vaginal deliveries after C-sections have long outweighed the advantages of surgical births. Says R. Harold Holbrook Jr., director of maternal-fetal medicine at the Stanford Medical Center: "It's been clearly proved that it's safe to have a natural birth after having a caesarean section...
Mosier's research bore some relevance to the discussions under way at the NIH meeting. While the Stanford work with fetal tissue appeared to be a powerful argument for continuing such experimentation, the La Jolla studies seemed, however unintentionally, to offer an alternative. Still, Daniel Koshland Jr., editor of Science, who admitted to releasing the Stanford results a week early in order to coincide with the NIH meeting, strongly backed the scientists' right to continue their research. Said Koshland: "This is an excellent example of careful, scientifically controlled use of fetal tissue to attack major human disease." Moreover, the fetal...