Birth Centers and the Increased Risk of Adverse Neonatal Outcomes

Birth centers, despite rising in popularity, show higher neonatal death rates, especially for first-time and post-41-week pregnancies, raising safety concerns

SANTA BARBARA , CA, UNITED STATES, December 16, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- “Birth Centers are popping up all over the place … despite the data on adverse neonatal outcomes. This is simply better marketing the benefits of comfort and personal service of a birth center over safety provided by a hospital for the inevitable difficult delivery,” states Greg Vigna, MD, JD, national birth injury attorney.

What does the literature say about neonatal outcomes at birth centers?

"1) Outcomes were compared between the following 3 groups: births in freestanding birth centers, in-hospital births by a physician, and in-hospital births by a midwife
2) Births in freestanding birth centers had a 4-fold increase in neonatal deaths
3) A more than 7-fold increase in neonatal deaths for nulliparous patients
4) Nearly 6-fold increase in neonatal deaths for pregnancies at 41 weeks gestation"

Read “Neonatal outcomes of births in freestanding birth centers and hospitals in the United States, 2016-1019”, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. January 2022: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34217722/

Dr. Greg Vigna, MD, JD, national birth injury lawyer, states, “Birth centers are popping up everywhere by effective marketing of the personal service they offer as it relates to the childbirth experience. All that sounds good until the inevitable difficult delivery occurs and the fetal monitors are no longer reassuring.”

Dr. Vigna continues, “Birth Centers are a huge step back in time to when family physicians were delivering babies in patient homes or rural community hospitals that they served with little medical backup. What we had then is what we have now, another baby with cerebral palsy.”

Dr. Vigna concludes, “Only one in four free-standing birth centers are accredited by the Accreditation of Birth Centers. That is a huge red flag for birth centers, which appear to be a dangerous profit center taking advantage of the inadequacies of hospitals that relate to patient experience.”

Click here to read Dr. Vigna’s book, ‘The Mother’s Guide to Birth Injury’.

Dr. Vigna is a California and Washington DC lawyer focusing on neurological injuries caused by medical negligence. He is a Board Certified Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation specialist and a Life Care Planner. Ben Martin Law Group is a national pharmaceutical injury law firm and birth injury lawyer in Dallas, Texas. The attorneys are product liability and medical malpractice attorneys, and they represent neurological injuries across the country.

Click here to learn more: https://vignalawgroup.com/practice-areas/birth-injuries/

Greg Vigna, MD, JD
Vigna Law Group
+1 8178099023
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