(continued from Part III)
By Ina May Gaskin, CPM, MA
Originally published by Mothering, No. 147, 2008-03-04
The Safe Motherhood Quilt Project
About eight years ago, I began to feel powerfully impelled to follow the example of the AIDS Quilt in drawing attention to the issue of underreporting maternal deaths and lack of media interest in this problem. I began stitching on a quilt piece that grew into the Safe Motherhood Quilt Project. Whenever I get documentation about a US woman’s death from pregnancy-related causes between 1982 and the present, I arrange for a quilt block to be made in her honor. Sometimes a family member or friend creates the block, and sometimes it is made by one of the many who have contributed their efforts to the project.
The Quilt was first exhibited at the Summit for Safe Motherhood, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American College of Nurse-Midwives, in Atlanta, September 4-5, 2001. Since then, it has been shown at the Oakland Museum, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and many other sites in the US, as well as in Brazil, Iceland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Italy, Canada, England, Costa Rica, and Mexico.
I am sure that when enough US women are informed about the maternal death problem in our country, we can bring enough political pressure to bear on it to fix it. Only when we are able to equal the UK’s CEMD system for ascertaining and analyzing maternal deaths will we be able to find out the causes of preventable maternal deaths and then to set about preventing them.
Notes
1. John Golden, “Postnatal problem ruled to be cause of soldier’s death,” Watertown Daily Times, (8 March 2005).
2. Jim Staats, “San Anselmo rallies around family that lost young mother: Woman died just days after childbiirth,” Marin Independent Journal, (30 June 2007).
3. Personal communication (13 November 2007).
4. Why Mothers Die 2000-2002: The Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom. (London: RCOG Press, 2004).
5. Ibid.
6. Why Mothers Die 1997-1999: The Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom. (London: RCOG Press, 2001).
7. See Note 4.
8. Kevin Graham and David Murphy, “Death shocks fans, family,” St. Petersburg Times, (18 May 2007).
9. Marie McCullough, “Joined in birth, death,” Philadelphia Inquirer, (10 May 2007).
10. Personal communication with Maria Korfiatis-Barroso, (24 September 2007).
11. David Johnson and Teresa F. Rutledge, “Maternal mortality — United States, 1982-1996,” The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 47, no. 34 (1998): 705–707.
12. Timothy F. Kirn, “Maternal mortality rates grossly underestimated,” Ob/Gyn News (11 January 2000).
13. Ibid.
14. {no author given} “Pregnancy-related deaths: Moving in the wrong direction,” OBG Management (January 1998).
15. Cindy Obenstine, “Maternal mortality: No improvement since 1982,” ACOG Today (August 1999).
16. Jeffrey C. King and Cynthia J. Berg, “Maternal mortality: An unsolved problem,” Contemporary Ob/Gyn (September 1999).
17. Brian McCarthy, “US maternal death rates are on the rise,” The Lancet 348 (1996): 394.
18. Donna L. Hoyert, “Maternal mortality and related concepts,” Vital and Health Statistics, Series 3, Number 33, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Hyattsville, Maryland: February 2007.
19. Ibid.
20. C. Berg et al. eds., Strategies to Reduce Pregnancy-Related Deaths: from Identification and Review to Action (Atlanta, Georgia: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 2001).
21. C. Deneux-Tharaux et al., “Underreporting of pregnancy-related mortality in the United States and Europe,” Obstet Gynecol 106 (2005): 684–692.
22. See Note 20.
23. G. Lundberg. “Low-tech autopsies in the era of high-tech medicine: continued value for quality assurance and patient safety. JAMA, 1998;280:1273-1274.
24. C. Landefeld et al., “Diagnostic yield of the autopsy in a university hospital and a community hospital. New England Journal of Medicine, 1998;318:1249-1254.
25. Hani K. Atrash et al., “Maternal mortality in developed countries: not just a concern of the past, ” Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1995;86:700-705.
26. Personal communication. (24 July 2001).
27. Personal communication with George Ives. (26 August 2001).
28. See Note 20.
29. See Note 15.
30. Arialdi M. Miniño, et al. “Deaths: Final Data for 2004,” National Vital Statistics Reports, Centers for Disease Control, 21 August 2007.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. C. Abou Zahr, Maternal Mortality in 2000: Estimates Developed by WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA (Geneva, Switzerland: Department of Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization: 2004).
34. www.rememberthemothers.net
