Final Exam Flashcards
Umbilical cord
The cord that joins the fetus to the placenta, providing nutrients and enabling wastes to be eliminated
Urination
The act of urinating, or expelling urine
Uterine Rupture
A pathological condition describing a complete tear of the uterine wall. If a woman has had a previous c-section, there is a risk that the uterine can rupture during a subsequent labor, especially if medication is used to stimulate stronger contractions if the woman has an induction of labor
Uterus
The bag of muscles where the fetus develops. Also called the womb.
Vaginal Examination
A digital (with fingers) examination to assess cervical dilatation, length and position
Vertex presentation
A position adopted by the baby in the uterus, where the back or top of the baby’s head is presenting against the cervix.
Womb
The bag of muscle where the fetus develops. Also called the uterus
Xray Pelvimetry
Using X-ray, this technique measures the size of the woman’s pelvis to deterine whether or not a baby can fit through durig birth. This method was commonly used for breech babies but has come into disuse as there has been no evidence shown for its benefit.
Why has American Infant Mortality increased slightly in the last decade?
More babies being born prematurely to older women, more babies are being born to women carrying multiples.
What has replaced birth defects as the most common reason babies die?
Prematurity
About how many children annually are born too early in America?
400,000
What did a 1912 New York campaign promote that resulted in a decreased rate of newborn deaths?
Sending nurses to visit new mothers at home
For all the perils a woman might face, birth is more than how many times deadlier for the baby?
100
What were the two greatest causes of mothers dying in childbirth in the 1930s?
Infection and botched abortion
In the 1930s, which kind of drugs began fighting infections saving tens of thousands of women who would have otherwise died of puerperal sepsis?
Sulfa Drugs
According to Marshall Klaus, if mourning is impeded after the loss of a child, and not allowed to run its course, what kind of grief can result?
Pathological grief
In what kind of societies is there rarely any help for women in birth and many die?
Societies with poor living conditions and patriarchal societies.
At what time of the day do mothers prefer laboring?
through the night
Many women tend to give birth at what time in the day?
In the morning
What does CPD stand for, and what does it indicate?
Cephalopelvic Disproportion. Indicates a baby being too large to fit through the mom’s pelvis no matter what is done to help.
What is the average weight for an American and Britain newborn?
7 pounds 8 ounces
What is the average newborn weight for babies born in India?
6 pounds
What bone softening disease is responsible for deforming women’s pelvises, resulting in countless deaths for mother and baby?
Rickets
What two vitamin deficiencies contribute to Rickets?
Calcium and Vitamin D
What does the term midwife mean in Old English?
With women
In what year were midwives delivering only half of all American babies?
1910
By 1973, midwives were handling less than what percent of U.S. deliveries?
1%
What percent of births are midwives attending in the United States today?
About 10%
About how many nurse-midwives are currently practicing in the U.S. today?
6,000
How many lay midwives are estimated to still be working in the U.S. today?
2,000
Who was Raven Lang?
A famous lay midwife who started a birth center out of her Santa Cruz, California home.
Who was Mary Breckinridge?
An upper-class woman who rode horseback to help the poor of the Appalachian mountains and was the first American women to train as a nurse-midwife.
Who was Madame du Coudray?
A young, single, and childless woman appointed to train other midwives as the first national midwife.
In Southern America, plantation masters had their slave women give birth in:
Horse stalls, where babies often contracted tetanus
In Europe and Early America, there would be so much chattering and sharing of information during labor that “God-sibs” or sisters in God would become the basis for what word?
gossips
Which was NOT a popular place to give birth at home?
On a pile of straw in the living room
18th Century industrialization in Europe and America opened hospitals devoted solely to helping expectant mothers where only what kind of women checked in?
Impoverished and unmarried
What was childbed fever, how was it spread and what is it known as today?
Uterine infection, spread by doctors not washing hands, known as maternal sepsis
The epidemic of childbed fever was occurring mostly in women who had chosen to
Deliver in the hospital
When what became widely available, childbed fever became less deadly?
antibiotics
Who was the Scottish scientist that first proved that childbed fever was a result of doctors not washing their hands after examining sick patients?
Alexander Gordon
The obstetric ward’s obsession with sterility had changed birth so entirely that it lead to
Forms of torture in modern delivery rooms and the use of stirrups, cuffs and steel clamps to restrain laboring mothers
Despite the evidence to the contrary, women still believe hospitals are the safest choice and what percent of North American and British women today choose to deliver in a hospital?
98%
The first model birth center was opened in 1975 by Ruth Lubic, in an upper East Side NY town house. What was it called?
The Childbearing Center
What percent of women report giving birth without any pain?
2-3%
What was the name of the famous American obstetrician who devised the “forceps operation” because he believed giving birth felt like falling on a pitchfork and was painful for the baby?
Joseph B. Delee
What percent of women today ask for an epidural when pain in birth becomes too intense?
90%
What is the name of the English obstetrician who said birth “should feel like a normal and natural defecation,” and blamed fear and tension for women’s suffering during labor?
Grantley Dick-Read
By the early 1930s, hospital delivery rooms were so full of inhaled or injected drugs that mothers almost always gave birth while heavily medicated—this method persisted as late as the:
1970s
Where in the world can a birthing woman reach for a mask and inhale nitrous oxide or laughing gas?
the US and UK
What is the famous name attributed to the effects of the drug cocktail that combined morphine and scopolamine?
Twilight Sleep
Pain in birth is often greatest among what 5 groups?
First time mothers Young mothers Large babies Previous menstrual issues Unprepared for what to expect
Who was the first doctor to use diethyl ether during labor, on a woman with a pelvis deformed by rickets?
James Young Simpson
Define and describe the pain relief method known as TENS.
transcutaneous electronic nerve stimulation a handheld device the size of a camera sends buzzing impulses through wires taped to one’s back. The impulses were supposed to tell the brain to release natural opiates and endorphins
Who formulated his own method of drug-free births involving a mastery of certain breathing and relaxation techniques?
Fernand Lamaze
Who inspired the Hypno-Birthing Method, where one can achieve painless childbirth
Grantley Dick-Read
Who was the first doctor to diagnose anemia in pregnancy?
Walter Channing
Who pioneered the method of administering pain relief using a needle in the back?
Karl August Bier
Before surgery became routine to extract a stuck fetus, what procedure would have been performed during birth with a baby presenting headfirst?
Craniotomy
The latin for cesarean section is “ceaso matris utero” meaning?
“cut from mother’s womb”
A record high of what percent of babies arrive by cesarean section in the United States today, making the operation more common than the appendectomy or tonsillectomy?
32.8%
Which extraction procedure is still used today in some developing countries?
Symphysiotomy
Cesarean section rates should be within a national average of what percent?
5-10%
According to the World Health Organization, the cesarean rate should never exceed what percent?
15%
What American doctor gave German doctor Max Sanger the idea to use antimicrobial silver wire thread to close the uterus after a cesarean to prevent infection?
J. Marion Simms
Which city has the highest cesarean rate in the world at 98% and why?
Rio de Janiero, women want to keep vaginas intact due to men’s preference and their cultural treatment of women.
List the two reasons almost all breech babies in America are delivered by Cesarean.
a. Lack of familiarity with the procedure among OBs; b. fear of litigation
After a cesarean, the mother is more prone to develop what?
Placenta abnormalities, post-partum depression, infertility
What percent of births involve serious medical complications that are best managed with a medical and surgical approach?
5-10%
The most common reasons for C-section are what?
Failure to progress, fetal heart rate concerns, repeat cesareans, maternal and fetal health issues, breech babies
What is the Latin root meaning of the term “obstetrician”?
to stand before
What two countries are the only countries in the world where highly trained surgeons attend the majority of normal, low-risk births?
United States and Canada
What is a good question to ask to find out if an individual obstetricians or hospital is practicing modern maternity care?
What position do women give birth in?
List the 5 different roles OBs attempt to juggle competently on a daily basis?
- All normal pregnancies, 2. All high risk pregnancies, 3. Women’s Gynecological health, 4. Women’s diseases, 5. Trained and competent surgeons
