Why is Basic Disaster Birth Support so important? Consider the current response plans to deal with pregnant women in these possible disaster situations:
PANDEMIC
Plans try to keep the mothers away from infected people and places by creating birth centers in unused abandoned hospitals, clinics or other spaces or encouraging women to birth in place.
Problems with such an approach: It may be problematic to get utilities connected in these unused clinics or hospitals. There may not be unexposed healthcare personnel to staff them. Infected people will go these facilities for help thus infecting these facilities. In addition, most people have limited knowledge of physiologic birth. Knowledge from hospital birth may be unhelpful in emergencies (fasting, confining to bed, etc).
MASS EVACUATIONS
Mass evacuation may occur when a city is under threat. The main plan for pregnant women during a mass evacuation is to get them to a hospital.
Problems with such an approach: Traffic gridlock would prevent mobility; no phone service would be available due to overload; there will be a shortage of gas for vehicles and local hospitals will be tapped out.
NATURAL DISASTERS
A natural disaster could be huge like Hurricane Katrina or small like a local flood. In these situations, the mother could be isolated from any medical help or response at all. Obviously, in a huge disaster, there is no help available other than those around her.
MAN MADE DISASTERS
Man made disasters can also vary in size will present various problems, including power outage, bombings, or radiation. There is no viable response plan for pregnant women in such situations.
OVERALL WEAKNESSES IN DISASTER RESPONSE PLANS FOR PREGNANT WOMEN
Medical personnel are not trained in physiologic birth, and there aren’t enough home birth midwives available everywhere a disaster may occur. Current medical training for emergency out of hospital birth addresses only the delivery of the baby and the expectation of transporting to the hospital. Providers need to know about appropriate care of pregnant women in the last days of pregnancy, normal labor, birth, postpartum through the first week, breastfeeding and newborn care.
Obviously, there is a need for widespread knowledge about natural birth among the population, so that pregnant women have the assistance they need no matter what the disaster or the emergency situation. The Basic Disaster Birth Support (BDBS) Training Module includes all the materials needed to offer the training to church groups, students, clubs, families and organizations across the nation.
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