Study reveals alarming death rate among JW women!

by Lee Elder 13 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Lee Elder

  Thursday November 8 5:32 PM ET

  Childbirth Death Risk High in
  Jehovah's Witnesses

  By Charnicia E. Huggins

  NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who are Jehovah's
  Witnesses have a dramatically increased risk of death due to
  excessive blood loss during childbirth and their refusal to
  replenish this loss with donated blood, according to the results
  of a study.

  Blood transfusions are the conventional treatment for obstetric
  hemorrhage, or excessive blood loss, but such procedures,
  along with any other medical treatments that involve the
  administration of blood or blood products, are forbidden by the
  Jehovah's Witness religion.

  ``Pregnancy is safe for women who accept blood products,''
  lead study author Dr. Carl J. Saphier of Mount Sinai School of
  Medicine in New York told Reuters Health.

  Those who reject such products, on the other hand, may have
  an increased risk of mortality, ``but it may be minimized by
  giving appropriate care,'' he said.

  Saphier and his colleagues investigated the risk of maternal
  death in a study of 332 Jehovah's Witnesses who gave birth at
  Mount Sinai Medical Center from January 1988 through
  December 1999.

  Nearly 400 deliveries--both vaginal and Cesarean--took place
  during the study period, and 24 patients (6%) experienced an
  obstetric hemorrhage, Saphier and his colleagues report in the
  October issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and
  Gynecology (news - web sites).

  Two women died from the hemorrhage, corresponding to a
  rate of 521 deaths per 100,000 live births--a maternal death
  rate nearly 44 times higher than that among the general US
  population, the report indicates.

  Currently, treating obstetric hemorrhage and certain other
  conditions among Jehovah's Witnesses may involve the use of
  blood-free products called volume expanders--solutions that
  are mixed with the patient's own blood to make up for blood
  lost during surgery--or cell savers, which are devices that
  collect and recycle the patient's blood.

  For one of the patients who died, however, the cell saver
  treatment was ineffective because she had already lost large
  amounts of blood vaginally, the authors note.

  ``The findings imply that special care is required for women
  who are Jehovah's Witnesses, including special counseling
  prior to delivery, methods of minimizing the blood loss at
  delivery, and fast treatment for any hemorrhage,'' Saphier said.

  SOURCE: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
  2001;185:893-895.

  Available onlilne: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011108/hl/childbirth_1.html
• 

  Simon

  We're thankful we found out a lot of information about blood etc... before Angharad was having Dylan. She has a blood clotting condition and were asked to go in to have a chat with the consultant who was concerned (seeing from Liams notes that we were 'Jehovahs Witnesses' and would refuse blood).

  She started out with 'I respect your decision' etc... and would cooperate with our wishes. We told her we'd studied things and decided that it wasn't an issue for us anymore (damn, we should have give her some literature).

  Once we'd made it clear that we didn't want to be treated as JW's in any way she expressed how relieved she was because of the risk that Angharad and the baby would have been under. Thankfully, there weren't any major problems and it wasn't an issue but I shiver to think that if there had of been, a few years earlier I would have possibly refused the treatement that she and Dylan needed! Urgh.

  Thank you for all your hard work Lee - it really saves lives.
• 

  Simon

  One interesting footnote:

  We'd been trying to tell our family about the things we'd learnt and they were at the stage of still just about talking to us.

  When my "newly appointed if ever there was proof that it wasn't done by holy spirit" elder brother in law Louis Lynch arrived, the first thing he asked was "So, did you have blood?"

  This is the same guy who called round at the house and before saying hello wanted to know if we believed "the governing body are Jehovahs spirit appointed representatives". Sheesh.

  I'm glad he's in the truth and I hope he never leaves. He deserves it, ha ha ha.
• 

  chasson

  Translated in french:

  http://www.chez.com/tjrecherches/Birthchild.htm

  Bye

  Charles
• 

  OhHappyDay

  Thank U lee, we will translate it and send it out to the press.
  Thank U chasson for the french translation, too.
• 

  JT

  DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP article
• 

  chasson

  Hi lee,

  Have you read my post that in France the official of Watchtower have recognized to doctor that there are 15 cases of needed translation among french's jw by year ?

  If we applied this on a worldwide range, it makes 670 cases of needed transfusion by year by the JW's official own word.

  You will noticed that the french's suprem court has recognised that a french's doctor who provide a transfusion to a witness in emergency has not make a professionnal's fault:

  The links in french: (if someone has the capacity to translate it in english ?)

  http://www.chez.com/tjrecherches/lemonde1.htm

  According to an online newspaper from Africa, in Congo, there was in October a young girl who died for refusing transfusion:

  http://www.chez.com/tjrecherches/congo.htm

  Bye

  Charles
• 

  mommy

  Thanks Lee for posting that article. My active jw mom was with me when I was delivering Miranda. There were complications and we needed to do an emergency c-section. Mass chaos filled the room when my daughters heart rate dropped down to 10 beats a minute then disappearred. As everyone was sticking me full of all kinds of tubes and handing me papers to sign. I hear my mom in the background trying to get close to the bed. "Wendy, will not be accepting any blood or blood products."

  There was a little tit for tat with a nurse about the procedure and risks, but my mom was adamant that I didn't want blood. I was in shock to begin with because of what was happening to my child, and was unable to speak. Maybe I was just in shock that my mom was a nurse and knew that I could die if I needed blood and refused it. Seeing my mother hand me over as a sacrafice was pretty unsettling. Mind you I was 20 years old when this happened. I will say I was thankful when my hubby said, "As her husband I can give permission for her to have blood right?" I think it was the nicest thing he did for me My mom was silenced, and I was able to go into surgery without having to worry about bleeding to death.

  Simon,
  

  a few years earlier I would have possibly refused the treatement that she and Dylan needed! Urgh.

  That remark makes it all sink in about the many who have allowed their loved ones to die because of this insane rule. How sad.
  wendy

  Blind faith can justify anything.~Richard Dawkins
• 

  Pathofthorns

  While I don't support or understand the Society's blood policy, I wonder what 2 out of 400 deaths really mean, and if it is still too small of a sample to assume a general mortality rate of JW women giving birth.

  There are other factors that could play into these women's death. Further there are no statistics given for mortality rates for the general population giving birth.

  As well, since the study began, the Society has opened up more blood products available to these women which is likely to reduce the odds of a JW woman dying during a delivery.

  Path
• 

  ballistic

  I thought this was going to be a thread about suicide rates. I expect that they are quite high in the org having known 1 suicide and 2 members who regularly cut their wrists.