I just read Birth Matters and loved it. However, learning about our failed maternity care system makes me want to spit nails. I am sad and disappointed that birthing mothers are basically treated like crap in this country. I'm so disappointed to know that the U.S. health care system keeps dumping money into technology for birth and doesn't bother with accurate reporting for maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. There's a story in the book of how a mother BLED OUT at home and her daughter died of starvation and dehydration because she was a single mother and a health care professional didn't check on her because she gave birth in the hospital.
My grandmother asked me what I was reading and so I explaned a little about Birth Matters. I tried to explain (and I'm not good at explanations) how the U.S. system for reporting maternal and infant death is seriously screwed up and how it compares to the U.K. reporting system (penalities for not reporting, accurate reporting, and available to the public). My grandmother then said something about how the U.K. is homogenous and the U.S. is getting more and more immigrants and those immigrants don't go to the doctor for prenatal care and that's why mothers and babies die.
I...what? 
What in the hell does immigration have to do with our piss-poor maternal health system? I wish I could explain things better. I care about these issues, but I don't do a very good job of explaining what's wrong with our health care system. I can read all day long about maternal health care, but oh, trying to articulate the problems is not one of my strong suits.
