Sad story but was it really caused by the birth?

[BaileyB]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/home-birth-advocate-dies-after-her-own-home-delivery/

See above article:

This story is sad and I know certain types of people just looooove the irony but it really doesn't say for sure that she died because of birth complications, does it? Or when they say cardiac arrest are they meaning hemorrhage causing cardiac arrest or what?

What do you all think?

[Novella]

My guess is that it was cardiac arrrest due to excessive blood loss. . . which was a birth complication. However, I don't really see that one death changes anything for the wider birthing community. Banning or even discouraging home births on this basis would be just like banning/discouraging c-sections because there has been at least one case where a mother died.

[Youngfrankenstein]

I'm not sure we'll ever know the full story.  They don't really owe the public the results of whether the homebirth was the "cause" of death.  Unless your head gets chopped off, everyone dies of cardiac arrest.

I'm sad for her whole family.  

There was a mw present.

[Breastisbest2008]

That is a very sad story...but it does say it's the only one they have heard of like that.  So it must not be very common.

[tiqa]

That's tragic for the family - and also, in its own way, it's tragic that her death brought negative publicity and perhaps swayed a few people's opinions on an issue that was obviously near and dear to her.

That said... women also die in hospitals.  I've literally been on a hospital L&D ward when a code blue went off, meaning someone got a cardiac arrest.  The nurse said that it's rare but it does happen.  I have no clue whether that particular woman lived or died.  I imagine that she had a better chance of surviving than if she had been at home.  BUT I also know of another woman who was just fine after her birth but she caught a bug in the hospital and died from it.  And she would NOT have been exposed to it had she stayed at home.  So, I mean, it goes both ways.  =/

[Alenushka]

It is rare for a healthy women to die in labor in the hospital. Majority  of maternal death connected to a preexisting cardiac condition. Women who previously could not ever hope to carry a baby to term, do, thanks to modern medicine but still risk is large.

Bleeding while an emergency, is very manageable in the hospital because of medication, blood bank and OR down the hall.

Even  something as horrible as amniotic embolism that has 100% morality rate at home, has 50-50 change in the hospital.

Cardiac arrest is far more survivable in the hospital because of the defibrillator availability. I doubt her home birth midwife had even the simplest AED.

It is very sad story. And what makes it sadder for me is that it probably did not have to happen if this young woman was in the hospital.

[roadfamily6now]

I don't know enough about this situation to make any judgements.

What I do know is this women understood her risks both in and out of the hospital. What happened to her does not make her decision to birth at home wrong or anyone elses' decision to birth at home wrong.

[rnra]

Code Blue is used for many things in a hospital environment--not just cardiac arrest.  It simply means that someone is in need of resuscitation and people with advanced training and skills are needed there quickly to assist.  It can be used for someone who has passed out (due to blood loss, dizziness, numbness, visitors watching procedures) or someone who was found unresponsive (drug overdose, extremely deep sleeper, etc.).  I've heard and participated in many code blues on L&D floors, and it has only once been for a true cardiac arrest.  While most hospitals have a separate code for babies, not all do.  So, a code blue called on an L&D floor could also be for a baby who is not breathing or otherwise in extreme distress after delivery.