"dark" pregnancy?

Question

How common is it for a woman to forego any and all prenatal care in the united states? Any idea how many women out there are just having pregnancies and giving birth without ever being "seen" for their pregnancies?? What's the success rate on this one?

And don't worry I'm not doing it, I was just wondering if women are still doing that or not... No need to get in a huff, I'm just asking a question.

And what is it called when a woman doesn't get any ultrasounds/tests/ etc.?? Is it called a "dark pregnancy"?

Thanks for looking.

Answer 1

Well I worked with my people (Australian Aborigines) here in Aus as a Maternal Health Worker (outback midwife), and I can tell you, it's not uncommon for Koori girls to go through their entire pregnancy without ever seeing anyone for their prenatal checks. They usually just turn up at the hospital in active labour when it's too late to do anything other than deliver them and hope for the best.

A lot of them don't even go to the hospital...my hubby's auntie in law had both her babies at home without ever being seen during her pregnancy.

In fact, that was a large component of our work...seeking out the women who we'd heard on the grapevine were pregnant, and getting them to come in and have a few checks...we were quite successful too, and while I was working in the field, our infant mortality and morbidity dropped dramatically, as did the maternal mort. and morb.

Historically amongst our people, there is a lot of fear, mistrust and suspicion towards doctors and hospitals related to past policies of child removal (not for abuse, but to assimilate Aboriginal children into the white community, see: The Stolen Generation). That was our main stumbling block, convincing scared mothers that their babies were not going to be stolen from them in hospital.

Answer 2

There's a whole movement of people who go for unassisted prenatal care and childbirth - it's usually called "freebirthing" or similar.

As a medical professional I don't endorse it and have had to clean up some messes left in it's wake.

Yes, childbirth may be the most natural thing in the world but statistics don't lie - your chances and your baby's chances of surviving the whole thing are much better if you are attended by professionals during your prenatal, delivery and postnatal stages. This doesn't necessarily mean full drugs, a scalpel happy OBGYN and a brightly lit sterile delivery room in an impersonal public hospital - this just means having an expereinced childbirth practioner assist in managing your pregnancy and delivery, even if it is at home.

The freebirthing advocates will all report healthy, successful deliveries, I am really yet to see any published statistics on just how many freebirths actually go wrong, since freebirthers don't appear to collect this data, and a lot of them who wind up needing medical help don't own up to actually wanting a "freebirth". All I can say is what I have seen from experience - sometimes it is fine, sometimes it's not pretty.

Answer 3

I am from Western Australia and i have heard so many times that scans are not done until you are past you first 12 weeks sometimes not even till you are around 16 weeks pregnant. I was very shocked cause over here they keep a close eye on the pregnancy i have had scans done at 6weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, and i have one soon when i hit 19 weeks, we also have a midwife appt around 17 weeks then a gp appointment when you are around 19 weeks and then another midwife app when your 28 weeks once you hit 30 weeks the appointments are every 2 weeks until you deliver.

It's very different over here i dunno i could be wrong it may be done regulary over there but from what i have heard rountine scans dont get done that often. I would call it a dark pregnancy due to the fact with out thoes scans being done on a regular basis you dont know what is going on in there and it is a bit like walking around in the dark!

Answer 4

I've never heard of women intentionally foregoing prenatal care. I've heard of women not knowing they were pregnant and then going to the ER for abdominal pain and delivering a baby.

Answer 5

I heard a lot about women not getting any prenatal care, but there babies are still fine when born, but if you had a baby when you go to the doctor while pregnant they really don't do anything,they just check your health and measure you to see if the baby is growing

Answer 6

my wife didnt go to the doctor at all till about 7months into the pregnancy..
our daughter was born healthy and just fine.. no strange illnesses, no retardation and none of that other BS...

honestly.. if you keep yourself healthy and everything feels "normal" then you really dont have anything to worry about.. we did have an ultrasound so we could get a clue as to what the sex of the baby would be so we could plan things a little better..

other than that.. our daughter is 100% normal and growing strong as ever

Answer 7

Where I used to live, there were plenty of women who were only seen a few times or not at all until it was time to deliver. They didn't have cars, didn't have health insurance, didn't have jobs. Of course, I know that there is medical insurance available to pregnant women, but these women rarely left their communities. I'm not sure why they didn't see midwives or OBs, but many of them didn't.

Answer 8

i would think that it doesnt happen very often. Most women want to go to the doc and keep a close eye on their unborn baby. Obviously there are people out there that do this still but i would never recommend it. there are way to many risks not only for the baby but for the mother also!

Answer 9

wow i couldnt imagine not seeing a doctor thru out my pregnancies! i tried searching "dark pregnancy" but didnt find anything sorry.