Kim Mulvihill, M.D.
Reporting
(CBS 5) Pregnancy doesn't always have a happy ending.
For many
couples, the much-anticipated event - the birth of a baby - turns into
a devastating loss, a stillbirth. And in most cases, the cause is never
known.
"I
saw that the heartbeat, the baby's heartbeat wasn't, wasn't going,"
recalls David Brame. “The doctor said that we'd lost her, that she was
a stillborn."
The Brame’s first baby, Donnalee died in utero.
She was full term, but died during birth. Approximately one in 150
births result in similar tragedy.
"I delivered her, we delivered her, and she was beautiful, she looked
asleep,” recalls mother Heather Brame.
Each year, tens of thousands of Americans suffer similar nightmares.
San Francisco Chronicle Reporter Suzanne Pullen was 24 weeks pregnant
when her son Avery died.
"He
fit in the palm of my hand," Suzanne recalls. “Giving birth to death
puts you in a completely different category, and people really don't
know how to deal with that."
A group called Support after Neonatal Death or SAND is trying to help
people cope.
“It's
devastating. It's just about the most devastating thing you can go
through. You just don't imagine losing your child," says Betty Simpson
who leads the SAND group at Alta Bates Medical Center. “It stays with
you. It's part of your life forever."
What we do know if the
risk of having a stillbirth is not the same for all women. A new study
reveals that while the risk of having a second stillbirth is high for
all women, it is three times higher for African American women.
"That's actually shocking. It's a shocking statistic," says Dr. Ellen
Stein of the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
Dr.
Stein heads up the Bay Area Data Collaborative, a research project that
pools infant mortality data from the nine counties surrounding the Bay
Area.
"We are really...concerned that the Bay Area be able to
look into the problems that affect the lives of mothers and their
children on a regional basis,” Dr. Stein says.
While experts don’t know what’s causing the problem, Dr. Stein
speculates that the environment may play a role.
"We're
talking about the effects of living in certain neighborhoods. We're
talking about the effects of lead paint. We're talking about
environmental pollution,” Dr. Stein says.
Stillbirths also
happen in the best of neighborhoods. Luckily for Heather Brame - after
nine more months of stress - she delivered her second baby.
"I heard him cry but my eyes were closed, I was afraid to open my eyes,
I was afraid it wouldn't be true," she recalls.
Link to website video:
Stillbirth
Statistics Continue To Alarm Doctors
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