Posted on 12/24/2011 3:11:02 AM PST by floridarunner01
Pregnant mothers are advised to remain calm at all times, but Elli Zachariadou could not hide her shock a few weeks ago when she heard reports about women having to pay at least €900 up front in order to give birth at public hospitals. Even more shocking to Zachariadou and other Greeks was the news that a number of hospitals had turned away pregnant women because they did not have the necessary cash.
“My immediate thought on hearing about the hospital charges was, how am I going to have this baby?” Zachariadou said. “You know, €900 is about three months’ rent. It’s not the kind of money we have lying around.” In years gone by, the 33-year-old Athenian’s social-security fund would have picked up most of her hospital bill, but she has joined the growing ranks of Greece’s long-term unemployed who have no such coverage.
As their country grapples with its economic problems, accessible and affordable health care is one of many things Greeks like Zachariadou can no longer take for granted. Burdened with a crippling public debt of some €350 billion, Greece’s economy is about to complete a worse-than-expected year. The recession will be deeper and the public deficit larger than the Greek government and its international lenders, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, had forecast.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Jesus was born in a manger. He did okay. Some of my kids were born natrually at home, what’s the big deal. It ISN”T an emergency crisis, it’s like a good human biological process, like dropping water or having a good B.M. You go GREECE.
I wonder if under Obamacare party members will get priority care and the rest can take a number or pay extra fees?
“Free Government-financed Healthcare” meet “Reality” I’m sure you two have a lot to discuss.
I believe that under Obamacare older party members will get stents and heart transplants, and medications , while older Americans are told they are not worth saving.
I believe the rationed care will be rationed to most Americans ,while people considered more important will get the attention.
The death panels are real.
“... some of my kids were born naturally at home, what’s the big deal?”
I have no qualms with Greece. It’s their country and they can do what they want but I take exception to your statement. If I had not been in the hospital, my daughter and I would not be here. Complications arose while in labor and I thank God I was in a hospital.
“... it’s like a good human biological process, having a good B.M.”
So, you are comparing giving birth to a child as the same as going the bathroom? Seriously? Do you want to stand by that statement? If so, you have told me all I need to know about you. You have no respect for women or children.
“I wonder if under Obamacare party members will get priority care and the rest can take a number or pay extra fees? “
I’ve written about this before. When I was in the Mexican Baja in the winter I asked my guide what the crowd was doing in front of the building across the street. He said that’s the public hospital. The crowd is that big or bigger 24/7/365. During the summer when it hits 120 degrees the hospital sends a gurney out every hour to collect the dead.
Medical care in Mexico is ‘free.” There are two classes of “free” hospital, the one I saw and the one for government workers. My guide took me to see that one. Beautiful, modern building; no crowds, no waiting. But talking to a guy who’d worn a neck brace for the last 18 months who had had an operation in the government hospital the care is circa 1950’s. He’d had what would be an in-office procedure here.
There are two types of medical care in the US which have improved every year and gone down in price; lasik eye surgery and cosmetic surgery. Why? They aren’t paid for by “insurance” therefore the marketplace drives the quality and price.
The mortality rate was so high it would be considered a holocaust by today's modern standards.
I think what was meant was *most* births(95%ish) do not have to be a medical emergency and if attended by knowledgable midwives are miraculous and boring at the same time. I am pregnant with my first and planning a miraculous, boring home birth. However, the hospital is the back-up plan should we fall in to that 5%. It sounds like the Greek women don’t have that convenience.
Back in the old days a lot of women died in childbirth from infection because of improper (or no) washing of hands, and actually at the time when births started transitioning from home to hospital is was the doctors who were causing a lot of the infection. Hospital deaths due to childbirth (infection) were higher than home births because doctors would go from patient to patient without washing hands in between. Yuck. And while on the topic, there was an article posted here not too very long ago that discussed that 20% (I think) of medical students could not identify situations in which hand washing was appropriate. This is one reason I am bound and determined to stay out of the hospital with this baby. :)
Congratulation, Roos_Girl! I bet you are very excited about your first little bundle of love and joy.
“I think what was meant...” Don’t defend him. He could have changed his statement and he didn’t. Conceiving a baby, carrying and forming that little child, laboring and finally delivering the baby is an absolute miracle. I won’t stand by and have that miracle compared to taking a dump or peeing. I won’t let it stand comparing a baby to a turd that is passed “naturally”. Yes, many women can have a baby with the help of a midwife and all is well. However, I place flowers once a year on two Aunts graves that died during childbirth. (older times without the medical knowledge we have today). I won’t get into details about the birth of my second child. However, if I had not been at a hospital, my husband and first child would have been putting flowers on my grave and my daughter’s grave every March.
The social, economic, and governmental collapse in Europe is about 5 years ahead of America.
This is what it looks like when a national ponzi scheme hits the end of the road.
I got it. He meant it's a natural biological process that women are equipped physically to handle and accomplish.
While it's not that simple a comparison the fact remains it IS part of the biological process. That it's treated as some sort of miracle and is now treated like every pregnant woman is a borderline emergency room patient takes away from the true miracle.
One has to wonder how humankind has survived the millenia without all the attendant care to a single birth of a child.
Of course it is a biological process. Women conceive, carry a child and give birth to that child. However, I disagree that a woman giving birth is treated as a “borderline emergency room patient” and that takes away from the true miracle. There was a time where female and infant mortality was very high due to complications during and after childbirth. Complications can and do arise even with pregnancies that are not problematic. For example, a good friend of ours was in labor with twins. The baby’s heart monitors flat lined. They did an emergency C-section without anesthesia (the anesthesiologist was able to give her something IV wise when the OB/GYN was removing baby number 2. The MIRACLE is that both babies were resuscitated and they were able to stop the Mom from bleeding to death.
Humans did survive over the years with respect to our population. However, walk through an old cemetery and take some time there. It is very common to see a family plot with eight, ten, even twelve infants that died the day of their birth or soon thereafter. It is also common to see the death date of a woman matching the death date of a newborn. As I had stated, if I had not been in the hospital with “all the attendant care” and modern medicine available, my eleven year old daughter and I wouldn’t be here today.
congress exempted there selfs from obamacare’ Just like congress exempted themselves from civil rights laws..That was one of the Gingrich contract with America that was thrown out..No matter what law they write, there should be a law that they cannot exempt themselves from it...
People has hospitalization not health care. It paid only a % of the doctors bill, you paid the rest...My doctors bill was also 150 dollars for 9 months care..
The only problem I have with delivering at home is if the same monitors are available. With the woman and her twins, the emergency was immediate. If she had to wait for an ambulance, the twins would be dead. It was bad enough that they cut her open without medication in the first place. However, a stat call to an anaesthesiologist meant she was only screaming for a few minutes. Eeekkkk!
I had a girl friend that had 3 contractions and delivered herself...she yelled to hubby to go next door and get her neighbor and before they both got back, she had a lovely baby boy...would be nice if we all delivered like that...lucky gal....it was #5
THREE contractions? That’s it?! She is sooooo lucky! Yes, I do wish women had it that easy. If she goes for baby number 6, he could be born during a sneeze. LOL!
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