NEW YORK - The number of out-of-hospital births, including home births and birthing-center deliveries, are up in New York and nationwide.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1 percent of deliveries in New York in 2012 were out-of-hospital births, up from just 0.75 percent in 2004. Meanwhile, nationally, the risk profile for non-hospital births was lower than hospital births.

Michele Giordano, executive director of the nonprofit advisory group Choices in Childbirth, said women increasingly are seeking more control in the birth process, such as how, when and where the baby is delivered and by whom.

"Women aren't getting the level of care they want." she said, "and the reason why women are making a wide range of choices and seeking doulas and seeking home births and seeking options outside of the medical model is because they want to be treated with respect. They want to be at the center of their health care decision-making."

Giordano warned that all non-hospital births are not reactions to a hospital experience but sometimes simply reflect a desire for a safe and comfortable birthing experience. The CDC also found that nationally, more than 50,000 babies were born at home in 2012, the highest since 1975, and far fewer out-of-hospital births were born preterm or low birth weight than hospital births.

Giordano said few birthing centers providing alternative childbirth options exist in New York. And while many critics view non-hospital births as unsafe, Katherine Morrison, medical director for the Birthing Center of Buffalo, said hospitals actually have become less safe as the U.S. maternal mortality rate is now higher than in any other developed country.

"In 1987, our maternal mortality rate was nine per 100,000 births, and now it's 18.8 per 100,000 births," she said. "So we are unnecessarily intervening and killing mothers in the hospital. and nobody in the hospital wants to discuss that."

The CDC found that in 2012, out-of-hospital births had a lower risk profile than hospital births. About four percent of non-hospital births were born preterm, compared with more than 11 percent of hospital births - and about three percent of non-hospital births were low birth weight compared with about eight percent of hospital births.

More information about out-of-hospital births can be found online at cdc.gov. International non-hospital birth information can be found at savethechildren.org.


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PORTLAND, Ore. -- Oregon nurses are holding a conference today on an important topic facing the health industry: equitable outcomes for patients.

The Oregon Nurses Association's Health Equity Conference in Portland today and Friday is focusing on the different outcomes from the health system for people of color. For instance, the maternal mortality rate for Black women is three times the rate that it is for white women.

Deborah Riddick, public policy and government relations director for the Oregon Nurses Association, said nurses interact with patients at every level of care.

"If we have that amount of access to patients, to communities, to their families, then it would make sense that if there's a problem like health equity, that we would be the ideal folks to be able to plug the gap and be able to use some of our knowledge and our skills to address the problem," Riddick contended.

During the pandemic, Oregonians of color have faced disproportionate health impacts. Hispanic Oregonians make up 13% of the state's population but are nearly 30% of COVID-19 cases where the ethnicity is known, according to state data.

D. Watkins, editor at large for Salon who is speaking at the Health Equity Conference, said stigmas around health care especially are strong for Black communities, and pointed out the words health professionals use are important.

"Sometimes, basic things like the way we use language when we talk about patients or when patients talk about these different institutions is the root of the problem," Watkins explained. "And it's what we need to fix if we want to be strong, and we want to solve a lot of the problems that we have."

The Oregon Nurses Association has been working to promote health equity in the state through the Legislature. Riddick noted the union pushed for a bill this session that would have declared racism a public health crisis.

"Unfortunately, there was not enough support for the bill that it ultimately was reduced down to simply a resolution," Riddick lamented. "A lot of the things that required funding were pulled out, which was a great disappointment to many of the community members that worked throughout the session around the bill."

Despite the bill not passing, Riddick emphasized it was a good learning experience for pushing this type of policy. She added the House bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake Oswego, is on a panel at the conference.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A new study argued the current federal limit for exposure to wireless radiation should be hundreds of times lower than it is, for children.

Researchers from the Environmental Working Group took methodology developed by the Environmental Protection Agency to assess human health risks from toxic chemicals, and applied it to radiofrequency (RF) radiation from wireless devices, including cellphones, tablets and 5G networks.

Dr. Olga Naidenko, vice president for science investigations for the Environmental Working Group and the study's co-author, said standards should be updated, and in the meantime, she suggested parents take simple steps to reduce their kids' RF exposure.

"Teaching children not to sleep with the phone under the pillow, that is probably a good first step," Naidenko advised. "And for example, instead of clutching it to the chest, to put the tablet or the phone on the table."

The wireless industry countered its products are safe and comply with Federal Communications Commission rules, but Naidenko noted the studies underpinning those standards are 25 years old and apply only to adults.

A 2018 study from the National Toxicology Program linked wireless radiation to heart and brain tumors in rats.

Nonetheless, the California Legislature is considering two bills, Senate Bill 556 and Assembly Bill 537, which would make it harder for cities to place limits on where new 5G cell towers can be installed.

Dr. Jerome Paulson, professor emeritus of pediatrics and occupational and environmental Health at George Washington University, said until 5G is proven safe, he supports local ordinances like those in Los Altos and Petaluma that require a 500-foot setback from schools and homes.

"5G towers should be placed far away from human beings," Paulson contended. "The distance provides the protection, because the farther away you get, the less energy gets to people."

Paulson thinks the government should set separate wireless-radiation limits for children. The World Health Organization classified cellphone radiation as a possible carcinogen in 2011.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Ron DeSantis is promising to block any state money from going to the parent company of ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry's unless it reverses a decision to stop selling its products in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

DeSantis is one of several Republican politicians looking to punish Unilever, the London-based parent company of the ice-cream maker, for curtailing sales in the region. But as COVID cases continue to skyrocket stateside, state Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said the governor should focus on containing the more contagious Delta variant.

"We've had the highest hospitalization rates than we've ever had," she said. "You have people who are dying from this variant - it's very aggressive - and we have a governor who is trying to distract from his failed response, and insert himself and say what an ice-cream company can and cannot do."

On Tuesday, DeSantis downplayed the spike in cases, but issued a statement saying, "I will not stand idly by as 'woke' corporate ideologues seek to boycott and divest from our ally, Israel."

Driskell said she thinks the governor's stance rings hypocritical when he positions himself to fight against discrimination in Israel - but signs into law a bill such as HB 1, to stop groups such as Black Lives Matter from peacefully protesting.

"And then," she said, "we have a governor who cracked down on those very same protesters, who basically were just asking to be treated equally; who were just asking for unarmed black people to not be killed at the hands of law enforcement."

Unilever now must either "cease its boycott" of Israel within 90 days or join the list of other companies Florida refuses to do business with because of their positions on Israel's West Bank policies. Unilever's 400 brands include Lipton tea, Dove personal-care products and Hellmann's mayonnaise. Unilever said it employs more than 2,000 people in Israel and "rejects completely and repudiates unequivocally any form of discrimination or intolerance."