David A. Schwartz

David A. Schwartz is a clinical professor at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta with specialization in global maternal and infant health, emerging infections, and medical anthropology. He has studied the effects of HIV, Zika virus, Ebola virus, and Covid-19 on maternal and fetal outcomes and anthropological aspects of pregnancy, and is the Editor of the Springer book series Global Maternal and Child Health. ORCID: 0000-0002-7486-8545.

The Impacts of Covid-19 on Birth Practices in the United States

This rapid-response article (1) seeks to describe the quick and dramatic changes occurring in birth practices across the United States resulting from the pandemic of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and the life-threatening disease it produces, Covid-19. Long before the Covid-19 epidemic hit the United States, the medicalization of pregnancy had led to a broad acceptance of birthing as hospital-based—where it is often treated like a dysfunctional mechanical process and its normal physiology is ignored. We explore the question of how Covid-19 is causing women and birth providers to look at birth differently, given that hospitals are now more than ever being perceived as sites of contagion. We show that Covid-19 offers a testing ground for ongoing debates about the efficacy of maternity care and the safety of hospital versus out-of-hospital (OOH) births. We conclude by suggesting specific policy changes to generate effective maternity care in the face of future pandemics and other disasters that are bound to increase in our era of the climate crisis.

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