Beware of maternity care

Time and time again here at Pregnancy & Baby we've discussed ways to keep labor and birth as intervention-free and as natural as possible. Why dwell?

• Interventions are at an all time high in the United States, and unnecessarily so.
• Women deserve the best and safest birth experience possible, and for some women that may mean interventions due to health factors, but overwhelmingly evidence points out that interventions lead to more interventions plus complications and worse, many women who get these interventions don't even need them.
• Birth interventions can pose a danger to babies.
• Women have rights and those rights include choosing the labor and birth they want (barring emergencies).

Consumer Reports has two pieces that can help you make smart and safe labor and birth decisions... Test your knowledge of maternity care at Consumer Reports. Find out what's fact and what's myth when it comes to healthy and safe maternity care. Take the quiz! Back to basics for safer childbirth: This Consumer Reports study found that too many healthy American women with low-risk pregnancies are being routinely subjected to high-tech or invasive interventions that should be reserved for higher-risk pregnancies. Find out which interventions were most overused.