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> However I recall the night my son was born - the facilities, staff and resources of the hospital were unmatched - the mother and baby would not have the same

> However I recall the night my son was born - the facilities, staff and resources of the hospital were unmatched - the mother and baby would not have the same experience anywhere else in the world. We had a wonderful experience with the birth of our daughter, but I have no idea how I could claim it was better than anywhere in the world. I'm asking because you seem to be making a low-hyperbole claim here: what is your basis for saying that? Particularly, when the US has some of the worst metrics for infant mortality, birth weights, and mother mortality rates in the developed world. > My wife works in the ER - they constantly use procedures and deploy resources in ways that would be considered impractical elsewhere in the world. Does this actually lead to better health outcomes? The US ranks low in the developed world in many health-related areas. Some of them are at least in part due to cultural issues and it is completely fair to attribute to our healthcare system. But some of them like our rates of medical and lab errors clearly are. I'm genuinely looking for data to support the idea that the tradeoff you mentioned actually exists.

xyzelement 6y ago
// but I have no idea how I could claim it was better than anywhere in the world. I'm asking because you seem to be making a low-hyperbole claim here: what is your basis for saying that? Conversations with friends and family abroad. // Particularly, when the US has some of the worst metrics for infant mortality, birth weights, and mother mortality rates in the developed world. Not an expert but I understand there's a ton of measurement variability. Something like: Baby born 3 months premature and dies shortly after. Many countries just consider that still birth and it doesn't count towards infant mortality. In the US we actually fight to save these kids so if they die, they count towards infant mortality. Perhaps weight at birth works the same way?
- 5cents 6y ago
  All countries do their best, and Sweden seems to be the most successful country at the moment [0]. Neonatal mortality rate in Sweden was 1.38 per thousand in 2019, compared to 1.4 in Norwy, 2.77 in the UK and 3.7 in the US [1]. But you are right that the rate of premature births is higher in the US than most European countries (10-15% in the Us compared to <10% in Europe) [2], and so is the rate of very preterm births (14.1 per thousand in the US compared to 8.3 in Norway, 7.7 in Sweden and 6.7 in Finland) [3]. It is likely that the rate of premature births is also a sign of the quality of maternal care. The rate of still birth in 2009 in the US was 2.95/1000 compared to 2.74 in Sweden and 2.2 in Norwy [4] That the statistics of neonatal deaths are manipulated is also a bold claim, it deserves some references? [0] https://news.ki.se/sweden-leads-the-world-in-saving-extremely-preterm-babies https://news.ki.se/sweden-leads-the-world-in-saving-extremel... [1] https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-details/GHO/neonatal-mortality-rate-(per-1000-live-births) https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-detai... [2] https://www.reddbarna.no/born-too-soon-the-global-action-report-on-preterm-birth?pid=RB-DMFileBase-DownloadFile https://www.reddbarna.no/born-too-soon-the-global-action-rep... [3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5346062/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5346062/ [4] http://chartsbin.com/view/1445 http://chartsbin.com/view/1445 Edit: spelling

xyzelement 6y ago

// but I have no idea how I could claim it was better than anywhere in the world. I'm asking because you seem to be making a low-hyperbole claim here: what is your basis for saying that? Conversations with friends and family abroad. // Particularly, when the US has some of the worst metrics for infant mortality, birth weights, and mother mortality rates in the developed world. Not an expert but I understand there's a ton of measurement variability. Something like: Baby born 3 months premature and dies shortly after. Many countries just consider that still birth and it doesn't count towards infant mortality. In the US we actually fight to save these kids so if they die, they count towards infant mortality. Perhaps weight at birth works the same way?

5cents 6y ago
All countries do their best, and Sweden seems to be the most successful country at the moment [0]. Neonatal mortality rate in Sweden was 1.38 per thousand in 2019, compared to 1.4 in Norwy, 2.77 in the UK and 3.7 in the US [1]. But you are right that the rate of premature births is higher in the US than most European countries (10-15% in the Us compared to <10% in Europe) [2], and so is the rate of very preterm births (14.1 per thousand in the US compared to 8.3 in Norway, 7.7 in Sweden and 6.7 in Finland) [3]. It is likely that the rate of premature births is also a sign of the quality of maternal care. The rate of still birth in 2009 in the US was 2.95/1000 compared to 2.74 in Sweden and 2.2 in Norwy [4] That the statistics of neonatal deaths are manipulated is also a bold claim, it deserves some references? [0] https://news.ki.se/sweden-leads-the-world-in-saving-extremely-preterm-babies https://news.ki.se/sweden-leads-the-world-in-saving-extremel... [1] https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-details/GHO/neonatal-mortality-rate-(per-1000-live-births) https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-detai... [2] https://www.reddbarna.no/born-too-soon-the-global-action-report-on-preterm-birth?pid=RB-DMFileBase-DownloadFile https://www.reddbarna.no/born-too-soon-the-global-action-rep... [3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5346062/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5346062/ [4] http://chartsbin.com/view/1445 http://chartsbin.com/view/1445 Edit: spelling