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S M Damstra-Wijmenga

Publications and source records attributed to S M Damstra-Wijmenga.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Safest birth attendants: recent Dutch evidence.

Analysis of national perinatal statistics from Holland, 1986, demonstrates that for all births after 32 weeks' gestation mortality is much lower under the non-interventionist care of midwives than under the interventionist management of obstetricians at all levels of predicted risk. This finding confirms with great authority the conclusions of all earlier impartial analyses from Britain and other countries which agree in contradicting the claims on which the organisation of maternity services in most developed countries is now based, namely, that childbirth is made so much safer by the application of high technology that only this option should be provided.

Female↗
PubMed1991

The memory of the new-born baby.

In a pilot study 28 new-born babies (average age about 38 hours) were investigated to see whether they could already recognise their mother's voice and other sounds to which they had been exposed before birth. More than half of the babies who could be observed while awake did indeed appear to pay special attention to their mother's voice, but not to any other woman's voice, nor to a lullaby which the mother had played to them regularly in late pregnancy. Most of the new-born babies, who had been regularly exposed to an alarming noise in late pregnancy, were not startled by such a noise, either when sleeping or awake. In contrast, all the neonates without such previous exposure did show a startled reaction to the alarming noise.

Female↗
PubMed1984

Home confinement: the positive results in Holland.

This study was an objective evaluation of the outcome of home confinement, which is still common in Holland, compared with delivery in hospital. To this end, 1,692 women in Groningen were interviewed three weeks after confinement to find out how their pregnancy, delivery and childbed period had progressed according to the place of confinement, and to obtain facts about the morbidity of their babies.Among women who had opted for home confinement (if allowed) significantly fewer complications occurred during pregnancy, delivery or puerperium than among those who had their babies in hospital. Morbidity was also lower among babies born at home. The study suggests that it is a responsible decision for a normal healthy woman given the right kind of antenatal supervision to have her baby at home with the least risk of complications.

Adolescent↗