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Originally Posted by J_9

Elliot, I'm not here to argue anything. I'm here for a friendly discussion. No, I don't believe mothers in Columbia or Dominica are better educated. But, then again, where I live is not much different than those places.

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And I'll bet that young mothers-to-be STILL get better pre-natal care than anyone in those countries.

And that is the point, isn't it? Our system is better, not because our statistical NUMBERS are better, but because our patients receive better care and experience better outcomes. That is the only true measure of a health care system's effectiveness. And we've got every other country in the world beat on patient outcomes. Yes, we spend more... but we also get more for it.

Elliot

You are correct Elliot, aside from the fact that not all mothers get prenatal care or adequate prenatal care.

You would be surprised to find how many mothers, after the first baby, don't think they need prenatal care because "they were pregnant before and there were no problems." Many women don't get this care because they have "been there done that" and think they know everything.

Also, with the rise of teen pregnancies, many teen girls are afraid to get care so that their parents don't find out that they are pregnant. Yes, I've seen a girl give birth in the toilet because she was in such denial she thought she had a stomach virus and never told her parents she was pregnant.

Luckily here we have choices. Now some people don't take advantage of the medical care and that's their choice. In the other third-world countries those women don't have the luxury of those choices.