Yaz, Yasmin birth control pills suspected in 23 deaths - CBC News

Accessed 4^th September 2013

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/06/11/birth-control-pills-yaz-yasmin.html

Yaz, Yasmin birth control pills suspected in 23 deaths

Most died from blood clots, Health Canada documents obtained by CBC News show

CBC News 

Posted: Jun 11, 2013 5:51 AM PT Last Updated: Jun 11, 2013 7:45 AM PT 

At least 23 Canadian women who were taking two of the most commonly prescribed birth control pills in the world have died, CBC News has learned.

According to documents obtained from Health Canada, doctors and pharmacists say Yaz and Yasmin are suspected in the deaths of the women, who mostly died suddenly from blood clots.

One of the women, 18-year-old Miranda Scott, was working out on an elliptical machine at the Okanagan gym at the University of British Columbia when she collapsed and died three years ago, said her mother, Chip McClaughry, who is involved in a class-action lawsuit against Bayer, the maker of the birth-control pills.

'When she was on the ground she said, "I can't breathe," and then, you know, she was gone.'—Chip McClaughry, Miranda Scott's mother

"She fell backwards into the person behind her and then, I guess, when she was on the ground she said, 'I can't breathe,' and then, you know, she was gone," McClaughry said at her home in Delta, B.C.

McClaughry had no idea what had happened to her athletic, healthy young daughter, but she started to investigate.

"As soon as I heard that she had been on Yasmin, I thought, 'I'm just going to look that up,' and I did, and I thought: 'Oh my God, this is what's killed her," she said.

Risk of blood clots rises

According to Scott's autopsy, she died of "disseminated intravascular coagulation," which means that blood clots formed inside blood vessels throughout her body.

Matthew Baer, of the Siskinds law firm, represents hundreds of Ontario women in a certified class-action lawsuit against Bayer that alleges Yaz and Yasmin have an increased risk of serious side-effects, including blood clots.

report concluded she had died after blood clots formed throughout her body, a complication sometimes reported with birth control hormones. (CBC)

"[Scott's] autopsy report did say that there was a pulmonary embolism, which again is a blood clot in the lung," he said. "The major side-effect that we're alleging is worse with Yasmin than with the other oral contraceptives, [which] is an increase of blood clots."

Certification of the class action is not a finding of fault against Bayer.

While Bayer has already paid more than $1 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits in the U.S., the drug company tells CBC News it stands by its products.

Both Yaz and Yasmin, which are sometimes called "newer-generation" birth control pills, includes a synthetic progestin, drospirenone, which is exclusive to Bayer.

Teen girls as young as 14

In 2011, Health Canada issued a warning about Yaz and Yasmin, saying the risk of blood clots, which is rare overall, is 1.5 to 3 times higher with the drospirenone-containing pills than with some other birth control pills.

While one in 10,000 women on older birth control pills will develop blood clots, as many as three in 10,000 will develop blood clots on Yaz or Yasmin.

According to the documents obtained from Health Canada, between 2007 and February 2013, doctors and pharmacists have reported 600 adverse reactions and 23 deaths where Yaz or Yasmin were suspected. More than half of the reported deaths were women under 26, with the youngest age 14.

Most of the deaths reported occurred soon after starting the pills. In Scott's case, it was just over a month.

"And that was all it took, five weeks start to finish, and that was the end of a beautiful, beautiful girl," her mother said.

Lawyer says deaths underreported

Tony Merchant, a lawyer representing 1,000 women outside Ontario — including Scott — is seeking to certify a second class-action lawsuit in Canada against Bayer this fall.

'There are about thirty or forty deaths that we think are known, but that is usually just the tip of the iceberg.'—Tony Merchant, class action lawyer

Merchant said the number of deaths potentially associated with Yasmin or Yaz may be largely underreported because doctors may not realize there is a link between the cause of death and the risks of the pills.

"There are about 30 or 40 deaths that we think are known, but that is usually just the tip of the iceberg because all sorts of people will have died.... [Their families] don't know anything about the litigation, they don't know anything about the problem," he said.

Merchant said hundreds of patients who have approached his firm have had gallbladders removed, or have had strokes or blood clots and now must take blood thinners for the rest of their lives.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Bayer stands by Yasmin, Yaz

In a written statement to CBC News, Bayer said it is fighting the certification of the first Canadian class-action suit, the one in Ontario, which alleges women died or were injured by Yaz and Yasmin:

"We are very disappointed in Justice Crane's decision to certify a class in Ontario in an ongoing lawsuit regarding Yaz and Yasmin. No decision has been made on the merits of the case. We have filed a request with the Court for leave to appeal the decision and are evaluating our legal options... At Bayer patient safety comes first and we fully stand behind, Yaz and Yasmin."

Bayer is scheduled to appear in court in Ontario on Sept. 4.

The World Needs More Midwives By Esther Madudu, Ugandan Midwife

Accessed 16^th August 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/esther-madudu/midwives-africa_b_3644521.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

 

The World Needs More Midwives

By Esther Madudu, Ugandan Midwife

 

Posted: 07/24/2013 11:02 am

A motherless baby begins life at a disadvantage. In addition to missing maternal love, the baby is at risk for malnourishment, infection and a host of other problems. My skills as a midwife are vital to saving the lives of mothers every day, but they also go beyond delivering babies. I help to educate women with proper healthcare information and campaign for maternal health to be prioritized.

I was only a young child the first time my grandmother, a traditional birth attendant in rural Uganda, allowed me to watch her assist a mother giving birth. That was the moment I knew I wanted to dedicate my life to bringing babies into the world.

Little did I know then that many mothers die during childbirth. Having been a midwife now for over 12 years, I also know that most of these mothers do not have to die. With a skilled midwife present at birth, over 90 percent of maternal deaths can be prevented.

But maternal mortality remains a heavy burden in sub-Saharan Africa where around 162,000 mothers die every year, leaving close to one million African children motherless. The reason is that 40 percent of African women do not receive basic prenatal care, and more than half of all deliveries take place at home without medical assistance.

Pregnant mothers who do receive medical care often have to walk great distances to get to a facility. There are days I have to walk to meet mothers who cannot make it to the health center in rural Uganda where I work, only to find they have already delivered by the time I've arrived. Once I found a woman giving birth next to a swamp because she could walk no further. The baby's head was out and because she was so close to the water she almost drowned the baby.

My heart breaks to watch mothers go through such agonizing pain to give birth. As one of three midwives at the Atiriri Health Centre in Katine, Uganda, I work 13 hours most days and attend up to five births every day. Resources at the health center are scarce. We have no electricity, which makes delivering babies at night a real challenge. We often use candles, kerosene lamps and even light from our cell phones to see the baby coming out or to stop the mother's bleeding.

Even under such trying circumstances, I am happy to say that in the four years that I have been at the health center, no mother has died in childbirth.

This week, I shared my experiences at the Africa Regional Conference of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM). With partners such as the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) and Johnson & Johnson, the ICM conference was an opportunity for African midwives to be recognized and to come together to share best practices, learn new skills and call for stronger health policy and systems for improving midwifery.

Once trained, a single midwife can provide care for 500 women every year, including safe delivery of 100 babies. In its report in April, Missing Midwives, Save the Children estimated that 350,000 more midwives are needed around the world to help reduce maternal and child deaths. But midwifery training is very expensive for most women in Africa.

We need midwives in Africa more than ever before. I am honored to have been chosen by AMREF to be the face of its Stand Up for African Mothers campaign to raise awareness of the plight of African midwives and African mothers. AMREF has set a goal to train 15,000 new midwives by 2015 to reduce maternal death in Africa.

Without significant extra funds and effort, the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to cut death rates among women and children are unlikely to be met in many countries by the 2015 deadline. Please show your support by sending a letter to America's leaders asking them to protect global health funding and increase support for maternal, newborn and child-health programs.