[Avodah] childbirth as a time of sakana

[T613K at aol.com]

In Avodah Digest, Vol 25, Issue 337 dated 9/22/2008 R' Daniel Eidensohn  
quoted R' Moshe Feinstein:

Igros  Moshe (Y.D. 2:74): Concerning inducing premature childbirth.

"In my  humble opinion it is prohibited to induce premature childbirth 
because  childbirth in its natural time in the natural way is not 
considered a  danger at all....  We must 
conclude that there is absolutely no  danger in childbirth at all. That 
mean that G-d promised that there would  never be danger in childbirth. 
This that it happens that women die during  childbirth is only because 
they were liable to punishment as is stated in  Shabbos (31). "There are 
three sins for which women die during  childbirth". According to this 
reasoning it is only when childbirth is in  its natural time that there 
is a promise that there is no inherent danger.  The punishment that is 
the result of the sin of the Tree of Knowledge is  only to have birth 
pains and not death chas v'shalom! However when they  want to induce 
premature labor there is no guarantee of safety....  "


-------
 
 
 
In Avodah Digest, Vol 25, Issue 373 dated 11/3/2008 "Chana  Luntz" 
_Chana at kolsassoon.org.uk_ (mailto:Chana at kolsassoon.org.uk)  wrote:






>>After all, it is completely accepted in the sources that a  yoledet hi
k'chola sheyesh bo sakana (as stated explicitly in Shulchan Aruch  Orech
Chaim siman 329 si'if 1) with the consequence that, as stated in  the
following words of the Shulchan Aruch "umechalelin aleha b'shabbat  l'kol
mashetztricha".  And the gemora in shabbat 128b clearly regards  the fact
that we are mechallel shabbas for such a woman as a  p'shita.<<



>>>>>
In Time magazine, dated Sept. 29, 2008, there's a  four-page article entitled 
"Death in Birth," complete with haunting  photographs, e.g., of an African 
man holding his motherless  newborn.    Here's an excerpt:
 
--quote--
 
Death in childbirth is not just something you find in a Victorian  novel.  
Every year, about 536,000 women die giving birth.  In some  poor nations, dying 
in childbirth is so common that almost everyone has known a  victim.  Take 
Sierra Leone, a West African nation with just 6.3 million  people: women there 
have a 1 in 8 chance of dying in childbirth during their  lifetime.  The same 
miserable odds apply in Afghanistan.  In the U.S.,  by contrast, the lifetime 
chance that a woman will die in childbirth is about 1  in 4,800....In 20 years 
-- two decades that have seen spectacular medical  breakthroughs -- the ratio 
of maternal deaths to babies born has barely budged  in poor 
countries....Though many die in hospitals, researchers say the riskiest  births are those 
without any nurse, midwife or doctor in attendance -- about 35%  of all the world's 
births.  
 
--end quote--
 
PS They're not saying that one third of all the world's births end in  
maternal death, but that a third take place without benefit of any medical help  -- 
and those births are very risky.  A one in eight chance of dying is  pretty 
high and certainly doesn't sound like childbirth is just a "natural  process" 
with little danger.  





--Toby  Katz
=============




**************Plan your next getaway with AOL Travel.  Check out Today's Hot 
5 Travel Deals! 
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212416248x1200771803/aol?redir=http://travel.aol.com/discount-travel?ncid=emlcntustrav00000001)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20081104/94632a01/attachment-0001.htm>