SAN ANTONIO – Close to 200, mainly women, gathered in the city's medical district on Monday in part of a nation-wide rally for better maternity care in the America.
The National Rally for Change on Labor Day was organized in more than 100 major cities to bring awareness to the lack of evidence-based maternity care.
Organizers are calling on health care providers to look at outdated practices, such as rampant cesarean sections, and make changes to policy based on scientific evidence.
"I think this is the biggest thing woman have done as a group in this country in a long, long time," said local rally organizer Tiffany Hartnett.
According to improvingbirths.org, mothers die at a higher rate during child birth in the United States than in most other industrialized countries, despite spending more on maternity care than any other country.
"I think that's shocking,” Hartnett said. “I think that's very upsetting. I think your average mom that's about to give birth in this country has no idea that women die at the rate that they do in the U.S."
Many at the rally Monday blame the high rate of unnecessary cesarean sections for the higher mortality rate. Others in the medical field site obesity and diabetes as even larger contributing factors.
Rallies were also held in five other Texas cities on Monday.
