Veteran midwife Donna Young prides herself on delivering healthy babies. In 20 years, she has coached hundreds of pregnant women in this energy boomtown. She calls them her girls. When one mother delivered a stillborn infant in May 2013 — Youngs first-ever such fatality — she grieved with the parents, who had a plaster cast made of the hands and feet of the daughter they named Natalie. While attending the funeral at Rock Point Cemetery, Young noticed new grave markers for seven other infants. Another five babies were soon buried there, she said, bringing the total to 13 for the year. Young isnt sure how many were stillborn and how many died before their first birthday. Yet she knew one thing: All of the mothers had carried their babies to term in Vernal. Young asked herself: Was this an aberration? Or was there a common cause? Could the deaths be tied to the oil industry, the regions economic powerhouse?
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 19:02:35 +0000
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