This coming week, the legislative committee in Raleigh will vote on whether or not the state should develop a licensing process for Certified Professional Midwives. This process will cost the state nothing....yes, you read correctly, FREE! The cost will be absorbed by the midwives applying for the license. Not only does it not cost the state, but the normalization of home birth will in all probability save our state money. In this time of tragic economics, why would our representatives vote against something that is win-win for NC? I think you should ask them.
I know what some who are unfamiliar with home birth and the skill level of Certified Professional Midwives are thinking. Have babies at home? What? Isn't that dangerous? What if there is an emergency? I don't blame you for asking these questions. If the only thing you know about home birth is from reading the paper, then you are probably horrified. Articles devoid of fact and chock full of ignorant opinion are rampant. Haywood Brown is one of those writers and he demonstrates his editorial ability in this article: http://heraldsun.com/view/full_story/13326332/article-N-C--should-not-li
The fact is that the safety of home birth has been proven. This makes some people fuming mad. Many obstetricians are offended at the thought that anyone besides one of their own could deliver a healthy baby to a healthy mother. They choose to believe the untruths that suit their purposes and ramble on about unskilled attendants and the "what ifs" as if a home birth midwife walks into a birth with some boiled water and a prayer. The truth is that most obstetricians have no idea what the education of a Certified Professional Midwife entails. They haven't the first clue at the professionalism and precision with which a home birth with a CPM is handled. I have heard comments from physicians and other hospital staff such as, "Oh, so they(CPM's) are certified in neonatal resuscitation?" or "Oh, so they do carry instruments." This is an insult to birthing women...that their physicians would offer such opinions on something they know so little about.
But understand that not all physicians feel that way. Here locally, Dr. Henry Dorn of High Point, NC, believes in the skill of midwives and the right of the woman to choose her place of birth. Read about his views here: http://www.theunnecesarean.com/blog/2010/12/10/an-alternative-obgyn-birth-plan.html
Of course, doctors like him don't support these choices without paying a price. As a doula, I watch other physicians blackball and bully these doctors...refusing to support them if they are ever sued and causing attitudes of tension and indignation between the nurses in the hospitals where they practice.
A vote of "no" in the legislative committee will support this behavior. It will support the notion that women are a species to be controlled and managed. It will support the ideology that pregnant women are too ignorant to educate themselves about pregnancy and birth and need to be led rather than have an active voice in their care. It will say that the practice of liability based medical decisions and interventions should continue whether or not it is best for the patient. It doesn't matter that it costs our state money and lives(check out NC's maternal and infant mortality). It doesn't matter that our cesarean rate is more than double the the World Health Organization's recommended 15%.
Many of my clients....and I do mean MANY....are currently driving over 45 miles to seek out the care that they want for their pregnancy and birth. Many are willing to take their dollars into our bordering states that have realized their value and they are birthing there.
Yet doctors still claim that mothers and babies will start dying all around us if CPM's are legalized. Yet, none of them can explain why this is not happening in Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee where CPM's practice legally. None of them can explain why North Carolina's maternal and infant mortality are not improving. None of them can explain why babies and mothers still die in the hospital where all of the life saving equipment that they claim is absolutely necessary is available and at an arms reach. A vote of "no" will say to NC women that your only choice is the hospital where they are not achieving the same standard that they are setting for midwives, but that is ok because they have "MD" behind their name.
Yes, mothers and babies die or are injured during birth. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Many times, it is beyond the control of any person, machine or intervention. Life happens....death happens. This will always be. A vote of "yes" or "no" will never change that.
But a vote of "no" will say that our system doesn't need to change or improve. It will say that what we have now is satisfactory even though statistics show that NC is not anywhere near the safest place in the US to give birth. It will say to all women, whether they birth at home or the hospital, that it is just not worth raising the standard for you. Because you see, the availability of a more appealing form of care will force doctors to change their ways if they want to keep their business. They may actually have to admit that pregnancy is not a disease and that women are valuable and smart enough in our society to be informed and have a say in their pregnancy and birth. What a radical concept.
I have attended over 100 births as a doula. No matter what anyone says, I see first hand how all of this plays out in both hospital and home. Women who want normal birth have few options that are stress free and don't involve arguing and being scolded by your physician. And little by little, women are beginning to question.....to study.....to empower themselves and realize that they are capable of normal birth. They see through the lies of people like out of work physician, Dr. Amy Tuteur who not only decries natural birth, but taunts and insults the women who want it. Mothers are realizing that this is contributing to the devaluing of women in our society and they refuse that for themselves and for their own daughters. On a local level, we listen to the angry rants of people like Tara Servatius, formerly of WBT talk radio, who are beyond accepting fact and seem to enjoy spewing fiction to the public just to make this group of women who would choose empowered birth look selfish and reckless. Women read Haywood Brown's opinion and realize that he and others like him have no desire to see them be treated better or to be kept safer. Their desires are rooted in their own egos and agendas. A vote of "no" supports those egos and agendas and says that the value of women is expendable.
Lastly, a vote of "no" says to North Carolina women that your voice is small and unimportant. North Carolina women have driven hours with children in tow to stand on the lawn en masse in Raleigh. They write, they call, they carry signs. They have rallied. They are not asking for the right to birth at home. This IS their right. They are simply asking for the access to an accountable, licensed professional to be there to help facilitate a safe birth.
Will NC say no to safety? Will NC say that it does not value its women? Will NC say that the rich physicians of the medical society and ACOG are the only people qualified to facilitate birth in NC? Will NC FORCE all women into the hospitals where they are not making the grade?
Next week, when the committee votes....these questions will be answered with a very simple "yes" or "no." So pay attention, NC women. Your worth is about to be determined.
