Free the Midwives? Alabama Midwifery Groups Hope to Emulate the Success of "Free the Hops"

Truer words were never spoken. (4.00 / 3)

Alabama is a "Red State" filled with people who supposedly don't want government all up in our personal business.  But, as we've seen time and time again, the state government doesn't mind interfering with womens' lives and personal business.  In fact, when you're talking  about reproductive choices, interference is generally state policy.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Politically, Alabama citizens probably have a negative connotation with the word midwife--which might as well say "hippie" in their minds. That will be hard to change. Maybe we could say instead "free the expectant mothers". Wait--that would be insinuating that women could make choices, and we all know that the powers that be in Alabama don't want women to make choices....  What an endless cycle of patriarchal freak-out.

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by: melmel @ Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 09:18:19 AM CST

Good point! (4.00 / 1)

we all know that the powers that be in Alabama don't want women to make choices.... What an endless cycle of patriarchal freak-out.

This attitude is ripe for change. 

Work harder and work smarter!

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by: mooncat @ Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 10:26:09 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Thanks, countrycat! (4.00 / 3)

This is an important issue for many women and their families.  I had a doula in attendance at the birth of our youngest daughter, and she made all the difference in the world when it came to keeping us relaxed and advocating for what we wanted.  I'm not sure she'd be allowed in with us now.  (She wasn't providing medical care, just incredible support, but the same mindset that doesn't want to allow midwife-attended home birth objects to doulas also.  They might encourage the mother to make her own choices.  Scary, I know.)

Follow the money on the midwife issue.  Hospitals don't want to lose the revenue and neither do obstetricians.  They'll use plenty of scare tactics to maintain their monopoly.

Sure, none of us never need or want this service, but this really seems like an issue where we should trust Alabama women to make their own choices.

I'd add a "may" between "us" and "never".  I won't be in need of it in the future, but I have three daughters who might someday.

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by: Kathy @ Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 10:09:30 AM CST

Correcting the sentence (0.00 / 0)

Thanks Kathy, that's what I meant to say.  And at some point, the diary did say that, but apparently my fast fingers got ahead of my reading comprehension!

I'm editing the diary so that point actually, well... makes sense!  ;-)

Never try to teach a pig to sing.  It wastes your time and annoys the pig.

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by: countrycat @ Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 10:40:19 AM CST

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coupla things (0.00 / 0)

I lived for a few years in a heavily-Amish area, where Midwives were the norm. The Amish only resorted to hospital births if there were complications. Since expectant mothers now have routine ultrasounds, there is a very good chance that a 'complicated' birth will have plenty of advance notice.

I'm wondering why the law came about? Who benefits from it? Who is liable if something goes wrong?

I believe midwives usually practice, like other Nurse-Professionals, under an MD's license. Is this the problem? Are the OB-GYN's, who have some of the highest malpractice insurance, unwilling to allow nurses to practice under their license unless it's in a hospital? I couldn't really blame them if that were the case. BECAUSE:

CNMs will have a lower death rate because they are hospital-based, and do not deliver problem pregnancies. The doc will take those patients, which will skew the results somewhat.

No wonder the Midwives Alliance of North American (MANA), the trade union for homebirth midwives, is suppressing their safety statistics. From 2001-2008, they have collected the single largest repository of data on homebirth. The data is publicly available, but only to those who can prove they will use them for the “advancement” of midwifery, and even then, a legal non-disclosure agreement must be signed as part of the process. MANA’s data may very well confirm that homebirth with a DEM has triple the neonatal mortality rate of hospital birth for comparable risk women in the same year.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=2392

*note: author of the study is an MD: OB-GYN

When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.---Mark Twain

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by: julie @ Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 14:09:01 PM CST

According to Burdeshaw, the MDs are opposed. (0.00 / 0)

Not only to home births - which I can partially understand. You'd want to be pretty close to a hospital just in case - but also to free standing birthing centers that are quite well-equipped and either nearby hospitals or even a part of the hospital complex in many cases.

Here's what I received from Ms. Burdeshaw:

Below is the AMA resolution called SOPP (Scope of Practice Partnership ) IT is the REAL problem. It states that The AMA is out to rid the nation of "other" healthcare providers that they do not recognize.

(1) RESOLUTION 814 - LIMITED LICENSURE HEALTH CARE

PROVIDER TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION STANDARDS

RECOMMENDATION:

Madam Speaker, your Reference Committee recommends that

Resolution 814 be amended by insertion on lines 1-6 to read as

follows:

RESOLVED, That our American Medical Association, along with

the Scope of Practice Partnership and interested Federation

partners, study the qualifications, education, academic

requirements, licensure, certification, independent governance,

ethical standards, disciplinary processes, and peer review of the

limited licensure health care providers, including but not limited to,

chiropractors, optometrists, nurse anesthetists, advanced practice

nurses, podiatrists, and psychologists, and limited independent

practitioners, as identified by the Scope of Practice Partnership

and report back at the 2006 Annual Meeting. (Directive to Take

Action)

HOD ACTION: Resolution 814 adopted as amended.

Resolution 814 asks that our AMA study the qualifications, education, academic requirements,

licensure, certification, independent governance, ethical standards, disciplinary processes, and

peer review of the limited licensure health care providers, including but not limited to,

chiropractors, optometrists, nurse anesthetists, advanced practice nurses, podiatrists, and

psychologists, and report back at the 2006 Annual Meeting.

Your Reference Committee heard supportive testimony on Resolution 814. A member of the

Board of Trustees testified that the AMA’s Scope of Practice Partnership closely follows the

intent of the resolution. The Scope of Practice Partnership is a newly created, cooperative effort

with the AMA and selected national state medical associations and medical specialty societies.

Your Reference Committee recommends the resolution be modified, in order to allow the Scope

of Practice Partnership flexibility in determining which limited licensed health care practitioners

need to be studied. Your Reference Committee understands that a report back at the 2006

Annual Meeting may only be a preliminary update on the Partnership’s progress on this issue.

However, the Committee concurs with testimony presented, and that this is an important issue

that the AMA should be addressing as soon as possible. Your Reference Committee

recommends that Resolution 814 be adopted as amended.

I'd say part of it is money and part is the God complex that too many (although not all) physicians seem to have.

btw... Ms. Burdeshaw told me that Parker Griffith was one of their biggest allies in the legislature when he was in Montgomery.

Who would have guessed?

Never try to teach a pig to sing.  It wastes your time and annoys the pig.

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by: countrycat @ Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 17:55:34 PM CST

[ Parent ]