Two women found guilty of illegal midwifery

re: Two women found guilty of illegal midwifery

Laura Shanley — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:05:26 GMT

I've been writing about unassisted childbirth (UC) for many years and have never known anyone who has been prosecuted for having one. UC's are legal in every state except Nebraska where it is a misdemeanor for a father to deliver his baby in a non-emergency situation (it doesn't say anything about the mother catching the baby). However the couples I know in Neb. who have had UC's haven't been hassled. The case in Florida is sad, but it can't really be classified as either a UC (as I define it) or a midwife assisted birth. The women weren't trained in midwifery, but they also didn't encourage the woman to listen to her body and trust her own instincts. The birthing mother knew something was wrong but told her mother that she was going to defer to her husband because he was the head of the household. Neither midwives or UCer's should be judged by this case. Thankfully births like this are rare. The majority of homebirths, both unassisted and midwife assisted are successful.

re: Two women found guilty of illegal midwifery

Heather — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:29:04 GMT

You are misrepresenting the site you provided a link for. This site provides the academic coursework online but you are required to do the clinicals/hands-on training in your community, under the supervision of a certified/licensed professional.

re: Two women found guilty of illegal midwifery

tiffer — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 02:25:00 GMT

This story is about an untrained AND unlicensed midwife. It sounds like it was really irresponsible of them to do this. By the way, I don't think you can get licensed online to become a midwife. That link you provided looked like it was to get a certificate, which I would imagine MUST be different than licensing.

re: Two women found guilty of illegal midwifery

Meredith — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:46:19 GMT

I recently had a great home birth. Trained midwives attending a birth are COMPLETELY different. It is sad and tragic what happened here, but to discount midwifes and the practice of home births - which are legal in many places and even covered by insurance- is narrow minded.

In the UK, there was a recent upset because it was discovered that only about 40% of women were offered home birth. Home birth statistics are very clear about the safety and effacy of a home birth with a mother who is healthy and had proper prenatal care and is working with a trained, experienced midwife.

FYI: most home birth transfers are non emergency and happen because the midwife recognizes a potential for a problem in the mother or the baby. I highly doubt a trained midwife would have had this happen. This is a tragic case, but it would be nice to see some good coverage of home births that aren't about somebody trying to do an illegal one or one of the few cases where things go wrong. Things go wrong in hospitals in the US - we have the highest mortality rates of any industrialized country - and less than 1% of those births are at home - so I highly doubt that home birth is to blame but it gets all the tragic press.

re: Two women found guilty of illegal midwifery

Cassie — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:20:57 GMT

I guess a trained midwife would know the signs of bleeding to death and an atatched placenta and would have gotten medical attention for the dying woman. They just sound like really dumb people to me. Watching someone bleed to death is horrible. She trusted them and they let her suffer and die over two days time. How awful.