YOU MUST ACT NOW to save the home birth option for New York Women:

Call:

*311

*Wendy Saunders, Executive Deputy Commissioner for the NY State Department of Health,                                 appointed by Governor Paterson.  518-474-8390

*Larry Mokhiber, the Secretary of the Board of Midwifery (518-474-3817, extension 130)

With the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital, half of the licensed, highly trained home birth midwives serving NYC have lost their Written Practice Agreement (WPA).   St Vincent’s was the only Hospital in the city supportive of a woman’s right to choose a home birth and willing to sign a WPA.  In the weeks since it’s announced closure, these midwives have reached out to hospitals and obstetricians all across the city looking for support, with no success.  Please help us to save the homebirth option in New York.

People can also email the Governor at http://www.state.ny.us/governor/contact/GovernorContactForm.php.

Face of Birth

Where the personal Gets Political

Homebirth Australia

It has struck me lately how I can easily predict how progressed a woman’s labor is and have always been right, but only when she is laboring at home.  In the hospital, I am always wrong, every single time.  In the hospital, my clients are always struggling, despite the fabulous support I provide, a little more a little earlier on.  They’ve left their comfortable homes, taken off their familiar clothes, limited their mobility and often agreed to even more invasive procedures than those.  I really should give myself a break.  It’s no wonder they seem to be in hot and heavy labor when things are just beginning.

I realized that I do not want to be a midwife because, even at a homebirth, some time I may have to actually deliver a baby.  I don’t want to deliver babies.  I just want to catch them.  I just want to be there with the woman throughout her prenatal journey and watch her as she labors in her uninhibited, instinctual mammalian glory.  I don’t want to have to use sutures or syringes afterward either.

Oh, here’s a big one:  I don’t drive.  Have you seen how much stuff  homebirth midwives lug around?  It looks like they’re moving to Europe.  Most of it doesn’t get used, but if you need it, you want it to be there.  I think that many people picture homebirths happening with a long-haired woman who walks in wearing Birkenstocks  and carrying a satchel of herbs.  I would probably be wearing more fashionable footwear and would need my driver to bring the luggage in for me.  Sounds good, actually.

Still, I want to soak in lots of information.  I am a midwife at heart and would like to be a midwife in head.  Being a midwife in practice isn’t really necessary.  That’s my decision right now and I look forward to going back and forth on that one.