Save Homebirth in New York City
Posted by doularama | Filed under News, Recommendations
At midnight tomorrow, April 30th, the majority of New York City’s home birth midwives will no longer be able to practice legally. Unless immediate action is taken by the Governor and the NYS Department of Health the women that these midwives serve will be denied access to a home birth with their chosen provider and these providers will no longer be able to practice legally in NYS.
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.
Tags: home birth, Homebirth, Midwives, St. Vincent's Hospital
Face of Birth- Homebirth Documentary
Posted by doularama | Filed under News, Recommendations
This preview was a tear-jerker. I’m sure that watching the film will make me angry. I a hope it makes many, many people angry!
Face of Birth
Where the personal Gets Political
Tags: Australia, documentary, home birth, Homebirth
To Be or Not To Be a Midwife
Posted by doularama | Filed under Uncategorized
Often, after attending a homebirth, I want to become a midwife. I am fortunate to be able to attend them as often as I do. Recently, I made my final decision, for now. I will do some self study work in case, when my children are older, I really want to delve in. Still, I can’t imagine that I would want to do it more than part-time and I would only attend homebirths.
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.
Tags: home birth, Homebirth, midwife, midwifery
The Safety of Homebirth Reviewed
Posted by doularama | Filed under News, Recommendations
Following is an abstract of a study that demonstrates the safety of midwife-attended homebirths from The Canadian Medical Association Journal. This is extremely important! People quote and misquote the findings of a very flawed study to say that homebirth is not safe and they are just wrong. Dr. Marsden Wagner, in his book Born in the USA, does a wonderful job of educating his readers on this. Too bad we’re not all his readers!
Outcomes of planned home birth with registered midwife versus planned hospital birth with midwife or physician.
Patricia A. Janssen PhD, Lee Saxell MA, Lesley A. Page PhD, Michael C. Klein MD, Robert M. Liston MD, Shoo K. Lee MBBS PhD
ABSTRACT
Background: Studies of planned home births attended by registered midwives have been limited by incomplete data, nonrepresentative sampling, inadequate statistical power and the inability to exclude unplanned home births. We compared the outcomes of planned home births attended by midwives with those of planned hospital births attended by midwives or physicians.
Methods: We included all planned home births attended by registered midwives from Jan. 1, 2000, to Dec. 31, 2004, in British Columbia, Canada (n = 2889), and all planned hospital births meeting the eligibility requirements for home birth that were attended by the same cohort of midwives (n = 4752). We also included a matched sample of physician-attended planned hospital births (n = 5331). The primary outcome measure was perinatal mortality; secondary outcomes were obstetric interventions and adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes.
Results: The rate of perinatal death per 1000 births was 0.35 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.00–1.03) in the group of planned home births; the rate in the group of planned hospital births was 0.57 (95% CI 0.00–1.43) among women attended by a midwife and 0.64 (95% CI 0.00–1.56) among those attended by a physician. Wo men in the planned home-birth group were significantly less likely than those who planned a midwife-attended hospital birth to have obstetric interventions (e.g., electronic fetal monitoring, relative risk [RR] 0.32, 95% CI 0.29–0.36; assisted vaginal delivery, RR 0.41, 95% 0.33–0.52) or adverse maternal outcomes (e.g., third- or fourth-degree perineal tear, RR 0.41, 95% CI 0.28–0.59; postpartum hemorrhage, RR 0.62, 95% CI 0.49–0.77). The findings were similar in the comparison with physician-assisted hospital births. Newborns in the home-birth group were less likely than those in the midwife-attended hospital-birth group to require resuscitation at birth (RR 0.23, 95% CI 0.14–0.37) or oxygen therapy beyond 24 hours (RR 0.37, 95% CI 0.24–0.59). The findings were similar in the comparison with newborns in the physician-assisted hospital births; in addition, newborns in the home-birth group were less likely to have meconium aspiration (RR 0.45, 95% CI 0.21–0.93) and more likely to Abstract be admitted to hospital or readmitted if born in hospital (RR 1.39, 95% CI 1.09–1.85).
Interpretation: Planned home birth attended by a registered midwife was associated with very low and comparable rates of perinatal death and reduced rates of obstetric interventions and other adverse perinatal outcomes compared with planned hospital birth attended by a midwife or physician.
Tags: Born in the USA, Canadian Medical Association, Homebirth, Marsden Wagner
