Monday, April 25, 2011

Silence, the attempted key to success in the midwifery community

It was recently brought to my attention that a mother who wrote a review for BirthCare, out of Alexandria VA, had her posts removed. This review was the ONLY negative one written. What had this client said so bad?? Her baby died after a breech delivery. Gosh, what was she thinking sharing anything negative, right? Sadly, this is not the only example of a woman silenced in the name of midwifery.

On MDC, don't you dare talk about a midwife not being good. If an arrest is made, question the government and support the midwife regardless. Remember that the baby would of died no matter what. However, if a dr or nurse screws up, shout it all over and help the activism movement. I have read all about women's experiences with Karen and she certainly prided herself on taking on those nobody else would touch! Breech, mulitiples, complications, etc?? She would handle them all!! They want HER to continue practicing???

Midwifery Today has an article written on What to do when a midwife has been charged. This article claims it has nothing to do with outcomes and everything to do with "part of a global struggle for control of maternity services, the key underlying issues being money, power, sex and choice.”. Thank you Marsden Wagner! You are suppose to help arrange community support for your midwife! Oddly enough, this also has a paragraph about the family (out of 24 of them). However, this article assumes the family supports the midwife and desperately needs her support. This article does not address that some people do not need their midwife around as they know the midwife screwed up and want to see her pay! Are women really that desperate that they just need their midwife even if she caused their child's death?? That truly reeks of psychological issues.

With this newest midwife arrest, of course, the Maryland Friends of Midwives has stepped up in her defense. They even have a brand new website set up to solicit donations and collect stories about how wonderful she is. Not surprising, I left a comment and am still waiting for approval 10 days later. I posted on their facebook page about how supporting incompetence is harming midwifery and showing it to be a dangerous option. I also shared that my midwife had so many infant deaths under her belt. Did they keep my comment up?? Course not! Just like NCFOM when Amy Medwin was arrested! I just posted this "I have to say, it is rather disheartening when the homebirth community refuses to acknowledge negative outcomes or address incompetance! ". I am sure it will be gone here very soon.

Why are those who say "this person hurt my child" or "this provider is killing too many babies" silenced? Do you really think that ignoring and silencing death will make it magically go away? If you don't acknowledge incompetance, does it suddenly make a provider competant? Do these midwifery organizations really think their behavior is helping midwifery look like a positive endeavor?? Are incompetant midwives making homebirth look like a safe or positive option?

So, if incompetant midwives are giving homebirth such a blemish, why not take care of the blemish instead of covering it up with a bandaid?? The blemish will not go away until it is taken care of properly, something most in the movement refuse to do. Our babies are a small sacrifice for those who worship at Ina's feet! "Oh, Ina, you want more dead babies?? OK, anything for homebirth and midwifery. And we'll make sure nobody hears about it".

I have one statement to make for those who don't care about all the dead babies on the alter of homebirth, and that is "Get the fuck over yourselves". I'm so fed up. I'm tired of silence. I'm tired of our babies not meaning a damn to anybody. This mother and her fellow homebirth loss moms are not going anywhere and we are here to fight for our children and the countless other children who will end up dead due to incompetance and ignorant activists!

10 comments:

Areawoman said...

This is just one of those things I don't understand, either. Other professional organizations want to get rid of incompetent practitioners. Why not midwife organizations?? If you truly want to advance the practice of midwifery, you would want midwives to meed standards and you would get rid of those who don't!!

The Non-Monogamist said...

You would think, wouldn't you??

Jade Jymson said...

As usual , you've done a wonderful job!

FlowersBloom2Day said...

Bambi, I read your blog post and there's many points that are not balanced or outright untrue. 1) Karen Carr, CPM is an excellent midwife. Visit the organization: In Service to Women on FaceBook and on their web site to read stories of lives she's touched many, many singletons, breeches, twins, VBACs she has delivered. The breech delivery was a CHOICE by the parents: they chose between cesarean breech, hospital breech and home breech. Each parent must live with their decision and know that there is risk with any of these options and yes babies DO die in cesarean breeches!! 2) I looked up Maryland Friends of Midwives Facebook page and there is a comment by you and a response. I'd edit your above post to tell the truth. And remember, no site will keep an inflammatory statement filled with negative remarks. Keep asking genuine questions to educate yourself not inflame.
3) I read your birth horror homebirth story. Your midwife was either poorly trained in newborn resuscitation (includes being able to assess a baby in trouble) or you guys are distorting the truth, were overconfident and are lying to yourselves and others about what her role was and wasn't and blame her so you don't live with as much guilt for not going to the hospital when YOU saw something you didn't think was normal. You are the parent and no matter what any doctor, midwife or nurse says to you if you don't think they are correct and you are still concerned, ask someone else, go to the ER, get a 2nd opinion. You didn't and your baby died. Take responsibility for your part in her death. Without the midwife's version, your story is very unbalanced and unfair and frankly, given how inflammatory and uneducated your post comes off, I don't believe you.

carolinagirl79 said...

Oh, lovely. Really, really lovely. Blame a mother with no medical training who hired a person who represented herself as a competent, experienced, TRAINED MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL and TRUSTED her and TOOK HER ADVICE. How cruel can you get?

Blame her completely if she had engaged in that insane practice of unassisted birth. I'd be leading the torchlight parade. But the whole point of hiring a midwife is having an experienced medical professional there to give advice. I thought so anyway.

The poor woman was exhausted after giving birth, too. Have you thought of that?

Now go back to pulling wings off of flies and leave this poor woman alone.

Liz said...

flowers here gives a perfect example of how the "homebirth community' feels about us homebirth loss mamas...of course she is too ashamed to post her real name or profile- no surprise here!
#1 remind the mother that the baby would have died anyways, and babies die in hospitals all the time ---check!
#2 point out that it was only this *particular* midwife, all other midwives are better than her of course
#3 blame the mother --she should have taken charge of her birth dammit
and when you need a little more UMPH to your comment? add in that you think the mother is lying.
GREAT JOB flowers, we needed a homebirth activists stance to show how the internet is full of <<>> and dumbasses....

LovleAnjel said...

FlowersBloom2Day,

Thank you for providing evidence to back up the claims in this post.

The Momma Giraffe said...

FlowersBloom,

It doesn't really matter what you believe.

There are so many tragic outcomes out there at the hands of unqualified (i.e. DEM and CPM) midwitches. These midwitches have no clue when a transfer is necessary and will sacrifice the baby to avoid it when a 2 year old could see that something is horribly wrong. There is a whole lot of CYA out there in the midwitch world.

Why don't YOU educate yourself to the tragic reality that is unfolding as more midwitches get their 'education' from google U and online correspondence courses - and then claim that they can perform risky deliveries - or even apparent "routine" ones.

Just because she had an awful experience does not mean she exaggerated or it didn't happen as stated. Why don't you try looking further than the end of your nose and seek out the truth.

Amy said...

This reminds me of the Catholic church covering up those pedophile priests. They followed a similar pattern: 1)hush it up 2)accuse some of the victims of being liars and 3)protect the perpetrator to keep the organization appearing clean.

moto_librarian said...

flowers, you've got some nerve!

I am absolutely gobsmacked by the number of people that come to the defense of incompetent midwives while happily villifying the family that lost their child. Why even bother having a midwife if you think that it's ultimately the parents' responsibility anyway? This attitude is monstrous.

Show me proof that breech babies routinely die during c-sections in the hospital. It's not true, and I suspect that you know it.

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