Looking at the recent events in Virginia, soon to be Maryland too, it leads me to really think about things. Here we have a woman, Karen Carr, who feels a passion to become a midwife due to her c-section. We all have passions for things we do. My husband became passionate about sick babies, so he has chosen to go to nursing school. I am passionate about helping parents, so I am active with my support group and involved with local perinatal bereavement programs at the hospitals around here. We care because we had a baby that died.
Midwives, like Carr, have a passion, but are unwilling to make that passion become an admirable or even respectable endeavor. They want to get out there and deliver babies, but, do not want to spend the time or energy to actually get educated or trained. This is how much they care about women and babies. Instead of looking at WHY laws are the way they are when it comes to midwifery, they stick their tongue out and say they are going to do what they want regardless. They couldn't possibly understand that laws exist to protect the public. Why do they need protecting?? Because CPM's are not educated or trained.
Let's look at how we are spoon fed the line about homebirths being as safe or safer than hospital births. On one hand we have CDC Statistics showing a 3X higher risk of babies dying while on the other, we have MANA who refuses to release numbers. We have Melissa Cheyney, who accepted $53K in grant money from two organizations to help with MANAstats between fall 2008 and spring 2010, that sits on the board for the Oregon Midwifery Council and MANA, that wants oregon midwives to report to MANA. Let's look at this- One woman deciding that all members of this group share numbers and information with another organization that she is paid to help play with their numbers, that they then refuse to release. Sounds like she gets a hefty paycheck helping MANA hide their numbers. If they really cared about women, they would say "Here are the numbers". It isn't hard to do. Why not have a site like CDC Wonder allowing us to see transfers, VBAC, Twins, deaths and when they occured, breech, etc? Why don't homebirth advocates ask the questions about midwives and homebirths as they do about hospitals and OB's? Why is it acceptable for midwifery organizations to refuse to share information with the people they are trying to help? Simply put, because they really don't care about the advocates. They know these women are weak and will believe anything they say. They prey upon this weakness. We know Melissa has made a pretty penny here, so maybe we should look at the rest of the people involved with MANA. From the looks of it, since 2004, MANA has received 18 grants from the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery. That foundation also gave money to the authors of the infamous BMJ study, actually both years before it's release and then again a year after it's release. I'm thinking these people care more about money than they do women or babies. After all, if they cared, there wouldn't be all this money wasted on an organization that doesn't really do anything besides sit there spouting the same nonsense that they always have.
What about dead babies, who cares for them?? Good question. I would certainly say their parents and those who warn against the dangers that CPM's pose. Look at Karen Carr and Amy Medwin. Hell., look at my midwife, Brenda Newport and Faith Beltz, midwife presiding over the death of Liz P's baby. All of these midwives just chalked it up to a loss and moved on. My midwife didn't care until she knew she was at risk for being arrested, then again when she learned we filed a complaint and had information in hand. That was as far as her caring went. Midwives care when they feel they stand to lose something. That's it. Homebirth advocates, they don't care. I recently did a piece on the attitudes and things said that can outline this better. Suffice it to say, again, they don't care. As far as they are concerned, it would of happened regardless or it's your fault. They will only support you if you pretend the midwife and/or location had nothing to do with it, so you have to act like you don't care and don't talk about the circumstances, ever. Would anyone who really cared treat a homebirth loss mom like that?? No, not hardly. They would pissed as all get out that an innocent baby died. They wouldn't want to see that midwife risking lives all over. We now know Carr had two deaths within a three month time span. Advocates still think this is ok and no big deal. There are 2 dead babies out of her 135 from last year. What about all the years prior? Medwin had two dead babies a month apart! Even Melissa dismissed a complaint brought forth by parents when their baby died!! If advocates and midwives really cared, this wouldn't be so commonplace nor would it be so accepted.
What happens when there are preventable hospital losses? A) There are investigations done into conduct. People are disciplined accordingly. Doctors are sued. You won't find a doctor telling parents "Eh, babies die at other hospitals too" and then chit chatting their buddy saying "Next time, make sure you write down this BP, now go enjoy yourself". B) They look into and even do change policies. They don't want these things to happen again. It's called learning from experience. They aren't going to, again, say "Eh, babies die at other hospitals too". One preventable loss is one loss too many to doctors and hospitals. If they screw up, they want to fix it.
So, do midwives or advocates really care about women/babies?? Better yet, what have they done to show they care?
6 comments:
Beautiful post, as usual Bambi! If you're really passionate about something (to the point where you feel called to make it your career), you strive to attain the best training and education that's available. Professional standards exist for good reason, and it really irks me to see the way that lay midwives and other alternative practitioners have been able to create their own special credentials. It's an insult to those who actually took the time to get educated, and it's dangerous for their patients.
(((clap))) awesome post. they don't care , you are right. it took me a whole year to realize that Faith Beltz did not give one sh^& about me or my daughter.
They DONT care, not one whit. it sickens me how many MWs can KILL, then continue onnlike nothing happened! there is zero accountability, and that's a problem, among others.
great post, wish you didn't have to write it.
I had two awful hospital births. For awhile I bought into the "homebirth is preferable" line of thinking. I'm still not totally opposed to it in every case, but I am pursuing becoming a midwife. In California, this requires an R.N.degree , a B.S.N. degree, and an M.S.N degree. Lots of years of schooling and lots of training. I want to be a hospital-based midwife. When I read obstetrical material "for fun," I frequently go to how to resolve the hard cases and problems that arise in pregnancy and childbirth. Many babies will practically deliver themselves and those are not the deliveries that will challenge my hard-won, much-studied and practiced midwifery skills. It's the harder cases and situations that will require rigorous training. Why would I put all those years into that training? Because, like you and your husband, out of our losses can come good things that can truly benefit others. I will only aim to be the best trained, moist skilled midwife that I can possibly be. I do want to help women, babies,and families. This post raises very good points. True excellence is hard-won and CPM and LM's tend to go the easier route, endangering women's and babies lives.
I'm so sorry, but I have to disagree with your point that midwives don't care. I say this NOT because there aren't horrible, careless, greedy midwives out there (because there are) but because as a midwifery student, I know why I personally am going into midwifery. I have met midwives that sucked. That were greedy. That talked about a baby being born premature at one day from being considered "viable" and not fighting with and for the parents when the hospital refused any saving attempts. I've also seen a midwife lay her license on the line for a mother that wanted an out of hospital birth after c-sections only to lose her baby in an unrelated birth complication. I've seen the devastation the midwife went through (along with the parents who do not hold her at fault, because she wasn't) as she tries to understand how and why this happened. She did not brush it off and move on. The same way "natural birthers" like to throw all OB's into the "wicked greedy" basket, it doesn't work to throw all midwives into a labeled basket, either. I want to be a midwife because I've had terrible hospital births where I and my babies were treated like chunks of meat and my husband was treated like a stray dog. I truly believe there's a better and safer way to help mothers and babies, and I would do it for nothing if I could. (I intend to go into medical missions one day, so I'll get that chance!) :) However, I've noticed a disturbing trend in midwifery recently. More and more midwives seem to be moving towards the "glamorization" of birth. Making it beautiful and polished. Go into almost any birth center and it'll more than likely be very day-spa looking with trendy pictures and colors throughout. It's becoming the new elite club to join. Some midwives are charging more and more because more and more women want to join this shiny "cool kids" club and I'm concerned that the focus may get off of what the whole point of midwifery is; to be "with woman" during her passage through childbirth to provide comfort and safety. I'm concerned that this elite mentality is not helping those that can't out of pocket (because not all insurances cover midwife care) pay for a fru-fru birth. I've personally written MANA to ask when they plan to release their stats, so I as a student can know where I need to be studying up the most! I need to know where midwifery is weakest in our country so as a whole we can fix those weak spots and serve mothers and babies better. I have yet to receive a response. Though this all sounds bad, I say all that to also say that I truly believe there ARE good midwives out there. Ones that care about doing the right thing and transporting in an emergency, personal stats be damned! Please don't count us all out, because in the same way good OB's are getting a bad name from the cold, rough, impersonal jerks, good midwives are being labeled greedy ignorant witches because of the few selfish losers that need to be stripped of their title because of the tragedies they cause. They don't need to be told, "It's okay. we know you're really a good midwife" when they've just killed someone's baby because they didn't want to transport! They need to be punished to the full extent of the law and ostracized.
Just my 2 cents. I think there's a lot of good to be gained from natural birth, but if problems aren't taken care of NOW, the end result is going to be a lot of women and babies harmed. (The same can be said of hospitals, to be fair)
And I also have to gently disagree with Laura's comment that LM's and CPM's choose an "easy route" that endangers lives. NARM's CPM certification is no walk in the park, weekend-class certificate. It takes years of training and is also hard-won. My worst midwife experience was with a CNM, so I (personally) do not believe that having a CNM cert makes that person more qualified to care for a pregnant woman than a CPM. I believe that every midwife has an obligation to her clients to continue her education and never, ever stop learning and bettering herself. A lifetime of learning, if you will. These are the midwives that will best benefit mothers and babies. Not just the ones that hold a specific cluster of letters after their name.
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