If you read my last post, I discussed why malpractice insurance is important and what it covers. Today, let's look at non-CNM Midwives and why they don't carry insurance.
I give you EXHIBIT A
In other Words, She will try to be your best friend so that you will not turn on her. You will be emotionally and mentally manipulated by her so if there is a bad outcome, she can control your reaction.
EXHIBIT B
Essentially, malpractice insurance is just a way that lawyers and insurance companies get to make money while trying to decrease the number of homebirth midwives. It's a conspiracy!!
EXHIBIT C
1. Insurance dictates protocols and it's not evidence based.
2. Lawyers just want to sue you.
3. It's expensive.
1. Deep pockets attract lawsuits.
2. Midwife relationships exceed those of OB/Client relationships.
3. If a midwife offers support and choices they have a smaller chance of being sued.
4. Protocols screw women and families.
EXHIBIT D
1. Clients can go to the regulating board.
2. Greedy Lawyers treat you like a target.
3. They don't want to risk their family/job/livlihood in order to compensate for an injured baby.
4. Birth is risky.
EXHIBIT E
1. They will not do anything to get themselves sued.
2. Clients are responsible for their birth including anything done by the midwife
3. If a client asks about malpractice insurance, they get fired or told to shop around.
4. The insurance company owns you.
5. You are more likely to be sued.
6. Midwives have to increase fees
7. People will mistakingly think an insured midwife is better.
I only had enough stomach to get these few links. Many things about these pages bother me.
Midwifery is supposed to mean "with woman". When you don't care about the woman or child you are caring for, you are not "with woman". You are "with oneself". Interestingly, I googled the term "with oneself" and a Narcissism page came up. What is narcissism??
According to wikipedia- Narcissism is the personality trait of egotism, vanity, conceit, or simple selfishness. Applied to a social group, it is sometimes used to denote elitism or an indifference to the plight of others.
Egotism is "characterized by an exaggerated estimate of one's intellect, ability, importance, appearance, wit, or other valued personal characteristics"[1] – the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself. CHECK
In conventional parlance, vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others CHECK
conceit (countable and uncountable; plural conceits)
- (uncountable) Overly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris.
- (obsolete) Something conceived in the mind; a conception; a notion; an idea; a thought.
- (countable) A novel or fanciful idea; a whim.
- (countable, rhetoric, literature) A device of analogy consisting of an extended metaphor.
- CHECK
So, Non-CNM's are Narcissistic!! That explains quite a bit.
CPM's/DEM's/LM's do NOT want malpractice insurance because they don't want someone telling them that a high risk client should not be having a homebirth. They don't want it because they don't want to pay for it. They are counting on clients who will just accept that "babies just die" because they have "taken responsibility for their own birth. They don't want clients who want a provider who carries insurance. They don't care whether or not a baby dies or is injured. They are only concerned with themselves.
Can you show me anywhere that justifies lack of malpractice insurance where they are actually looking out for clients?? Do you see where they are willing to place themselves aside?? The "I'll just be the best midwife I can" line is ridiculous. If you think that your midwife spends all this time with you and really cares so deeply for you/your family, you are dead wrong. If they do not want to be responsible in their practice, they really do not care about you/your family. Oh, they do care that you get a choice if you are high risk. Your babies health, not even a blip on their radar. If they are conniving enough to want to hide assets to prevent anyone from being able to sue them, then they are placing themselves above clients. Midwifery is "with woman", not above or more important than. WITH.
Reading all of this tonight has me even more convinced that midwives do what they do because they care about themselves. If they cared about women and babies, they would have top notch educations, practice SAFELY (this means no high risk home deliveries), and carry insurance. It saddens me to see such horrid attitudes from midwives. I reallky understand why Brenda flipped the way she did. I wasn't the client who said "Ok, it's not your fault, babies just die. Let's be BFF's". I was the client who was pissed and I still am! My daughter mattered to me. She still does. So, I will keep fighting for her and all the babies out there whose lives are at risk because their parents stick to Non-CNM's.
8 comments:
While I agree completely that the midwife that attended your daughter's birth did things that I would totally call malpractice, I feel like you are trying to paint ALL midwives as being as callous and uncaring as she was. I've met a lot of midwives, some CNMs, some CPMs. I've met a few I'd definately not want attending my birth. But on the whole, the ones I know do what they do because they love moms and babies. The health of the mom and baby are their highest priority (if it were only money, they wouldn't do births for low income women for free or nearly free, and I know quite a few who do that).
It's a sad reality, but sometimes babies DO just die. It's not always the midwife's fault. Babies die in hospitals. Cord accidents happen. Sometimes there seems to be no reason at all. Do you think it would be fair to sue a midwife (or OB for that matter) in such a case where the death could not be attributed to the type of care (or lack thereof) provided? Malpractice indicates that the provider did something wrong, or neglected to do something right, that led to an injury. If the injury would have happened no matter what was done (or not done), that is not malpractice - it's just tragedy.
Would your daughter have died had you had a different midwife attending you? Or had you been in the hospital? I don't know. I only know about your situation what I've read, and I've gathered that there was something wrong with her liver. Your midwife (and the EMTs who came) should have, 100% have transferred you guys to the hospital immediately upon seeing her jaundice. Because she didn't, then I agree with you that there was malpractice involved - she neglected to do something she should have done. She sounds like she was a poor midwife. But Bambi, they aren't ALL bad! That's like saying that all OB's are evil because you know one that forced a woman to get an episiotomy against her will. I would never want an OB attending one of my births, but I'd never go so far as to say they are ALL callous, uncarring, money-hungry devils.
I appreciate what you are trying to do to make birth safer for mothers and babies, but honestly, as a birth worker myself, it hurts my heart to see you paint all midwives with such a broad, inaccurage brush. I've toyed with the idea of becoming a homebirth midwife myself one day - would I become your enemy if that happened? Or would you trust that I would get the proper training and believe that I was doing it because I cared for the moms and babies, and not just my pocketbook and ego?
As far as insurance goes, not even all physicians carry it - for a variety of reasons. And it IS true that deep pockets invite litigation - that's why OB's can pay upwards of $200k a year for it. Not everyone who sues does so for a valid reason, which is one of the driving forces behind the rise in healthcare costs across the board.
I have always, always, always struggled with the idea of malpractice insurance. Most of the arguments you cite mirror the evolution of my thoughts: I wouldn't need insurance if I was a good, safe, practitioner. I thought insurance just made me a target. I thought insurance just tied my hands as to the kinds of care I delivered. I'm really old now, and much wiser. Sometimes, bad stuff happens, and if I have insurance, the people I care about (my patients) can get help paying the bills from the bad stuff. Sometimes there are idiots out there, and sooner or later, if their practice results in too many bad outcomes, they can't get insurance and they effectively are removed from the pool of practicing doctors. Sometimes people are slow to accept the best practices or have inflated ideas of their own skill (I call this the "In my hands they do well" card, a totally bullshit card if there ever was one). These days, I'm pretty old. I've been around a long time. And if someone is not willing to get insurance, you should run the other way. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. If her practice patterns are superb, she can get insurance. If she's a dangerous wacko, she can't or won't. Very powerful and accurate litmus test.
Pretty simple as far as I am concerned. I carry auto insurance on my car. I've been driving for 15 years now and have had one wreck, no speeding tickets. Why do I carry insurance? In case shit happens. It's no difference, I know malpractice is expense but in case shit happens it has paid for itself.
A responsible care provider accepts the reality that people are fallible and mistakes happen. A caring provider of ANY service takes out malpractice insurance as a service to her clients in order to ensure that they are taken care of in spite of her confidence in her ability to serve her clients well. A responsible provider prepares in advance for error, misunderstanding, and uncontrollable circumstances.
Anyone else is a damn fool with no concern for the wellbeing of her clients.
Vallere, no where did Bambi say that people should go sue happy. Not once, what she said was, "Hey midwives bad stuff happens so protect yourself". Bambi always clearly states she has issues with the unlicensed crackpot of midwives out there.
WPBD said it better than I could. (((hugs)))
Bambi, I think the work you do to seak out on your daughter's behalf, and on behalf of all women and babies is to be commended. I've received only a tiny fraction of the bile that gets spewed at you daily and I don't know how you continue on sometimes.
I had a hospital-based CNM for my only VBAC attempt. From what I can see, there's a world of difference between that and a CPM or DEM. I think it's of critical importance that women know the difference. Keep up the good work!
A good provider concedes that things can sometimes go wrong even if s/he does everything right. That's why a responsible healthcare provider carries malpractice insurance. By definition, you CANNOT be a competent provider if you don't care enough about your patients and their families to carry insurance that will help them should the worst happen.
I love how so many NCBers are quick to tell Bambi that "sometimes, babies die," or "you don't know that your baby wouldn't have died in the hospital." Guess what - babies don't typically die of Third World problems in hospitals in the United States. The symptoms of an infant in respiratory distress are subtle, but a neonatal resus team, L&D nurse, pediatrician, or O.B. would have picked up on them. If Bambi's midwife was competent enough to attend a birthing woman, she should have been able to tell that the baby was in trouble too. Your defense of such incompetence is disgusting to me, Vallere. And I say this as a woman who has had an unmedicated birth with a certified nurse midwife, so don't pull the "you just hate midwives" card with me. Try educating yourself before you continue to write such ignorant drivel.
"Clients are responsible for their birth including anything done by the midwife"
Yikes! To use a Dr. Amy analogy - that's like saying that the homeowner is responsible for everything the electrician does or everything the plumber does. Don't we hire people to assist in a birth because they are *educated* on how to help safely assist in birth whether it is a midwife or OB? If the midwife has no responsibility and nothing to add - why even hire one???? Aaaaagh! Head ... imploding ...
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