Speak up, you could save a life!

  

A stressed out parent yells at their child in the grocery store. Get involved? It could just be a parent having a rough day or it could be a parent that will beat that child when they get home. 

You see children left alone in a car outside the store, motor running. Get involved? It could be a parent running in to the store real fast or it could be a parent neglecting their child(ren).

A child in your son/daughter's class has fresh bruises every few days. Get involved? It could be a child suffering from a medical condition or an abused child. 

A friend is meticulous with her home and makes sure she has dinner on the table at the exact moment her husband walks in every day to make him happy. Get involved? She could take pride in taking care of her husband and home or she may be afraid of him.

You see your sister's husband out with another woman. Get involved? He could be using protection or he may be sleeping with a petri dish. This could cause your sister's death, but will surely cause her mental and emotional anguish. 

You see your female friend out kissing another man. Get involved? Same as above. She may be using preotection or sleeping with a petri dish, but there will be emotional and mental anguish inflicted  with a chance of death.

So, why don't people get involved with these situations?? Do people not care or are they really just concerned with themselves? Do they figure since they aren't personally affected, it doesn't matter to them? 

This leads me to wonder why a parent refuses to speak out when a midwife causes the death of their child? I know it's hard to look at yourself and say "My choices did this". When you have a midwife there and rely upon her expertise, and she blows it, it's on her. So, why in the world is nobody holding her accountable? Why aren't people speaking out?? Until parents stand up and say "This is unacceptable. My baby should NOT of died", these parents will be responsible for the deaths of any other baby that occurs under this midwife's watch. Yes, I am blaming fellow parents of angels for the deaths of other babies! 

I am fuming that my baby was NUMBER SIX. Number SIX. 5 other sets of parents could of done something or created anything online that I could of found when I tried looking up information about her. When I talked about how great she was on Mothering, someone could of PMed me and said "this bitch is dangerous". Nobody did though, did they?? Because people decided to stay quiet, I trusted this quack and my baby is dead because of it. Um, thanks. 

It's funny that so many in the movement say "One bad midwife doesn't spoil the bunch". BUT you see, it does when that bunch pats the midwife on the back and ignores the grieving family and dead babies. If you don't want midwives to be seen in a bad light, maybe you should get up off your ass and stop the negligent ones from practicing. Stop giving a green light to practice to every idiot out there who doesn't want to spend some time and money going to real school. Show us that our babies actually matter to the movement. Do something. Until the environment changes, all these piece of shit midwives will be a target. How many more babies have died due to the allegiance these "parents" have pledged to their midwives?? 

Brenda is just one midwife. There is also Karen Carr and Amy Medwin and who knows who else out there like them. How many more babies have to die at the hands of people like them?? There's around 15 dead and brain damaged babies between these three. If you add in Faith Beltz, that's two more. Are that many dead babies acceptable?? If these were children being abused, would you still remain quiet?? 

 

     . 

Speak up, you could save a life!

  

A stressed out parent yells at their child in the grocery store. Get involved? It could just be a parent having a rough day or it could be a parent that will beat that child when they get home. 

You see children left alone in a car outside the store, motor running. Get involved? It could be a parent running in to the store real fast or it could be a parent neglecting their child(ren).

A child in your son/daughter's class has fresh bruises every few days. Get involved? It could be a child suffering from a medical condition or an abused child. 

A friend is meticulous with her home and makes sure she has dinner on the table at the exact moment her husband walks in every day to make him happy. Get involved? She could take pride in taking care of her husband and home or she may be afraid of him.

You see your sister's husband out with another woman. Get involved? He could be using protection or he may be sleeping with a petri dish. This could cause your sister's death, but will surely cause her mental and emotional anguish. 

You see your female friend out kissing another man. Get involved? Same as above. She may be using preotection or sleeping with a petri dish, but there will be emotional and mental anguish inflicted  with a chance of death.

So, why don't people get involved with these situations?? Do people not care or are they really just concerned with themselves? Do they figure since they aren't personally affected, it doesn't matter to them? 

This leads me to wonder why a parent refuses to speak out when a midwife causes the death of their child? I know it's hard to look at yourself and say "My choices did this". When you have a midwife there and rely upon her expertise, and she blows it, it's on her. So, why in the world is nobody holding her accountable? Why aren't people speaking out?? Until parents stand up and say "This is unacceptable. My baby should NOT of died", these parents will be responsible for the deaths of any other baby that occurs under this midwife's watch. Yes, I am blaming fellow parents of angels for the deaths of other babies! 

I am fuming that my baby was NUMBER SIX. Number SIX. 5 other sets of parents could of done something or created anything online that I could of found when I tried looking up information about her. When I talked about how great she was on Mothering, someone could of PMed me and said "this bitch is dangerous". Nobody did though, did they?? Because people decided to stay quiet, I trusted this quack and my baby is dead because of it. Um, thanks. 

It's funny that so many in the movement say "One bad midwife doesn't spoil the bunch". BUT you see, it does when that bunch pats the midwife on the back and ignores the grieving family and dead babies. If you don't want midwives to be seen in a bad light, maybe you should get up off your ass and stop the negligent ones from practicing. Stop giving a green light to practice to every idiot out there who doesn't want to spend some time and money going to real school. Show us that our babies actually matter to the movement. Do something. Until the environment changes, all these piece of shit midwives will be a target. How many more babies have died due to the allegiance these "parents" have pledged to their midwives?? 

Brenda is just one midwife. There is also Karen Carr and Amy Medwin and who knows who else out there like them. How many more babies have to die at the hands of people like them?? There's around 15 dead and brain damaged babies between these three. If you add in Faith Beltz, that's two more. Are that many dead babies acceptable?? If these were children being abused, would you still remain quiet?? 

 

     . 

Midwives and their supporters really care!

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?

Midwives and their supporters really care!

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?

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!

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!