i never really thought about the possiblity of there being a problem with both baby and mom when i had my home birth. wow. what an ignorant mama i was.
thankfully i had a great outcome - as most mamas do. but what if i hadn't? what would my midwife have done? she had no birth assistant with her, no apprentice, no partner, no doula, no nurse, no midwife's assistant.
who would she have saved?
i live at least 50 minutes away from a hospital with an OB dept or an OR.
in my opinion, this is what the criminalization of midwifery is forcing us into.
illegal = less midwives = overworked = territorial and competitive = unsafe.
the midwives around here really need to start
- taking care of themselves
- working together
- preparing for the worst
on the other hand, i think of wanting to have an unassisted birth and where that would leave my partner if something terrible happened.
i think i just won't have any more babies. it's too complicated.
3 comments:
"i never really thought about the possiblity of there being a problem with both baby and mom when i had my home birth. wow. what an ignorant mama i was."
This is what my neice is now saying after an unqualified DEM took her on as a client for a home birth. Her outcome was not successful, her baby died and she came very close. The DEM put herself ahead of my niece and abandon her. She called 911 and did not identify herself as a "health care provider", she said,"My friend is having a baby and she doesn't feel well!"...and left! My niece suffered a catostrophic uterine rupture resulting in the death of a perfect baby girl. I think every midwife should be a CNM and we are rallying together in our state to change the laws. I don't think our niece's midwife had any idea of the scope of our fury. The laws will change and she very well may end up in jail for negligent homicide.
600,000 young women die every year due to homebirths in countries such as Africa and China, where women do not have access to medical care. The homebirth industry in America is lying to people right and left, telling them that it is "safer." While I agree that there are medical excesses and bad care, it's irrefutable that five out of 100 women died in childbirth prior to the advent of C-sections. As someone who had a massive hemorrhage and almost died during the birth of my second child, I have to conclude that women who advocate homebirth as the best and only way to have a baby are just plain ignorant.
Oh, for crying out loud. That number is for places where poverty is extreme, malnutrition and genital mutilation and lack of sanitation are common, there is no access to medical where needed, and myths about pregnancy and birth abound. How exactly is that relevant to people who are healthy, who have access to health care when needed, who have appropriate support, and who are educated? Please. That's nothing by hysteria.
And let's remember, shall we, that prior to the advent of cesareans, obstetricians and midwives were mismanaging birth to a frightening degree; it's a testament to the power and resiliency of the human body that the death rate was as low as it was given the circumstances women were expected to give birth in.
Ignorant? That's rich. And ironic.
I'm so sorry as well that people think the answer is stricter regulation. It's pure fantasy to think that that's going to reduce the harm done to mothers and babies, and it will remove the right of women to make choices outside of the medical establishment's standards. I could not have given birth normally within those standards.
Yes, some people are going to make poor choices without standards to guide them. The rest of us shouldn't be penalized for that.
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