Midwife charged after at-home birth ends in death of baby

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New PP here.

I had a home birth. Low risk pregnancy. Textbook delivery. Attended by 2 midwives and an apprentice. Baby nursed within moments of birth. I was never separated from him. Beautiful healthy kid. Fully vaccinated, by the way.

It was the right choice for me and my baby. I avoided the stress of strangers traipsing through my room disturbing the privacy that is most conducive to labor. I avoided hospital staff watching the clock to see if I met the hospital's policy about how fast my labor should progress, avoided pitocin and starting the cascade of intense contractions that can't be managed without an epidural. I avoided nurses shouting at me to wait to push because the doctor wasn't ready yet. The list goes on and on. All of those things have happened to friends and acquaintances during their births.

No thanks. For a low risk pregnancy, I'll take the midwife route every time.

Breech isn’t low risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's post some articles on how many women and babies have died because they went to a hospital instead of staying home. I guarantee the number far exceeds the number mentioned in this article. Home births are always safer. Fact. Of course there are a few outliers for whom a hospital birth is necessary, but they're truly outliers. Most home births are safe and most are much safer than being in a germy money making hospital with dozens of hands in the pot, none knowing what the other is doing. Women, especially black women, die in hospitals every day. The United States has the WORST infant mortality rate of ANY developed nation, and we also have the highest rate of hospital births.

Also, it says she wasn't licensed IN THAT STATE, not that she had no training and wasn't licensed at all anywhere.

This is so breathtakingly stupid. Might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever read on the internet.

[Anonymous]

It happens everywhere, even (gasp!) Alexandria! This midwife was apparently licensed in MD, but not VA. They knew the baby was breech for weeks prior to the birth and still went through with a home birth. Poor baby.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/midwife-karen-carr-convicted-in-alexandria-babys-death-is-under-investigation-in-md/2011/05/11/AFlrp22G_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.54dc7dbcdb19

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It happens everywhere, even (gasp!) Alexandria! This midwife was apparently licensed in MD, but not VA. They knew the baby was breech for weeks prior to the birth and still went through with a home birth. Poor baby.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/midwife-karen-carr-convicted-in-alexandria-babys-death-is-under-investigation-in-md/2011/05/11/AFlrp22G_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.54dc7dbcdb19

I hope this woman stopped killing babies !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I^ I am not a homebirther by any stretch, or a natural birther. Epidural all the way for me

But given that the US truly does have abysmal fetal and maternal mortality rates, like truly abysmal, the same argument could apply: anyone who would knowingly take the risk of a hospital birth given the statistics, is taking their baby's life in their hands.

Try to separate emotion. Women make choices that feel right and while it is true some babies would be better off in the hospital birth, the reverse is true as well.

Just stop the name calling and try to LISTEN.

um no ... I'm not listening to utter nonsense. This woman had a breech baby - she had NO business having a home birth.

.

Yes. And that would be all fine and good of this thread had stayed on this woman and this midwife. But it diverged into ALL homebirths.

Many responses has nothing to do with OP.

Are we not allowed to respond to other posts in the thread now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's post some articles on how many women and babies have died because they went to a hospital instead of staying home. I guarantee the number far exceeds the number mentioned in this article. Home births are always safer. Fact. Of course there are a few outliers for whom a hospital birth is necessary, but they're truly outliers. Most home births are safe and most are much safer than being in a germy money making hospital with dozens of hands in the pot, none knowing what the other is doing. Women, especially black women, die in hospitals every day. The United States has the WORST infant mortality rate of ANY developed nation, and we also have the highest rate of hospital births.

Also, it says she wasn't licensed IN THAT STATE, not that she had no training and wasn't licensed at all anywhere.

That they are receiving poor care in the hospitals they give birth in doesn’t make the home environment safer.
What they should be receiving is better medical care, not having home births.

Home births aren’t better for things like excessive bleeding, preeclampsia, pulmonary embolism, cardiomyopathy and yes - infection too.
Being in a hospital can at least mean that an infection is diagnosed earlier, hopefully saving a life.

A home birth might go okay for a low risk pregnancy, but it also might not and medical care needs to be provided immediately if needed.

[Anonymous]

Breech is high risk, and she ignored the signs of distress for too long. This midwife should be prosecuted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New PP here.

I had a home birth. Low risk pregnancy. Textbook delivery. Attended by 2 midwives and an apprentice. Baby nursed within moments of birth. I was never separated from him. Beautiful healthy kid. Fully vaccinated, by the way.

It was the right choice for me and my baby. I avoided the stress of strangers traipsing through my room disturbing the privacy that is most conducive to labor. I avoided hospital staff watching the clock to see if I met the hospital's policy about how fast my labor should progress, avoided pitocin and starting the cascade of intense contractions that can't be managed without an epidural. I avoided nurses shouting at me to wait to push because the doctor wasn't ready yet. The list goes on and on. All of those things have happened to friends and acquaintances during their births.

No thanks. For a low risk pregnancy, I'll take the midwife route every time.

I had your kind of delivery, but in a hospital with a certified nurse midwife. No strangers traipsing through my room (in fact, they sent me home until I was further along in labor), no pitocin, no shouting, no nothing. Baby stayed with me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Breech is high risk, and she ignored the signs of distress for too long. This midwife should be prosecuted.

The mother should too TBH

[Anonymous]

I had two babies delivered naturally with no epidurals at inova Fairfax and breastfed them for over 3 years each, so I'm pretty crunchy. I don't get what a home birth would have given me that inova didn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Breech is high risk, and she ignored the signs of distress for too long. This midwife should be prosecuted.

The mother should too TBH

ITA! The mother is every bit as responsible as the midwife and absolutely should be prosecuted. I frankly don't see any distinction between the midwife's culpability and the mother's.

[Anonymous]

I actually live in Nebraska and here’s my take:

1. Nebraska is the only state in the country where it is illegal for CNMs to attend home births. So mothers desiring a homebirth go underground to find lay “midwives” who do home births.

2. There are at least two doctors in Omaha that I know of who will deliver breech births vaginally. Of course I know nothing about this mother’s medical situation, but if she really feared a csection, she could have at least consulted with these doctors.

3. The “midwife” in this case is a total fraud. Here she is on a podcast, explaining some cockamamie legal theory that what she’s doing as a “midwife” in Nebraska is ok because she and her clients are in a “private membership association” that is somehow immune from regulation:

http://www.drstuspodcast.com/blogs/dr-stus-podcast-nebraska-birth-keeper/

4. This all happened in mid-June. Her Nebraska birth keeper Facebook page continued to have cheery posts and updates after this birth. She didn’t shut herself down.

5. Doing a home birth breech birth (or twins) is kind of the ultimate badge of prestige for these lay midwives, so she very likely knew and was pushing the envelope in hopes all would be fine and this would be her badge of glory.

6. I read in an article somewhere that when paramedics arrived, she was performing an episiotomy on the mom.

My heart really breaks for the mom here. Sure, she made the wrong choice but she did so in the sincere belief that she was protecting herself and her child.

[Anonymous]

Oh also:

7. Not too long ago she had another go fund me to try to pay for herself and her entire family to travel to Peru in order for her to study traditional birthing techniques with local indigenous women. Not sure if she ever raised enough to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Breech is high risk, and she ignored the signs of distress for too long. This midwife should be prosecuted.

The mother should too TBH

ITA! The mother is every bit as responsible as the midwife and absolutely should be prosecuted. I frankly don't see any distinction between the midwife's culpability and the mother's.

The mother isn't a medical professional. She hired one, or someone who she thought was a medical professional. Her culpability is certainly not the same as the "midwife's".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The natural birth cultists are a lot like anti-vaxers. They will believe what they want, evidence-based medicine be damned.

You apparently don't know about all those disgusting people in hospitals. Come enjoy my lovely fruit bowl, but only until six weeks before Christmas.

You aren't making a strong case for your logical thinking skills here.

Ah. You're new to this DCUM thing, then?

DP. I agree with PP.

Oh, I am sure you do!