Reply to Evelyn Muhlhan - another homebirth midwife bites the dust?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm 11:30 and probably a couple other places on this thread. I am NOT 12:26 and do not agree with her position. I believe that there should be licensing requirements for midwives because I believe that regulation, training and and standards of care are the best ways that we as consumers have of evaluating a particular practitioner's ability. I think that NARM is a good start, but it's still got a ways to go.

That said, 12:58, I think it's really interesting that you feel there is some kind of home birth agenda on this board. Every time there is a thread about home birth, extremely angry posters seem to come out of the woodwork to tell women who birth at home (and women like me, who had babies at birth centers with midwives) that they're being irresponsible, arrogant, selfish, prioritize having a good birth story over having a healthy baby, etc. That has happened several times in this thread, and it's only 4 pages. I remember the Karen Carr thread and posted there a lot too - how long did that one get? 30 pages? 35?

I think that everyone coming on this board has some kind of personal axe to grind, and that is confusing to me. Why should I care where your baby was born? Why should I care if you had an epidural? Why would we even talk about it unless we both want to talk about it? One of my best friends strongly believes that all babies should be born in hospitals. She told me this once, long after my daughter was born. I felt judged, but I didn't respond, because every time people like me faced with situations like that respond, we get accused of having an agenda.

As for your comment that assuming doctors are out to get midwives being insulting, I agree that it is a blanket insult that ALL doctors are out to get ALL midwives, since that's certainly not true. However, there are doctors who are threatened by midwives, who don't like working with midwife clients, who are rude and condescending to midwife clients who need to transfer their care for whatever reasons. Just as you told the poster you were responding to, I understand that you don't feel this is the way things SHOULD be, but - and I can't emphasize this enough - that is how things sometimes ARE. [/quote]

I am 12:58 – I agree that there’s a lot of venom going both ways.  The anti-home-birth-at-all-costs crowd is as irrational as 12:26 and others.  But I wasn’t responding to them, and my comments about the persecution complex were directed at the following statement, which I don’t believe serves anyone’s best interests:

"Evelyn was suspended because the doctors who witnessed these transfers got pissed off and jumped at the opportunity to take down an excellent, well-respected, highly-educated homebirth midwife. These doctors have without doubt experienced some of these same exact tragic outcomes in their own practice, yet they are not turning in their licenses. The reality of birth is that sometimes bad things happen - to midwives and doctors alike. However, doctors will use those tragedies against the midwives. It is insane and does not serve women at all, and encourages midwives to delay transport in potentially dire circumstances."

And while I appreciate the attempt to turn my own words against me, I don’t believe I ever said that all doctors welcomed midwives with open arms – go back and check if you don’t believe me.  Such a statement would be incredibly naïve.  What I said was that reflexively ascribing ulterior motives to every doctor who files a complaint against a midwife is insulting, intellectually lazy, and does your cause no service.  Here, one baby died, and other mothers and babies arrived at the hospital in significant distress, and there are numerous allegations that the standard of care was not followed.  Dismissing the complaints as, “well, they’re just out to get all midwives” leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
[/quote]

Fair enough.  The thought of doctor persecution of this midwife actually did cross my mind, mostly because the complaints seem to be from the same hospital, but I don't have all the facts. It's possible that the poster you were quoting actually knows something about this case in particular. Regardless, I have heard of other midwives who have been similarly sanctioned in other states where it HAS been a doctor or group of doctors who see midwives as competition (irresponsible and dangerous competition at that) and have lodged complaints against them every time they transfer in a patient with complications. It DOES happen, and that's why it occurred to me when I read about this story. Whether that's what happened or not, I have no idea since I'm not acquainted personally with any of the doctors who complained. I think that ignoring the physicians who believe all midwives are unskilled is just as damaging as believing that all doctors are out to get midwives/patients of midwives. Doesn't mean that those things are not sometimes false, but doesn't mean they're not true sometimes either.

In any case, thanks for being rational about things and enjoying my tongue in cheek turning of your phrase. Honestly I just thought it was a good phrase and said what I wanted to say better than I could have :)[/quote]

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