Reply to risked out of Wisdom, now what

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]12:54, it sounds like what you are talking about is normalizing midwife care for everyone and reserving OB care for people who require those particular skill sets. I think it's a great idea, and one which I would also love to see.

That said, I think that it's completely reasonable that this specific practice emphasize whatever behaviors it feels are best. If Whitney believes that her diet is the magic bullet that cures all pregnancy ills and insists that everyone at least attempt an unmedicated birth, that's totally legitimate. It's her practice and she is not obligated to work with people who are not interested in her model of care. This practice emphasizes diet, exercise and a commitment to unmedicated birth. Other practices emphasize different things.

I really do not understand the level of vitriol against this particular practice. I get that they are more dogmatic than many, but it's like half this board thinks that Whitney and her colleagues should just accept anyone, regardless of their medical history, regardless of their birth plan, because midwives should be interested in providing care for everyone. I agree that anyone who wants to work with a midwife should have that option, but I don't think that the obvious consequence of that should be that midwives should relax their practice standards because a woman isn't sure if she's going to want an epidural or not.[/quote]

I'm suggesting making midwifery care *available* to all women, if they so choose, as long as they are not genuinely risked out.  Some women will always choose OB care, and that's fine, but I don't think desire for pain relief should be a sole deciding factor.

However, I actually have no problem with specific providers emphasizing certain factors and only taking certain patients, such as Wisdom's focus on diet, exercise, and natural birth--[i]as long as it does not include shaming women[/i] (especially for circumstances beyond their control such as the PPs who were implied that GD was their fault, or women who ask for pain relief after labor becomes harder for them than anticipated).  Any vitriol I have is due primarily to the shaming, not to making their expectations known up front. I am, though, [i]sad[/i] that such a large practice in this area would be so restrictive given the limited options women have for midwifery care here.

I also don't mean to demonize OBs--absolutely there are some who are truly supportive of low-intervention birth, but you have to admit they are a minority (albeit thankfully a growing one).  I'd love to see all maternity care on more of a spectrum rather than so polarized, but that's going to take some time and effort both on the part of the medical practitioners and on the part of more women demanding what we want.  (This also includes getting hospitals and nursing staff to be more accepting of evidence-based low-intervention policies, especially where they don't have a midwife group to lead the way.)  It shouldn't have to be all or nothing, but saying epidural = OB not midwife makes it too black and white.[/quote]

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