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

Forum Index » Expectant and Postpartum Moms

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]absolutely--the right of a term/viable baby to have a reasonable chance of surviving delivery should absolutely, 100% trump the rights of a woman to decide what type of delivery she has. 
Just as the rights of an newborn to survive/thrive should trump the rights of parents to abuse that child.  [/quote]

No no no!  The two situations you present are completely different.  The government cannot force any person to undergo a medical procedure against their express wishes, not even for the benefit of another person.  For example, you can't be forced to donate a kidney to your dying child if it's against your religious beliefs, even if you are the only viable donor.  Thus, the government also cannot force a woman to give birth in a hospital / under certain conditions (a medical procedure) against her wishes, even for the benefit of the child.  TOTALLY different from laws against abuse or withholding medical treatment from children (laws which I fully support).

However, this absolute right to personal control over your own medical treatment does NOT extend to a right to force medical professionals to provide assistance.  Medical professionals should absolutely be able to refuse to treat patients who are asking them to violate professional standards of care or codes of conduct.[/quote]

I'm not saying that the government should handcuff women to beds against their will or force them to deliver in hospitals.  However, I am saying that the government should license practitioners based on clinical standards that protect the rights of the term fetus and the mother.  Practitioners who violate these standards should potentially have their licenses revoked and they should be prosecuted (in cases of gross negligence).

Interestingly, I say this all as a CNM.  I believe STRONGLY in a woman's right to birth outside of the hospital.  But I also believe very strongly in there being a SAFE standard of nurse midwifery care that all midwifery clients (women and their babies) can be assured of having when they chose a midwife.   Many midwifery clients are poor (a huge percentage of midwifery clients are Medicaid births) and many are uneducated and don't have the ability to evaluate whether a midwife is competent.  They are very vulnerable health care consumers.

In an ideal world, we as midwives would all provide excellent care every time.  In actuality there are some reckless midwives, there are under trained midwives and there are some plain dumb midwives.  Bearing the title of midwife does not make one clinically infallible like many (most) in the natural birth community would want to believe.  Hence my strong, strong support of government involvement in the form of licensing and and in upholding clinical standards.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics