Gentle Birth Choices by Harper Barbara R.N

Author:Harper, Barbara, R.N. [Harper, Barbara, R.N.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2005-08-08T16:00:00+00:00

THE POLITICS OF MIDWIFERY

Malpractice insurance premiums, obtaining hospital privileges, and making licensure available for all midwives are not the only problems that face the growing profession of midwifery. Midwives are discriminated against in many ways. Unfair prosecutions of midwives continue today in many states, even those where they are authorized to practice. For example, if a baby dies or is stillborn in the hospital, it is considered by health officials to be the will of God. But if a baby dies or is stillborn at home, the midwife may be charged with felony manslaughter, which is subject to the death penalty in some states and life imprisonment in others. Many of these cases have gone to trial, and midwives have been imprisoned, but fortunately no one has received more than a sentence of a few years. Nevertheless, midwives must still endure the stress of court appearances, attorney fees, and loss of income, all of which can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Charging midwives with practicing medicine or midwifery without a license goes back to the 1970s, when the public and the county medical societies first became aware of the home birth movement. A highly publicized court case in Santa Cruz county in 1974 brought attention to a group of lay midwives who started out teaching childbirth education classes and providing labor support for women in the hospital during birth. Gradually they began to help couples give birth at home. In 1971 Raven Lang and seven other lay midwives opened the Birth Center in Santa Cruz in an effort to provide adequate prenatal care for women who wanted to have home births. The doctors of the county had earlier met and voted to refuse care to any woman who intended to give birth at home.

The women running the Birth Center met regularly and brought knowledgeable practitioners into the area for workshops. They learned to assess fetal condition, take blood pressures, handle hemorrhages, and repair lacerations. They learned about the importance of nutrition, and they learned newborn resuscitation procedures. As the Birth Center became successful, more women in and around the Santa Cruz area began to use the services of the midwives.

In 1974 a couple used the Birth Center for prenatal care. What this couple failed to tell the midwives, who had felt uneasy about the way the couple acted, was that they were undercover agents for the state of California. When two midwives were summoned to the home of the undercover agent for a supposedly premature labor, money was forced into their hands as soon as they entered the door and they were arrested. Raven Lang, who was no longer living in the area but happened to be visiting that day, was notified about the event by one of the other midwives. Lang arrived at the Birth Center after notifying the press. She was just in time to see the police removing everything from the house as evidence of the “midwifery ring.”15

Three midwives were charged with treating a physical condition and practicing medicine without a license.

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