Category Archives: Issues

Live from Chicago: the 52nd Annual ACNM Meeting

By The Midwife | Published: May 25, 2007

So, I arrived in Chicago last night to attend this year’s national ACNM annual meeting, which will be occurring from today, 5/25, through 5/31. Unfortunately, because I happen to be graduating on Tuesday, 5/29 (not so unfortunately, actually), I will be leaving the convention a few days early in order to get to Carnegie Hall [...]

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Newsworthy

By The Midwife | Published: February 26, 2007

So, I’ve been a bit incommunicado thanks to the intensity of my clinical schedule, and the fact that last week was our first exam, and I was busy spending every spare minute studying for it (I’m very pleased to report that I did well on my exam, despite my deepest concerns regarding my sincere lack [...]

Also posted in Choice, Feminism, Midwifery, News, Politics, Primary Care, Research, STIs, Women's Health | 2 Comments

NAPW guest bloggers over at Feministing

By The Midwife | Published: February 8, 2007

Amanda from Pandagon and Jessica from Feministing, both of whom were lucky enough to attend the National Advocates for Pregnant Women Summit a few weeks ago, decided to continue to explore many of the issues and topics covered at the summit through weekly guest bloggers hosted on Feministing. The first two are up already: Jill [...]

Also posted in Choice, Feminism, Litigation, Midwifery, Politics, Pregnancy | Leave a comment

The news from the NAPW summit

By The Midwife | Published: January 22, 2007

National Advocates for Pregnant Women just concluded its 4 day Summit To Ensure the Health and Humanity of Birthing Women in Atlanta, GA, this past weekend. This summit, one of the first of its kind, was organized by NAPW and NAPW’s director, Lynn Paltrow, to explore the grey area where pregnancy, birth and the law [...]

Also posted in Choice, Feminism, Fertility and Conception, Homebirth, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Litigation, Midwifery, Politics, Pregnancy, VBAC | Leave a comment

Unecessary Cesareans

By The Midwife | Published: January 5, 2007

So, not the most pleasant way to start out our new year, but our national Cesarean Section rate is somewhere around 29%, possibly even higher now, given that this data was from 2004, and we’re still awaiting the final tallies from 2005 at this point. To quote Marion Toepke McLean from her article Cesarean on [...]

Also posted in Cesarean Birth, Labor and Birth, Litigation, Midwifery | 3 Comments

The Out-of-hospital birth debate continues

By The Midwife | Published: December 3, 2006

A few weeks ago, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released the following policy on out-of-hospital birth: Out of Hospital Births in the United States Labor and delivery is a physiologic process that most women experience without complications. Ongoing surveillance of the mother and fetus is essential because serious intrapartum complications may arise with [...]

Also posted in Birth Centers, Homebirth, Hospitals, Midwifery, Politics | 4 Comments

Midwifery in the news

By The Midwife | Published: August 22, 2006

As we approach the 1 year anniversay or Hurricane Katrina, here’s an interesting article from the Washington Post on the ways that pregnant women, and newborn infants and new mothers have been short changed when it comes to disaster management plans, and how new plans are being made to finally accomodate the needs of pregnant [...]

Also posted in Homebirth, Midwifery, News | Leave a comment

Midwifery is not the practice of Medicine

By The Midwife | Published: April 12, 2006

Speaking of the devil…I just popped over to The Mommy Blawg, and what should be there but an amazing article by Suzanne Hope Suarez that first appeared in the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism: Midwifery is not the Practice of Medicine. This article raises and supports so many of the points I just touched [...]

Also posted in Journal Articles, Midwifery, Politics | 2 Comments

Homebirth prosecution

By The Midwife | Published: April 12, 2006

The New York Times has been turning out a lot of articles on birth, pregnancy and midwifery, lately—seems like there’s been at least one major article a month for a few months now. Here’s the latest one, from last week, which centers around the prosecution of Jennifer Williams, a CPM practicing homebirth in Indiana. Because [...]

Also posted in Choice, Homebirth, Litigation, Midwifery, News | 3 Comments

Opthalmoscopes are cool (and other odds and ends)

By The Midwife | Published: September 20, 2005

We spent the morning playing with opthalmoscopes and otoscopes and working on the Eyes and Ears portions of our physical exams. First you inspect the eyes and eyebrows for symmetry, lack of bumps, lumps, swelling, lesions, nodules, conjunctivitis etc. etc., then you have the patient follow your finger while you lead them through a series [...]

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