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How have midwives touched your life? Share your story for National Midwifery Week 2011!

The Midwife — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:51:09 +0000

Happy National Midwifery Week, everyone! Here in NYC we kicked off National Midwifery Week with a very successful Miles for Midwives 5K run around Prospect Park. But there’s a lot more going on nationally this week. First of all, check out Team Midwife. A $15 donation to Team Midwife will help the ACNM continue to fund its mission of promoting and supporting midwifery care in this country, and as a member of the team you’ll receive a monthly newsletter featuring women’s health news, resources and stories about amazing midwives, a member badge to display on blogs (for those with blogs *ahem*), and action alerts. Sounds like a good deal, right? Right!

But more to the point, I want to hear about all the ways that midwives have touched your lives this year! Part of the way we’re going to increase the number of midwife-attended births is by getting the word out about how wonderful midwives are in the first place. So share your story! Share it on the ACNM website, and then share it here, too. How has a midwife changed your life this year? What experiences have you had with midwives this year? How has a midwife supported you this year? Why do you love your midwife? Let me know! And let the world know.

Miles For Midwives just around the corner!

The Midwife — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 03:08:43 +0000

Heads up all New York City midwives, friends of midwives, doulas, midwifery clients, runners, walkers, parents, kids and babies! Miles for Midwives is next weekend (Saturday, Oct. 1st) and this is always a wonderful (traditionally *gorgeous* autumn) day where participants can run/ walk/ stroll a loop of Prospect Park and then enjoy a Birth and Wellness Fair afterwards, chock full of information and local birth resources. Proceeds from the event go to support both Choices in Childbirth and the NYC ACNM Chapter. It’s not too late to register! This will be my seventh year running it. Last year I ran it while pregnant; this year I’ll have a baby in a running stroller with me. Come on out to enjoy a fabulous event and support and celebrate the midwives in your lives!

One World Birth about to launch!

The Midwife — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:29:32 +0000

Just stumbled upon this via a friend on Facebook, and watching the welcome video just sent chills down my spine. Two passionate filmmakers are creating an interactive, continuously-updated online TV channel focusing on nothing but birth, and the state of birth in our world right now, by interviewing the world’s leading experts in birth and attempting to fuse birth, birth education and film-making. Their mission is to empower women to believe that they CAN give birth, fully informed of their choices. Now that’s a mission I can get behind! Oneworldbirth.net will launch on September 1st; until then, you can watch the website trailer below:

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

My one hope is that they don’t just focus on birth in the developed world (although, granted, we’re desperately in need of a birth revolution here in the developed world), but also tackle some of the ongoing issues in the developing world, too. I can’t wait to see what comes next out of this! Viva la revolucion!

Midwifery Care Associated with Better Outcomes

The Midwife — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:23:59 +0000

Via MidwifeInfo, a systematic review spanning 18 years and encompassing 21 studies has found that midwives provide comparable or better care to women than care managed exclusively by physicians. This finding was part of a larger review focusing on advanced practice nurses (nurse-midwives, nurse-anesthetists, nurse-practitioners etc.), and will be published in the upcoming September/ October 2011 issue of Nursing Economic$.

Through a comprehensive evaluation of the evidence from 21 studies of CNM care, the review concludes that there is high quality evidence that women cared for by CNMs are less likely to experience a cesarean delivery, episiotomy, or severe perineal trauma. Women cared for by CNMs are also more likely to choose non-pharmacologic approaches to manage pain, and they have higher breastfeeding rates.

Are you surprised? I’m not surprised! I feel like this just confirms what we already knew: midwives establish better relationships, answer more questions, are more sensitive, check all the boxes on the customer satisfactions card…but more than that, they actually deliver better outcomes—fewer cesareans, fewer lacerations, increased rates of breasfeeding and natural delivery. Of course! It’s just very affirming to see it in writing.

To read the full review as a pdf file, follow this LINK!

More Business of Being Born

The Midwife — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:52:14 +0000

Back in 2007, I was lucky enough to attend an advance screening of The Business of Being Born in New York City, and I wrote this review of it at the time. Since then, it’s become widely popular and widely viewed, loudly praised and criticized by opposing sides of the birth debate, and has served as the starting point for thousands of people as they begin to educate themselves about birth and navigate the obstetrical mine-field in this country. It’s amazing to me how much of a cultural icon this film has become since it’s release—so much so that ACOG alluded to it in its Statement on Homebirth back in 2008 (“Childbirth decisions should not be dictated or influenced by what’s fashionable, trendy, or the latest cause célèbre.”)—and how this film has served as a lightning rod (re-)sparking endless debate, and bringing awareness to a much larger and more mainstream audience.

However, both Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein admitted that there were several more pieces of the puzzle which they couldn’t delve into due to time constraints in their film, and how they really wished they could. Now, fast-forward to 2011 and it seems like they’re making good on their promise to continue to explore various aspects of childbirth in America with the upcoming release of a 4 part documentary series which continues where The Business of Being Born left off, entitled (pragmatically): More Business of Being Born. I, for one, cannot wait to see these films and see the debate continue!!

Homebirth in the Washington Post

The Midwife — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:43:34 +0000

Just a quick link to a recent article in the Washington Post about why a journalist there chose to have a planned homebirth. I think she does a good job of articulating the many benefits associated with homebirth for low-risk women, but she also emphasized that this choice is not right for everyone (obviously). Nice to see homebirth getting some major press, though! The article can be found HERE!

CPM bill introduced in Congress

The Midwife — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 02:29:14 +0000

I have already written extensively on the differences between CNMs/ CMs and CPMs, about how there is a national divide between these qualifications which may prove very hard to bridge, and about how the lack of a unified standard of midwifery in the US continues to divide and destabilize our profession. Part of the problem is that laws vary so greatly between state to state. In some states, Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) are legal, in other states they are not recognized at all and must practice illegally and under the radar, even though they have studied and and been credentialed by a national certification board (NARM, the North American Registry of Midwives). It’s rather infuriating, given that the only thing stopping them from legal recognition and practice are the state to state differences in law. I’m not really going to go through the differences between CPMs/ CNMs/ CMs (read the link above), but instead focus on the fact that some very exciting legislation has recently been introduced by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree in an attempt to gain federal recognition of CPMs (thus eliminating the state-by-state discrepancies) as well as allowing them to be medicaid providers. The rational behind this is that once Medicaid recognizes a specific type of clinician as a medicaid provider, all of the other insurance companies usually follow Medicaid’s lead. You can read the full text of the the proposed legislation here: H.R. 1054. The driving force behind this legislation is the MAMA campaign, spearheaded by the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) and Citizens for Midwifery (CfM).

In New York State, CNMs/ CMs practice legally but CPMs do not. I personally know of several friends who have had lovely, safe, wonderful births attended by CPMs in this state, but unfortunately these midwives did so illegally, with no back-up and no recourse if something went wrong. Being charged with practicing medicine without a license is very serious, and especially tragic given that CPMs do have certifications, but are unable to obtain licences in various states depending on state legislation. How wonderful it would be if CPMs were federally recognized the same way CNMs are (although the bitter politician in me wonders if the ACNM is going to welcome this legislation with open arms). In any case, check out the MAMA campaign, and let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Homebirth in NYC needs your help!

The Midwife — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:12:10 +0000

St. Vincents hospital was the most homebirth-midwife friendly hospital in Manhattan, and quite possibly in New York City, period. It was certainly the only hospital in Manhattan which accommodated homebirth and homebirth midwives. My own midwife delivered her patients there, and she would often comment to me about what a lovely set-up they had at St. Vincents: an obstetric director who was supportive of midwifery care, a nursing staff that was cooperative and respectful of women who chose to give homebirth, and supportive back-up physician care. With the tragic closing of St. Vincents hospital last week, pregnant women and the homebirth midwives who provided them with care are now scrambling to find another back-up hospital to cover them, which is no easy feat. While I don’t know all of the details involved, at the very least this requires signing new Written Practice Agreements with a collaborating physician at another hospital, and midwife-friendly physicians who are willing to back-up homebirth are few and far between, unfortunately. If these agreements are not in place, delivering with a qualified midwife at home is technically illegal.

Attempts to draft an 11th hour Written Practice Agreement between homebirth midwives and the Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC for short–basically, the City’s public hospitals, which includes the hospital where I currently work) sadly fell through, although the latest update from Choices in Childbirth did add that HHC is still considering options. Nevertheless, at the moment the crisis is unresolved, and this leaves women planning homebirth with no back-up options at this time.

What can we do about it? First things first: SIGN THE PETITION in support of the Midwifery Modernization Act, which seeks to amend the Midwifery Practice Act in New York State so that having a written practice agreement in place with a collaborating physician is no longer required. After that, you can continue to flood the Department of Health and Board of Education by making the following calls:

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Wendy Saunders, Executive Deputy Commissioner for the NY State Department of Health, appointed by Governor Paterson. 518-474-8390
Larry Mokhiber, the Secretary of the Board of Midwifery (518-474-3817, extension 130)

When you call, be sure to say: I support a woman’s right to choose a home birth and I call on the [city, Dept of Health, Governor] to do everything in their power to insure that this option remains available to all women in New York. You can also email the Governor at http://www.state.ny.us/governor/contact/GovernorContactForm.php.

It’s a sad day indeed when birth with qualified, licensed providers is made illegal by lack of a written practice agreement and supportive hospital. Those who were planning on delivering at St. Vincents can find another hospital to provide them with similar care: Roosevelt or Mt. Sinai or Cornell, for instance, but St. Vincents has long been the only hospital which is open to families planning homebirth. If you were planning a homebirth and are now out in the cold, and are willing to share your story, please feel free to post a comment or let us know how things resolve for you. We are keeping our fingers crossed for you!

Lactivists v. Facebook

The Midwife — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:42:19 +0000

It’s snowing here, but here’s a little piece of news that will warm the cockles of your heart. As we all know, there was a big stink over at Facebook awhile ago when they banned the pictures of nursing mothers, which then led to the formation of the facebook group Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding is Not Obscene, which served as an official petition and currently has 50,000+ members. However, not content with merely joining a facebook group, breastfeeding mother Heather Farley actually organized a breastfeeding protest outside the Palo Alto headquarters of Facebook on December 28th while visiting her family in the Bay Area. Good for her! The world needs more nurse-ins, and this is a perfect example of an online protest moving out of the world of blogs and into the real world.

While Facebook maintains that breastfeeding photos are okay, it does have a no-nipple no-areola policy, and will remove photos that other users indicate as obscene, which is apparently what happened with the breastfeeding photos that were originally removed. I still don’t understand how photos of teenagers clad in lingerie are acceptable while photos of breastfeeding babies are not. While some people argue that this is for the protection of the women and babies from predators, I really think what it does is send the message that public breastfeeding is not acceptable. It seems like any use of the breast for anything other than sexual gratification is what’s considered obscene. In our sex-drenched culture, sexy women in lingerie won’t even make us bat an eyelash, but a baby taking sustenance from a breast….that’s obscene. How can breastfeeding not be considered “family-friendly”? It’s the very essence of family friendly — it’s feeding and nourishing said family. And for the folks who wonder why people would want to even take a photo of a nursing baby in the first place…just look at all the photos taken of babies with bottles in their mouths. It’s cute, and as a parent, I can only imagine that there’s something very satisfying and fulfilling about watching your baby eat. Babies are born to breastfeed, and it’s not obscene. Anyway, kudos to the lactivists of California for making their real world presence felt outside the Facebook headquarters this holiday season.

And with that, I’m off for the rest of the year. See you next year!

The AMA joins ACOG in homebirth-bashing

The Midwife — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:54:14 +0000

The AMA has recently issued a resolution supporting ACOG’s Statement on Homebirth which agrees that the safest place to have a baby is the hospital, of course, where obstetricians work and get paid. What’s really awful is that they’re using Ricki Lake’s movie, The Business of Being Born, as a tool to try to pass laws that would mandate that all births occur in hospitals, since hospitals are the “safest” place to give birth. Nevermind that in this country (at least for now) all women have the right to make their own choices about their bodies and the health care they receive, or the fact that the U.S. has one of the worst rates of neonatal and maternal mortality among developed countries and that (wow, what a surprise) 90% of all our birth occur in hospitals, or that other countries with much better mortality rates wholeheartedly support and embrace homebirth and that there is strong evidence-based research which backs this up. Nevermind all that. In this country, it’s money that does the talking, and money which sets the agenda and passes laws….and now, the AMA, with all its money, has unsurprisingly agreed with ACOG’s ridiculous statement.

The Huffington Post has an article up detailing all of the furor, along with a raging debate in the comments section. Please, if you care about this even a little bit, visit the article and post a comment. The more comments the Huffington Post receives, the higher the likelihood that they’ll move the article to their “favorites” section, which will keep the article up on their website for days. The more comments and press this topic gest in the blogosphere and in the media, the more women will hear this message, and the more this subject will become part of our national debate. Every comment counts! Here’s the link again: Docs to women: Pay no attention to Ricki Lake’s homebirth