In celebration of Valentine’s Day, I wanted to share a different kind of love story… the kind that begins on a dark, rainy night… anticipation has been building for nine months until, finally, she feels the familiar pangs of labor beginning. The midwife is called and the tub is filled… and so begins the waiting game. At first the contractions are bearable and the excitement of baby’s arrival outweighs the strength of the pain… but slowly, with the ebb and flow of each passing contraction, the need for support becomes evident.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – A law affecting many new moms takes effect this weekend in Rhode Island.
Starting Sunday, mothers will be able to breastfeed their babies in any public space.
The law also gives women the right to claim civil rights violation, if they are prevented from breast-feeding in public.
http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/local_wpri_new_breastfeeding_law_to_go_into_effect_20090227
On June 1st a passport will be needed to cross the Mexico/US border instead of just a birth certificate and driver’s license, an immigration regulation that disproportionately affects Latinos. From the Associated Press:
The citizenship of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people who insist they are Americans is being called into question because they were delivered by midwives near the U.S.-Mexico border. The federal government’s doubts have arisen as many people in the border region try to meet a June 1 deadline to obtain U.S. passports so they can freely cross from one country to the other.
The government’s voluntary bonding scheme to encourage young doctors, nurses and midwives to stay in the country was launched today.
New Zealand is desperately short of doctors, nurses and midwives. This fresh approach will offer student loan debt write offs and cash incentives to graduate doctors, nurses and midwives to work in hard to staff communities or specialties for three to five years.
The Voices section has been inundated with a surplus of letters recommending the state legalize certified professional midwives in South Dakota.
Voices decided to do some investigating and found that a group called South Dakota Safe Childbirth Options was a part of the influx in letters.
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20090116/VOICES/901160305/1052/OPINION01
In South Dakota, this time around, the doctors won and the house rejected a bill to allow certified professional midwives (the only credential that requires experience in out-of-hospital births) to attend home births. In South Dakota, as in many other states, certified nurse midwives can attend home births if they work with a doctor who approves it—but no doctor will approve it, effectively making the option nonexistant.
Let’s face it: the economy sucks right now. We haven’t yet hit rock bottom, and it’s going to be awhile (probably a long while) before things begin to recover. In the midst of this harsh financial reality, companies and industries are scrambling to find ways to save money. Birth activists have been trying for decades to convince this country of the benefits of midwifery based on its safety and track record of better outcomes, not to mention improved client satisfaction, but hey, this is America—the only thing people really pay attention to in this country is the bottom line. So maybe midwifery has finally found the argument it needs to affect actual change. In the midst of one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression, NOW is the time to increase access to midwifery care because it’s excellent care for a heck of a lot less than what we’re currently spending on maternity care.
http://www.bellytales.com/2008/12/30/recession-relief-midwifery-saves-money/
Some 29% of babies born in the Netherlands between 2005 and 2008 were born at home, says the national statistics office CBS.
Between 1997 and 2000, home births accounted for 35% of the total. In 1953 the percentage was 78%.
Well educated women are more likely to give birth at home, the CBS said.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2009/02/home_birth_popularity_declines.php
Lt. Col. Brenda Houston hasn’t moved into a house in Vicenza yet, but she’s already delivered three babies at Caserme Ederle.
Houston, is the first certified midwife to join the staff at the base’s birthing center.
“It’s been wonderful,” said Lt. Col. Shelley Rice, deputy commander for nursing. “It’s a nice blend. It makes the team more diverse, more versatile.”
Houston has served in the Army’s nursing corps for 21 years — the last 13 as a certified midwife. She joins two obstetricians — one civilian and one military — on the staff.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60713
Midwives say they’ve addressed doctors’ and hospitals’ concerns over a plan to license midwives, after opposition helped kill a similar proposal last year.
The bill that died in the legislature last year would have made licensing voluntary and drew the ire of groups such as the Idaho Medical Association. Currently Idaho requires no license or certification to be a midwife, but midwives are recognized by state law.
http://www.argusobserver.com/articles/2009/02/20/news/doc499efaaeed92e447989098.txt
From the time I was a teenager, I have wanted to be a midwife. The idea of catching babies has always been fascinating to me. I find pregnancy and birth to be an amazing process. Having my own children, participating in births, catching several precipitous births as a nurse, and working with several wonderful nurse-midwives have helped me realize that becoming a nurse-midwife is my destiny. I am an adrenalin junkie, and birth is the ultimate rush. Becoming a nurse-midwife has been my dream and ultimate goal driving me in both my life and the development of my nursing career. Attending graduate school at this time in my life is a culmination of my long-term desire to become a nurse-midwife.
http://atyourcervix.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-i-want-to-be-midwife-paper.html
A review of maternity services headed by chief nurse Rosemary Bryant has recommended changes to Commonwealth funding arrangements to enable midwives to be able to undertake a greater role and allow them to provide taxpayer-subsidised drugs and care.
It recommends appropriately-qualified midwives being able to access Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and suggests the government provides professional indemnity insurance support to midwives, however it rejects Commonwealth funding for home births.
http://topnews.us/content/23783-review-suggests-greater-role-midwives
The American College of Nurse?Midwives (ACNM), the nation’s oldest women’s health organization, applauds Rep. Ed Towns (D?NY) and Rep. Fred Upton (R?MI) on the bipartisan introduction of their legislation, the “Midwifery Care Access and Reimbursement Equity Act of 2009,” (H.R. 1101). This legislation will improve access for Medicare beneficiaries to the vital women’s health services offered by certified nure?midwives (CNM) and certified midwives (CM) by remedying a long?standing reimbursement rate inequity between midwives and other licensed health care professionals within the Medicare program.
Midwifery models of care are about women being cared for by a health professional they get to know and trust.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recognises midwives as the most appropriate and cost effective health care professionals to manage a normal pregnancy and birth. Australia continues to ignore recommendations of the WHO and doesn’t fully recognise the extensive professional skills and education of midwives; skills that allow hospitals and birth centres to leave the birthing of most of the nation’s babies in their capable hands.
http://www.homebirth.net.au/2009/02/continuity-of-care-undervalued.html
For many pregnant women in America, it is easier today to walk into a hospital and request major abdominal surgery than it is to give birth as nature intended. Jessica Barton knows this all too well. At 33, the curriculum developer in Santa Barbara, Calif., is expecting her second child in June. But since her first child ended up being delivered by cesarean section, she can’t find an obstetrician in her county who will let her even try to push this go-round.
There are new details and reaction today to a breastfeeding controversy in Asheville.
Crystal Everitt says she was asked to leave Denny’s on Patton Avenue Sunday because she was breastfeeding her child. Denny’s Regional Director Rick Pate tells News 13 complaints poured into management and some patrons left. He says a manager asked Everitt to cover herself or go somewhere more private.
http://www.wlos.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/wlos_vid_2111.shtml
Make of it what you will but a study released today says that breastfeeding may reduce multiple sclerosis(MS) relapses. For the study, researchers followed 32 pregnant women with MS and 29 pregnant women without MS during each trimester and up to a year after they gave birth. The women were interviewed about their breastfeeding and menstrual period history.
I hate the border crossing from Rwanda into Goma at Gisenyi. It frays nerves and sullies sunny dispositions in a heartbeat. Male street thugs prowl past luggage, waiting for that instant of inattention. Professional beggars steal into your personal space while the truly hungry are too afraid to ask for a franc or two, and the secret police pour over passports and personal possessions with imperious disregard for common courtesy.
Journalist Helen Thomas and a medical doctor from the States were joining me for a meeting with a midwife group from Goma, and we were waiting for my Congolese friend Omer to meet us with the required invitation from APROSAF (Action Pour la PROmotion de la Sage – Femme).
http://mosquito-blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/congolese-midwives-struggle-to-help.html
Midwives don’t want anything more from the Legislature. They just want to be left alone.
Today midwives from around the state showed up to the state capital to thank legislators with homemade cookies for the recent change in law that legalizes midwifery.
“We’re not asking for more,” Missouri Midwives Association former president Debbie Smithey said.
She said the next step for them is to “see what it’s like to practice legally.”
Obstetricians and certified professional midwives have differing philosophies when it comes to ushering babies into the outside world.
However, a bill before the General Assembly might bring them into a closer working relationship. At least, that’s the hope of certified professional midwife, Brynne Potter.
Del. Matt Lohr, R-Harrisonburg, has introduced a bill that would amend the regulation of midwifery.
It would require that midwives inform patients of potential risks associated with delivering at home, “including but not limited to special risks associated with vaginal births after a prior C-section, breech births, births by women experiencing high-risk pregnancies, and births of twins or multiples.”
http://www.nvdaily.com/lifestyle/2009/02/legislation-would-impose-new-r.html