Posted on 08/17/2017 7:56:10 AM PDT by originalbuckeye
The decision by the Royal College of Midwives to withdraw its decade-long campaign for “normal birth” has come much too late for my own son, Joshua, who sadly died nine days after being born, but is a welcome step. The approach for too long influenced a style of care in maternity wards that put lives at risk.
These were the words spoken by Cumbria coroner Ian Smith, as he began summing up the inquest into the death of Joshua, on 6 June 2011: “With advances in medical science and techniques, childbirth has become safer and safer, to the point where we now expect children to be delivered safely. Now, I will have to say in truth, the process is a highly dangerous event, and you could make a glib remark that the most dangerous day of anybody’s life is their first day of life.”
Joshua had died two and a half years earlier because of poor care in the 24 hours after his birth at Furness general hospital in Cumbria. Signs that he was suffering from a serious infection that should have resulted in speedy medical referral were not acted on by the midwives looking after him. Instead, Joshua’s first contact with a doctor came some 24 hours later when his mother found him collapsed in his cot and called for help. By this time, however, it was too late.
Despite being transferred to two different neonatal intensive care units and putting up a fight to be proud of, Joshua died eight days later. His left lung was more damaged from the infection than the consultants looking after him had realised. He died from profuse internal bleeding.
This is the way I see things (and possibly it makes me a Libertarian)
The government should not step in and interfere with a God-given right and process. If you want to give birth in a Hospital then it is your right. I chose not to, and I chose to give birth at home. It should be my right to do what comes naturally without government intervention. I understood full well that I or my child could die, and in fact could also die in a hospital. Such is life and death.
Doctor/hospital mistakes are the third leading cause of death in the USA - just behind cancer and heart disease. You can take your chances with medical intervention - I’ll take mine with God and his plan. I do it every day, in every way.
Sorry. You’re right, this particular article doesn’t refer to home birth. There are several articles in the last few days from Britain and some do refer to home births and midwives advocating for that. My experience was that friends had tried to recommend home birth and I was really glad I didn’t go that route. My son wouldn’t have survived and I might not have either. Most of the articles do point out that midwives will advocate for ‘normal/natural/home’ births, but things haven’t worked out that well if they ignore the need for medical intervention.
I’m glad it worked out well for you.
Life sometimes works well - sometimes it doesn’t. I had bad experiences three times with birth at a hospital under a doctor’s care.
I gave birth twice at home after that. I simply hate the idea of big nanny-state government telling us what we “must” do.
Terceira Island is 19 miles by 12 miles, a lot smaller than Oahu, with patients there from the whole Pacific Rim. It is sad to think that your personal experience could be what single-payer socialized medicine would plague us with.
I considered home birth with my 6th ... well, my friend’s basement ... because it was such a nuisance figuring out what to do with my five other children, and I considered having my 7th on the lawn at the Fire Department. However, in both cases, I managed to make it to the hospital after squaring away all the siblings. I’ve known people who had successful home births and people who had bad outcomes, but the same is true with hospital births, so I’m neutral.
I think the real issue in this case is that the midwives have some sort of ideology going on that is unrelated to patient health. It’s worth noting that midwives’ organizations tend to be stridently pro-abortion.
Not when you can twist it to support getting more control over other people.
You're probably right. Most of the Midwives are a bit ...well...crunchy and progressive.
In Utah we have a Midwives with a more traditional view about the importance of life. I guess I've been fortunate. I did my homebirths back in the early 1980's. The direction of the country has changed a great deal since then.
I’m sure there are midwives everywhere who are competent and caring. It’s sort of like teachers: the organizations which “represent” them are hard-left, while most teachers are not.
I think people should be able to make the choices they think will work out best for them.
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