Posted on 01/18/2006 7:28:55 PM PST by Liberty1970
Midwife’s arrest protested Supporters gather at courthouse; charges allege lack of credentials
By ROB DOWDY Staff writer
The children of protester Julianna Zull of Crawfordsville, Mireil, 2, and Gabe, 4, hold signs in front of the Shelby County Courthouse showing their support for midwives. NEWS photos by DAYLA THURSTON Mary Allen Ayres (left), president of the Indiana Midwives Association, stands with Jennifer Louisa Williams among supporters in the Shelby County Courthouse. A midwife from Bloomington turned herself in to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department Friday afternoon as dozens of her supporters walked the grounds of the Shelby County Courthouse to protest the charges filed against her.
Facing two felony charges, Jennifer Louisa Williams, 53, turned herself in to authorities at 1:30 p.m. Friday and immediately bonded out of custody. She is charged with practicing medicine without a license, a Class C felony, and unlicensed practice of midwifery, a Class D felony.
“I wasn’t surprised about the charges,” Williams said, adding that she could not comment further on the case.
Williams’ arrest comes after an investigation into the death of newborn baby Oliver Meredith on June 3. Authorities said Williams assisted in the birth and performed a surgical procedure when the delivery became difficult.
According to Detective Rick Isgrigg’s investigative report, the baby died due to “cephalohematoma with neonatal asphyxia.” The complication occurs most commonly when the fetal head is forced through the birth canal and tearing of vessels causes bleeding and a pocket of blood collects, the report said.
Oliver Meredith was taken by ambulance to Johnson Memorial Hospital in Franklin, where he was pronounced dead at about 8:30 p.m. He was the son of the Rev. J.D. and Kristi Jo Meredith of Edinburgh. The Merediths, contacted by phone Friday, declined to comment on the case.
“She has participated with complete openness in the investigation in the baby’s death. The people investigating the death found no fault in her practice,” said Mary Helen Ayres, president of the Indiana Midwives Association.
The felony charges address Williams’ alleged lack of credentials to practice midwifery in Indiana and do not directly involve her specific actions during the birthing procedure.
Isgrigg said midwives in Indiana must be registered nurses. He said Williams is a certified professional midwife, according to the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM), but is not a registered nurse.
“She has to go through the qualifications, just like anyone else,” Isgrigg said.
Another midwife, Nicole M. Ore-Kelley, also assisted in the delivery of Oliver Meredith. Ore-Kelley has not been charged in the case.
Isgrigg said the Merediths found both midwives through the NARM Web site, www.narm.org. NARM is a midwife certification agency that provides lists of midwives for potential mothers. Debbie Pulley, of NARM, said mothers choose their own midwives.
In his report, Isgrigg said Williams told the Merediths she had assisted with about 1,500 births, but this birth was the first that resulted in death.
As Williams left custody, she was greeted by protesters — including children, parents and concerned citizens — who stalked the grounds of the Shelby County Courthouse to decry her arrest. They carried signs and placards, some reading “Stop Prosecuting Midwives” and “This is a Legislative Issue.”
Mary Ann Griffin, a board member for the Indiana Midwives Association, said the charges have nothing to do with the baby’s death. She said charges were filed only after investigators discovered through the course of their investigation that Williams was not a licensed midwife or a registered nurse in Indiana.
“She’s a very competent midwife,” Griffin said.
Protesters at the courthouse argued more for the passing of a midwife bill than for Williams’ defense. Griffin said if previous legislation had passed the General Assembly, Williams would be eligible for a midwife license in Indiana.
Jennifer Williams, the first Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) in Indiana, has been charged with practicing midwifery and practicing medicine without a license. This despite the fact that there is no mechanism for a midwife to be licensed in the state of Indiana!! Jennifer has actually been leading the push to get legislation passed that would provide for such licensing since 1993, and it has passed the House twice only to be blocked in the Senate by Health chair Pat Miller, an RN who is apparently indifferent to the needs and concerns of homebirth midwives and their customers.
What is worse, the prosecutor has just asked the Attorney General of Indiana for a Cease and Desist order that would SHUT DOWN virtually every midwife in the state, depriving homebirthers (such as the Amish community, but many others as well) the aid and safety a midwife brings. This is an outrageous assault on the freedom of citizens to make their own choices regarding the birth of their children.
Studies show homebirth with a trained midwife is as safe or safer than hospital birth, with lower rates of invasive medical outcomes such as C-sections and episiotomies. Jennifer has only had one stillbirth (which has resulted in this case, though there is no hint of any error of act or judgment on her part – it is solely a licensing issue) out of approximately 1,500 births, giving a her superior record to the hospital system. A homebirth with a midwife costs about 10% that of a hospital birth and is far less stressful and traumatic for mother and child.
My wife has had two homebirths, we took a homebirth class taught by Jennifer and have been blessed to know her as well as other midwives. Midwifery is legal in at least 35 other states. So this is not some fringe thing. But we need the help of Indiana Freepers and everyone of good will to press the state government to pass HB1237 and back off on Jennifer and other midwives throughout the state.
Plenty more information can be found at: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/trilliumbirthing/
We are planning protests at the courthouse in Shelbyville, Indiana (south of Indy). The next one is 8:30 AM local time on Friday, January 20. I’ll be bringing my family. Hope to see many other folks there!
The following I am snail mailing to Rep. Pat Miller, the Attorney General and probably a few other legislators in the Indiana state gov't.
Dear representative,
I have been dismayed to learn of the ‘nuclear attack’ on homebirth/midwifery that has just been requested by Shelby County prosecutors. Their request to shut down virtually all home midwifery activity in the state is a dramatic attack on personal liberty in a nation that once prided itself on the freedom of its citizens. It is also unsound policy no matter how you look at it.
1. Homebirth is legal in all 50 states. The effect of a Cease and Desist order would be to deny home birth mothers access to trained professionals who can attend to them and enhance the safety of the birth. This would elevate the risks faced by Indiana women – not reduce them!
2. Home birth with a Certified Professional Midwife is safe or safer than an equivalent hospital birth. This is demonstrated by studies such as “Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America” (BMJ 2005;330:1416 (18 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7505.1416) The study compared low risk pregnancies, at home and in hospital births. (No trained CPM will advise in or assist in a pregnancy with a known risk requiring medical intervention!)
3. At the same time, home birth leads to fewer invasive medical procedures, is more comfortable and less traumatic than hospital births. (See the study above and related studies.) Thus, coercing women into hospital births forces them to endure more trauma and higher rates of medically invasive procedures such as episiotomies and C-sections, which can impact their ability to delivery children in the future. We also have to consider factors such as the risk of infectious disease transmission for all involved in hospital deliveries.
4. The studies are no fluke, because CPMs are highly trained professionals experienced in home labor and delivery. Rather than harassing them, the medical community would do better to respect them and learn from them and try to match them in their skill and outcomes.
5. The case precipitating this crisis involved Jennifer Williams’ first stillbirth. Please note that mother in question had bad experiences with *hospital* miscarriages twice before (See http://www.shelbynews.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=36255&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=&S=1). This is the first death out of c. 1500 births for Jennifer, giving her a clearly superior record compared to national averages for hospital births. Logically, you should be threatening the shutdown of the birth ward of every hospital in the state each time a death occurs in a hospital, if this is what is driving this prosecution!
6. In an era of skyrocketing medical costs and an increasingly overburdened medical system, homebirth offers a way to dramatically reduce the burdens on hospitals and individuals. We pay around 10% of what a hospital birth costs for my wife’s home births, in addition to the safety and comfort advantages listed above. From a “consumer protection” standpoint, the choice here is clear!
7. Please understand the determination of the home birth community in your state. Banning midwives will not eliminate home birth, which remains legal. Many mothers, including my wife, feel driven from the institutional medical system by the corruption, malpractice and just generally poor service they have encountered. Others, such as the Indiana Amish community, are driven by deep personal convictions that you cannot overturn by edict. Banning midwifery will likely just drive it underground, when what you should be seeking is a reasonable means of efficiently regulating it – just as House Bill 1237 proposes.
8. Midwifery is legal in at least 35 states according to the Midwives Association of North America (MANA). Indiana is one of the few states that has a hostile profile towards this respected, age-old profession.
9. House Bill 1237 has been passed twice by the House only to be held up by Pat Miller in the senate. It is wrong to persecute CPM’s when they have been trying in good faith all along to rectify matters. There is something flagrantly absurd about lumping trained midwives in with arsonists, burglars and drug dealers in considering them all ‘felons.’
10. Finally, and most importantly, I have to appeal to what it means to be an American. Once, this was a land of freedom and personal responsibility. That heritage is slipping away, crushed by the Nanny State mentality. If midwifery must be regulated because it is “risky” then so must everything else under the sun, for everything has risk. The logical outcome is a Stalinist police state, with subjects (no longer citizens) constantly coerced just as their “experts” have told them to act. Let us retain what freedom we have. Please…
Words can’t really express for the fear and concern we have over this decision and the detrimental impact it could have on our families and those around us, but I’ve tried to give some of the reasons why in these points above. Please, let us make informed choices for ourselves rather than being coerced.
Hoping for my children’s future, and the safety of future births in my family,
Eric Blievernicht
Sorry ... you don't like the law ... change the law or suffer the consequences.
But how did the baby die?
It's not "natural" if the person delivering the child has any sort of real medical education, dont'cha know?
It was ruled a natural death by the coroner, and is irrelevant to the charges in the case. IF THE BABY WAS FINE AND DANDY THE CHARGES WOULD BE PRECISELY THE SAME. This is Jennifer's first stillbirth, which is a record far superior to hospitals, and there's no hint in any of the articles on the case that she made _any_ error of judgment or action in trying to save the life of the child.
Nice idea, but wrong. The skillset is very different. And if you guys would read the article before posting (please!) you'd see that the CPM's are already doing a better job than the hospitals.
Why don't Freepers believe in freedom? I am not forcing you to do a home birth - why can't you let mothers have the freedom to choose a home birth with a midwife of their choice? That's the core principle here.
I see FR is getting more socialist every day. :-(
Oh, by the way. I just got an email on my cousin's daughter and her ordeal in the hospital. Her family have taken to referring to the doctors as "Larry, Moe and Curly" because of the constant incompetence. You guys were saying??? Sigh...
Which is the point of the protest, etc.
The law requires midwives be licensed, but doesn't allow them a way to become licensed. I should mention that "nurse-midwives" are required to practice under the authority of a medical doctor. Which means there is 1 nurse-midwife in Indiana who even does homebirths, and with all the red tape and restrictions of the hospital system. This is not what homebirthers are looking for, to put it mildly.
After reading the whole freaking post, I managed to infer that this refers to the "Shelbyville" in Indiana - one of a dozen or so "Shelbyvilles" in the U.S. ...
Some might have put that information in the title.
Liberty.....
What is the training protocol for midwives? Is it in anyway standardized? And how does it compare to the training nurses receive? More intensive in actual practice than nursing school?? Less intensive in classroom instruction? What are the overall stats on home births as compared to hospital births? The midwife in question seems to have an astounding record.
While I would never choose home-birth, this is a liberty issue...and all should be able to make the choice for themselves. The questions above are genuine...as I'm trying to formulate an argument for my rant....Thx.
Oh please. I'm a Constitution Party supporter/member, former Michigan Militia, pro-life, Patriarchy supporter - you begin to get the picture? My homebirth friends are also solid conservatives.
If you have any facts on your side, feel free to cite them. I've already given some in the posts and links at the beginning.
CNM's are just part of the Medical Mafia. I'm viscerally sick of their corruption and incompetence, their greed and rip-off schemes, and my wife has suffered too much at their hands.
In Texas, 20 years ago, a person could become a LICENSED midwife, with no training whatsoever, simply by purchasing a $3.00 occupational license.
Some were nurses, well trained and very good. Others often had no training and on occasion killed mothers and babies.
Care to revise your comment? From the story you posted, "midwives in Indiana must be registered nurses."
Not to mention:
Indiana State Board of Nursing Information Pertaining to Nurse Midwives
According to 848 IAC 3-1-1, Certified Nurse Midwife means a registered nurse who has graduated from a nationally accredited school of midwifery, has passed the National Certifying Examination given by the American College of Nurse-Midwives, and is licensed by the board to practice as a nurse-midwife.
To obtain an application for limited licensure to practice as a licensed midwife, please call our automated attendant at (317) 234-2043, write to the Indiana State Board of Nursing at 402 West Washington Street, Room W072, Indianapolis, Indiana 46204, or Email us at pla2@pla.IN.gov. Please provide your name, full mailing address, and indicate that you want an application for Limited Licensure to practice as a Nurse-Midwife.
For questions regarding licensure, you can write us at the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, call her at (317) 234-2043, or email her at pla2@pla.IN.gov.
Licensure Information for Nurse-Midwives
The Indiana State Board of Nursing may issue a limited license to practice as a Nurse-Midwife if the nurse does the following:
1. submits an application on a form prescribed by the board with the required fee;
2. submits proof of an active, unrestricted Indiana registered nurse license;
3. submits proof of graduation from a nationally accredited school of midwifery; and
4. submits proof of having successfully passed the National Certifying Examination given by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.
Please see the application packet for more detailed information.
Back to Indiana State Board of Nursing
Back to Boards and Committees
http://www.in.gov/pla/bandc/isbn/midwinfo.html
Good questions. CPM's (what Jennifer is) are certified on a national level with a combination written test and skills assessment. They are trained largely through apprenticeships (that's the part I see as the husband of a homebirth wife), I don't know about the 'classroom' element.
The CPM or equivalent is used as a legal basis for practicing midwifery in about 35 states, so Indiana is just one of the hostile outliers. Jennifer was the first CPM in the state and has been trying to get HB1237 passed since 1993. It has passed the House twice only to be shot down by Pat Miller (who happens to be an RN) in the Senate (she is the Health chair).
If you check the links in the original posts, there is one that links to a study of homebirth. It reports and apples-to-apples comparison of low-risk homebirths to low-risk pregnances. The mortality rate is statistical the same, but homebirths with CPM's experience much lower levels of traumatic and medically invasive procedures such as C-sections and episiotomies. (These of course happen after transport to a hospital in most cases - something that is always possible in a planned homebirth if something does go wrong).
Everyone assumes homebirth is risky - it is not, given the malpractice, infectious diseases and other problems of hospitals, and the honed skills of midwives. People need a paradigm shift. For that matter I'm a fairly recent convert myself. I never heard of it til my wife got pregnant and was persuaded to it before I was, by a close friend (and mother of 11 children) who was a home birther.
No, I'm not going to revise it - midwifery and nursing are two different things. The "nurse-midwives" are almost invariably assistants to doctors acting in a hospital setting. The issue here is the homebirth community that is served by real midwives.
This distinction is understood and regulated as such by most other states. Indiana is one of the backwards ones, thanks to Pat Miller.
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