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Midwife’s arrest protested Supporters gather at courthouse; charges allege lack of credentials

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.

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.

“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.” You wrote-

That is what you wrote right?

http://www.allenbirthingcenter.com/midwifery.htm Read.

Most your midwives are Registered Nurses that have “additional training beyond that as well. In fact, most CNM programs REQUIRE that you are a full RN BEFORE you even begin the program.

http://www.allnursingschools.com/faqs/cnm.php
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002000.htm

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What I’m about to say is a bit unfair for two reasons so I’ll throw that out upfront to stay fair:

1. Most CNM’s are selective on who they take. True high risk pregnancies they turn away.

2. Most parents who go to a birthing center or use a CNM have an interest in their child, family and health. The psychographics are different. Not too many crack whores care to use a CNM. The population you’re dealing with that use this service is more involved, more participative and generally speaking even more educated. Low birth weigh is hardly a doing of the Midwife, but for example, the birthing center we will go to has only had one child born ever with a low weight. Why? Well, most of the parents who go there care about their health. Less smoke, less are alcoholics etc.

That said. The shear statistics of most CNM’s are phenomenal when compared to most hospitals. Less infant deaths, less c-sections (66% margin), less episiotomies, less low birth weight, less time spent in labor, less, less, less. Again, a lot is simply due to the people your dealing with. But the “notion” that there is some higher risk associated with a midwife, that a birthing center that uses CNM’s is somehow less safe, does NOT hold up in a statistical comparison by ANY means.

In some US hospitals you’re now running c-section rates at OVER 50%! The national average I believe is already over 30%. Is that good medicine? Do you think that is due to all the dangers and risks of pregnancy? Is pregnancy really a disease?

Unfortunately the CNM is being “pushed” out of the picture. Deliberately states have pushed legislation which requires the CNM to be under a Physicians control, basically castrating the CNM because the physician now is the ultimate authority and the CNM becomes nothing more than another nurse taking orders from a physician. Most hospitals don’t even have a midwife in their staffs! Why would they? You can’t make as much money!

Let me give you an example with us. The hospital in Plano will charge my insurance 1.5 TIMES just for labor, what my wife costs at a CNM for pre delivery checkups, labor and post deliver checkups all inclusive. Babies are “big business” in America.

If you think you’re doing yourself or your baby a favor through unnecessary medical procedures, intervention and higher risks associated through inducing (Which tends to lead to more c-sections since the body is not ready to deliver according to the work schedule/calendar of an OBGYN) then cookie cutter procedure driven medicine based on a framework defined by laws and profit margins is the way to go for you. You won’t be able to prove that the induction led to you failing at a natural birth and now having a big scar to show for because you followed the conveyor belt medicine administered in our fine medical establishments. You won’t be successful in a law suit for an infection due to an unnecessary epidural or episiotomy. It’s not my wife and I who are taking the risk.

How many people have died from the pain of labor in the last 20,000 years? Can you give me a single case where labor pain has led to death? Does pain kill in general? What medically really “necessitates” an epidural in labor? But once you have that tube in your back, you are immobilized (the perfect patient – a meat clump that can’t move or talk back), you are less effective in delivery, there is an associated risk involved with infection and in the end, some of the pain will “still” be there as the baby passes out. But as soon as they pop the seal on that kit you’re in effect paying $700. So you can sit there with a catheter up your urine track, immobile, with an exposure of your spinal column and tell us how much better that is while trying to push the baby out against gravity because why of course, you can’t move around with that epidural in your back. That’s the smart and “low risk” way to do business.

http://www.healing-arts.org/mehl-madrona/mmepidural.htm

It’s about “profits” not about your health, and the CNM is being pushed out of the scene for “profit” reasons. It has nothing to do with any risks. Again the statistics do NOT support your assumption that there is a greater risk. In fact, statistically you are dead wrong and the OPPOSITE of what you claim can be stated! The risk is GREATER in most hospitals that both the mother and child end up in a complicated delivery but the most probable causes that lead to these issues have become a norm. Inducement is today a “normal” thing, so is an epidural, just like thalidomide was 35 years ago. Just like most did episiotomies in near all clinical child births years ago (Another fad that has been debunked and now they are just at over 30% on average)………

In a clinical setting a mother often gets tired and weak after some time and she is told that a c-section may be “necessary”. Of course for your “health” they also ask that you don’t eat or drink during labor. You can be happy if they let you suck on a piece of ice. What happens to your body when you don’t get food or water? Of course they solve the dehydration issue with an IV, because we all know you’re not capable of putting water down your own throat! So, let’s add this up. You don’t eat, you get your epidural and were induced before your body is ready and then the mother is “surprised” because she fails at a natural delivery. C-sections are of course only a “MINOR” surgical act that necessitates cutting through the uterus, muscle wall……. No risk there either right? What they do at hospitals in this country is near criminal.

http://www.midwife.org/display.cfm?id=771&print=2

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=33867

http://www.mercola.com/2003/sep/27/cesarean_section.htm

I’m no tree hugger by any means. I’m no socialist, but I did grow up in Germany predominantly and was under their medical system for some time and I can tell you that it’s not genetic that German women have less c-sections. Being a concerned father, having a wife that will deliver within a week and doing a bit of homework on this issue, I became disgusted with how our medical establishment operates. Why is it that in the US we have near 2-3 TIMES the C-Section rate, yet HIGHER infant death mortality than Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain, Japan…. Canada……… Finland…. Denmark? We have also a HIGHER maternal fatality rates despite paying the MOST for labor and deliver world wide. Does spending a lot equate to good health care?

If my wife had some type of cancer she would want immediate aggressive and multifaceted treatment as I would too. Pregnancy however is not a disease. The more I pick at that scab, the more I screw it up. In most cases you need to do absolutely NOTHING. For the same reasons some anti-biotics are becoming ineffective and physicians still prescribe all sorts of junk for a cold, pregnancy is an over medicated, over treated, and over priced medical condition that has been created. Ask those who run 20 pharmaceuticals adds per night what they can do for you in pregnancy and they have a whole list of medicine. Look at Ritalin and ADHA as another largely “made up” disease. Pregnancy is no different. If you ask them enough, they will tell you that your pregnancy is in some “risk” group. If being pregnant were really such a critical event that is so dangerous and requires even necessitates medical intervention, the human race would have gone extinct.

BTW, the big pharma industry already has a magic pill to dry you up immediately with a single pill! Great isn’t it. We all know that breast feeding is so bad right. Years ago they DID preach that BS too. According to the “gods in the white lab coats” there was an infection risk to the baby from the in sterile milk. You should use formula since it’s much better for the baby. We know today how that too is real good for the baby and mom right? Of course who do you think pushed their products and quoted every medical pseudo scientific “study” (There one to prove anything) to show that you need to buy their crap?

I’m all about medically treating asthma, cancer, broken bones and poked eyes, but what medically really needs treated with most pregnancies?

I guess what my whole rant boils down to is: What risk are you’re talking about? What danger should my wife fear when she goes to the nurse Midwife in the next week?

Most midwives have O2, heat lamps, suction even defibrillation........ Anything shy of a c-section they can pretty much do when we are talking about labor. Again, you assume that a NURSE Midwife (Someone who was an RN before they went to further training) is somehow incompetent, but a hospital where you have often LPN’s (less training) are somehow much much more competent.

If something does go wrong or looks bad they can still take you to a hospital. Time of travel from the Allenbirthingcenter (Just an example) to Allen hospital is 3 minutes. Ok, let me use another place that does midwife births. http://www.birthcenter.net/about/staff.asp (distance from BAYLOR medical center? Less than 5 minutes)

Here’s another question you probably never ask yourself. In the great hospital where it’s all about systems and maximizing profits, how much time do they devote to you. Do they really know what is going on because they have TWO FULL TIME NURSES (The standard with Midwives) caring for you or do they occasionally check on you and let an automated system take a “reading” every once in a while. How often do they look at you and how much time does that Dr spend on you?

a. Does he really have time to know what is going on.

b. Does he care about what you want or is he more focused on what he was taught and the hospitals procedure.

c. They are trigger happy when it come to intervention. Moms are scared and look to the authority figure, he in turn is taught to “do something”, and the net result is a feedback loop into intervention. Near ALL pregnancies in a hospital end with lots and lots of frivolous procedures ranging from mind surgical to medical acts that are completely and entirely unnecessary. There is no reason for the high number of c-sections. There is no reason for an epidural at all. Most episiotomies are unnecessary. The starving of a mother eliminates the fear of vomit being aspirated but causes her physical state to be weakened and sets her up for failure in the long run.

How many women die each year from c-sections? How many c-sections do we perform compared to nearly all others? Figure in how many woman die while under the knife of this “minor” procedure? Weigh off your risk. There is a danger every time you cross a road. The probability of them wanting to force something upon you unnecessarily, the likelihood of you getting cut up for no reason at all is far greater under the care of your highly trained OBGYN in that well equipped facility than under the care of a Midwife.

Bottom line is that near ALL the intervention carries a real health cost with it. From minor infection to basically condemning a woman to no possible vaginal birth or even death, the truth is, there are associated risks with a c-section or episiotomy or anything else. From scalps pulling (Suction to help pull out) off or eyes lost thanks to forceps these risks are real and while you think your much better off in a hospital, I’d tell you that STATISTICALLY you are FAR more probable to get cut, sliced and diced for no reason at all.

You are arguing using stereotypes and perceptions, not facts. A CNM and most of their facilities are designed for you. They are designed to make you feel comfortable, to help a natural process along. A hospital and many physicians try to control the process to the point of interfering with it!

To HairOfTheDog: Here's the difference that you don't want to understand. They have the capability to do a lot, but the Midwife generally tries to avoid unnecessary intervention while at the hospital it is rampant.

You will not get sued for pushing more intervention even if it is most likely unnecessary. Even though MOST c-sections are complete non-sense and a few women die during or after the procedure, you will not get in trouble for doing more.

Again, in a complete vacuum of any statistical basis, in a complete spin of reality you are trying to essentially justify hospitals that have near 50% c-section rates in some places. Do you realize that women do have complications, some even do die from a c-section?

I already mentioned forceps that can break the skull, can cause hemorrhage and and and which today are used far less than years ago where this too was touted as the standard proceedure.

Episiotomies which are now also done less because the standard procedure of slicing up every pregnant woman as some “professionals” in the past did has been debunked as unnecessary and more damaging than good in MOST cases. Most women don’t even tear that much and if they do, the tear usually heals faster than the cut. It used to be near “Standard Operating Proceedure” to slice all women open during birth for many physicians years ago. Oh yea, there was medical reason to do so, or so they said.

We could mention Thalidomide here. I don’t think I need to dwell on that one to much.

Maybe we should mention epidurals which have NO medical necessity what so ever, but DO carry a medical risk. Why do hospitals offer them graciously? Take a look at the cost. Think about the risks. Then ask yourself what medically necessitates an epidural? But surly that must be good medicine?

We might mention that in a hospital they deny a woman food and drink since they are afraid of vomit aspiration during labor. Does it require a genius to figure out that if you don’t eat and your body is under stress for some time it will “wear out”? Deep thought huh? It makes just about as much sense as pushing out a baby up against gravity in one of those convenient hospital delivery chairs. Were they designed for easy birth or easy access for the physician? Think about it.

We can talk about how many pregnancies are induced at the physician’s recommendation and how this serves absolutely NO medical purpose other than it fits into the calendar of this physician in most cases. Most woman deliver in accordance to their physicians schedule, not their body’s.

We can go on and on and on. You really think this is good care?

The FACTS are that in the US we have the MOST intervention during pregnancy and labor yet we have one of the highest infant death mortality rates of any Western industrialized nation! (PERIOD!)

http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/indicator_detail.cfm?IndicatorID=25&Country=DE

Compare us to others. Please do! Prove me wrong! Compare us to Austria, Australia, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Great Britain, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Japan……..

Compare the maternal mortality rate to others! http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/indicator.cfm?IndicatorID=65&country=DE#rowDE

We pay the MOST of ANYONE on this PLANET and by a huge margin. We have MORE c-sections than most, we medicate more than all yet we rank number EIGHT right ahead of Slovakia and Bosnia in the number of women who die while giving birth!

What is the medical necessity of a circumcision again? But ahhhh yea right I’m just imagining that years ago the medical “experts” in our nation recommended this procedure for “hygiene” reasons.

Compare what our CDC reports to that in other nations official sites? http://search.hhs.gov/search?q=cesarean&ie=&site=HHS&output=xml_no_dtd&client=HHS&lr=&proxystylesheet=HHS&oe=&restrict=HHSNews&btnG=Search+HHS+Press+Releases&rn=315

You guys keep talking about “what if” and the huge dangerous enormous medical undertaking it is to have a baby. Well, it’s a bunch of BS.

Let me give you some FACTS that don’t fit into your picture-

(This is real, you can check up the stats)
1. Birth and Woman’s Center Dallas TX: 1,900 births. ONE medical emergency, ZERO deaths of child and mom. 5% of woman end up with c-sections that need transported to Baylor less than 5 minutes away.

2. Allen Birthing Center (Dallas Metroplex) http://allenbirthingcenter.com More than 1,200 births, ZERO deaths of mom or child, less than 4% c-section rate, less than 6% transfer rate to Allen hospital.

Again, lets contrast that with a “real” hospital with all its “great equipment” and skilled professionals in your mind. Under a nurse Midwife your labor is MORE closely monitored than in ANY hospital in the nation. The nurse Midwife (one often two) will be with you the whole time. She observes and is in reality more familiar with “you” than in a hospital where you have machines that take periodic readings and a nurse/doctor who comes in to check once in a while. In fact, that Nurse Midwife knows you personally from before you came or she came to your house, since she was the one that followed your whole pregnancy. Unlike a hospital you can walk around in your home or a birthing center. Unlike a hospital you are not “demanded” to lay on your back trying to push out a baby against gravity. Unlike a hospital the CNM knows who you are what your wishes are and won’t ask 20 times the same stupid questions, she won’t “push” unnecessary procedures like a circumcision, episiotomy, epidural or anything else. Truth is, in near all US hospitals even if you fill out a birth plan, the medical staff will disregard it and their “procedure” will trump it. Their needless meddling, the restrictions placed upon you, their lack of knowledge about you (They only have a medical history in a record), a medical establishment that is taught to intervene, sees everything as a medical condition, and and and, combine that with a often first time mother who thinks she’s the first and only woman to experience this, she’s scared creates a situation where needless and unnecessary procedures are performed. In the end, some will end up cut and unable to deliver vaginally in the future, some will be infertile all together, a few will even die who in reality don’t need this procedure all together. But in the end, the medical establishment will get a slap on the hand but will hardly be held fully accountable for those who were injured from these needless procedures. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&%20db=PubMed&list_uids=13271119&dopt=Abstract%20- Like it or not, woman do die while getting a cesarean even today. If you weigh off the risks, if you look at the cost, if you consider the experience to the mother, you have to be a fool to argue that a CNM is the worse option. Sometimes less is more. That’s not a hippy granola thing. That’s something even some doctors will tell you.

Again- I can’t speak for all CNM’s across the nation or what their statistics are. But I did look into the two of locations here where you have CNM’s working and both beat Plano Medical Center and Presbyterian hospitals hands down across the board. You guys keep talking about risks and dangers and what if, but in the meantime women are getting needless procedures because of medical “processes” that are followed as defined by laws and profit margins. Circumcision alone is a $300,000,000 business, and I’m sure it’s for the kids health. Please tell me why we do this if you’re not a Jew?

http://www.smartklamp.com/parents/thesmartklamp.html You too can be a happy smiling kid like in those pictures if they only cut into your privates! And gee, this unnecessary procedure only carries a real small chance of taking off to much (It happens), infection (happens), and and and. BTW- since I’m so crazy and can’t be right. Do you want to know what the new argument is that is thrown out there to justify circumcision? It thwarts HIV! Don’t you want to protect your child? Gee I must be a real granola eating idiot for saying BS to that one too.

http://www.circumstitions.com/Restric/Botched4ga.html What percent of these kids NEEDED to be circumcised?

Sure, the medical industry isn’t all about money. Explain that to the insurances, the doctors, the hospitals, the pharma producers and and and. The medical industry is one of the largest markets in the US. We spend 3.25 TIMES on medical care what we do on defense. It’s ALL about the money. Many specialists in medicine literally pick their field of specialization according to where the biggest bucks are. There is a reason why they had to mandate by law that hospitals can’t turn away emergency care patients. Some did in the past before they were mandated not to.

As to the legal framework most CNM’s face today and the statement of one here: “but they have to make sure that they are fully compliant with local laws where they practice” Said by brwnsuga. That is exactly the problem. The courts are one way in which economic battles are fought. Ask Tucker, DOW, some in politics and and and. The courts have long ago already become another battlefield in economics; it’s just not defined that way in your Macro economics class in college. What is happening to the Nurse Midwife is that they are today being De facto pushed out of business or under control of the hospitals and physicians who will end up prescribing whatever they want anyway. The Nurse Midwife is becoming a Midwife in name only. We found zero Midwives in any hospital in this area (Dallas area) that were true Midwives. Those who are at the hospitals are no Midwives but rather just a nurse with the title Midwife who takes commands from a physician. The end state is that the institutional process of the hospital and physician takes over and the Midwife is a farce.

You are a customer. In the end you basically pay for it even in a monetary aspect. It’s YOUR money! It’s your body, your values and ethics. The insurance, hospital or doctors don’t have to live with you or live with the consequences of their decisions they make for you if you allow them to. Being uninformed, equates to being cattle and having them herd you along in a “process” oriented system. Seldom does a physician take the time to truly give you the options and let you make a decision. Information is filtered and presented in a way that lends the customer to choose a certain outcome. Most of the time that is OK and the procedures etc in place are congruent with your way of life and your desired outcome. No doubt that if I had cancer most places would treat me well and in accordance with what I want. Sometimes this is not the case. Not being informed means you have no mind of your own, no ability to make any informed decisions on the subject and basically have others decide your fate for you.

When it comes to healthcare today, you are either an informed customer or a herd animal.

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