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?
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.
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
I'm not staking a claim on this mountain. In my experience, midwives can be a dangerous choice. The one I've known most recently was hard core pro abort Monologue loving liberal. She runs the department at KUMED. My husband and I took a course from a midwife but never turned the process over to her and had a back up in place which we used. There are a lot of ways for a family to have a good birth experience with the full medical profession available. It makes no sense to go the hippy dippy way anymore.
My leanings are libertarian, so I would be inclined to say that people nuts enough to give birth at home should go ahead and use any kind of witch doctor they like. However, the fact is that when something goes wrong during a home birth, the mother and baby will be rushed to a hospital where they will receive medical care at the taxpayers' expense (since must people nutty enough to give birth at home don't have insurance). So...I don't care if this unlicensed midwife is locked up.
The health industry continues its march.