Free Republic

In 2022 there were approximately 22 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births in the United States — far above rates for other high-income countries. U.S. maternal mortality is lowest for Asian American women and highest for Black women. Maternal death rates increased in Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, and the U.S. during the height of the pandemic, between 2020 and 2021. In Chile, Norway, and the U.S., where 2022 data are available, maternal death rates have begun to decline. Nearly two of three maternal deaths in the U.S. occur during the postpartum period, up to 42 days following birth. Compared...

Former First Daughter, global health advocate and venture capitalist Chelsea Clinton is promoting the start-up company Oula, a midwife-centered maternity clinic that provides “a middle ground approach to birth and pregnancy care” located in Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York. Oula delivers personalized care to reduce emergency C-sections and preterm birth rates. At a recent event with Oula co-founder and COO Elaine Purcell, Clinton delivered the startling statistic “that women delivering today are 50% more likely to die in childbirth or from childbirth-related complications than our own mothers were,” with the crisis disproportionately affecting Black and brown women. Clinton continues to...

The job of a midwife is to care for women and their babies before, during and after birth, but the leader of British midwives group is pushing to add late-term abortion advocacy to midwivesÂ’ job descriptions. Cathy Warwick, the chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, has been facing heavy backlash ever since she used her role to push for late-term abortions for any reason up to birth, LifeNews reported. Without consulting members, Warwick recently published a new RCM policy that supports abortion on demand, according to the UK Metro. She also got the midwives group involved in a...

In a horrible defeat for conscience rights for medical professionals, a British court today ruled that a pair of midwives who didn’t want to be involved in assisting abortions must do so. Midwives Mary Doogan and Connie Wood won a lower court decision last year but the UK’s Supreme Court heard an appeal brought by the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which is supported by the pro-abortion British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and the Royal College of Midwives. The midwives, with more than 20 years’ experience, initially lost their cases against their employers in the Outer House of the Court...

SACRAMENTO, CA, May 27, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Since Gov. Jerry Brown signed a sweeping new bill into law last October, the state of California has trained dozens of non-physicians to perform abortions, and the state's women are likely to suffer double the rate of complications as a result, pro-life experts tell LifeSiteNews. Gov. Brown signed A.B. 154, introduced by San Diego Democrat Toni Atkins, to authorize midwives, nurse practitioners, and physicians’ assistants to perform first-trimester suction aspiration abortions. His office said the new law would “support the health and well-being of women in California.”

A California committee today approved legislation that would allow nurses and midwives to perform abortions. The bill will next be heard in the Health committee following today’s 9-4 vote. The Assembly Committee on Business, Professions and Consumer Protection voted for the bill, which comes after the state took a first step next year and putting women’s health at risk by allowing non-doctors to perform surgical abortions — even though women have been killed and injured in abortions even when performed by licensed physicians. The Capitol Resource Institute, a pro-family group, is urging pro-life Californians to ask legislators to vote against...

HILLAH, Iraq, Aug. 6, 2009 – U.S. soldiers with the 172nd Infantry Brigade medical team and 10th and 115th Combat Support Hospitals instructed Iraqi nurses during a four-day medical symposium at Babil Maternity Hospital in Iraq’s Babil province. Army Maj. Pamela Dipartrizio, chief of clinical operations for Task Force 1st Medical, teaches Iraqi nurses infant resuscitation techniques during a medical symposium at Babil Maternity Hospital in Iraq’s Babil province, July 29, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Bethany L. Little  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Midwives, emergency room and ward nurses, and premature intensive care unit teams worked with...

If the House of Representatives passes the health-care bill approved by the Ways and Means and Education committees, midwives--who sometimes deliver babies in place of doctors--will receive the same level of government reimbursement as obstetricians. Section 1304 of the Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (H.R. 3200) would raise government Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for certified nurse midwives to the same level as the reimbursement for doctors who perform the same services. Under current law, midwives only receive 65 percent of what a doctor receives for equal services. Originally introduced in February as the “Midwifery Care Access and Reimbursement Act...

AMA Says Women Should Use a Hospital -- Some Doctors Disagree The American Medical Association has agreed to support proposed legislation that, some physicians say, could make make having a planned birth in one's home difficult, to virtually impossible. As of now, no actual legislation has been drawn up, but the AMA has agreed to back a measure called "Resolution 205," a request to support the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' (ACOG) position that home births are not safe. "We are against home births, period," said Gregory Phillips, an ACOG spokesman. Women who give birth outside of a clinical...

The Business of Being Born Birth: "It's a miracle. A rite of passage. A natural part of life. But more than anything, birth is a business. Compelled to find answers after a disappointing birth experience with her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to examine and question the way American women have babies. The film interlaces intimate birth stories with surprising historical, political and scientific insights and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system. When director Epstein discovers she is pregnant during the making of the film, the journey becomes even more personal. Should most births...

British Parliamentarians to Push for End to Current Limited Abortion Restrictions Want to allow nurses and midwives to kill unborn children By Hilary White LONDON, September 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A group of pro-abortion British MP's from all parties in government will be launching a campaign to sweep away the last formal restrictions on abortion and make it available on demand. They want to allow nurses and midwives to kill unborn children and recommend increasing the number of facilities allowed to abort babies in the first trimester of pregnancy. The Independent reports that the move is planned by a cross-party...

Before an audience of cooing babies and nursing mothers, a legislative committee on Thursday approved a measure to legally define when Utah women can deliver their children at home. Image Laura Lund of Provo attends a hearing on Thursday with daughter Leah to lobby against SB243. The measure amends a bill passed two years ago to license direct-entry midwives. Tom Smart, Deseret Morning News The bill, which moved to the full Senate on a 4-2 vote, amends one passed two years ago to license direct-entry midwives. It gives the Legislature the right to define what constitutes a "normal" pregnancy, labor...

Kim James was 17 when she first learned what a midwife does. Though she still can’t place her finger on it, she knew it was what she wanted to be. “It is something that always interested me, and I am not sure why,” she said. “It’s not lucrative, the hours are terrible and most of the work is done in the middle of the night. “But,” she adds, “it is extremely rewarding work.” James began working in 1989 at Cherche La Femme, Columbia’s first birthing center. The center was co-founded by a certified nurse-midwife, Sharon Lee; a physician, Elizabeth Allemann;...

Americans are living in a time when access to obstetrical care is an important topic in politics. Obstetricians are leaving practice in high numbers because of insurance rates which reflect the high number of lawsuits families are filing. This is a sign that the time has come for fellow Americans and politicians to recognize that Professional Midwifery Care has the potential to help resolve many of the concerns American mothers have in maternity care. How can midwives help the current state of maternity care and cost in the US? The cost benefits are evident of many levels: Beginning with prenatal...