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Home Birth Midwives An Endangered Species in NYC
New York City has only 13 home birth midwives, and 7 of them are in danger of losing their licenses.
State law requires all home birth midwives to have agreements with obstetricians at nearby hospitals who will back them up and handle medical emergencies with their patients. St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan was the official back-up hospital for more than half of New York City’s midwives until it closed this week.
Now the midwives are having trouble finding a new hospital that will take them in. Obstetricians, it seems, are not eager to sign on for back-up duty.
In most developed countries, having a baby at home with a professional midwife is seen as a safe, healthy, affordable choice for healthy moms with low-risk pregnancies. Here in the U.S. it’s seen as dangerous and subversive. So much so that the American College of Obsetritians and Gynecologists issued a stern warning in 2008 calling home birth “trendy” and dangerous.
In fact, most of the people who have ever lived were born at home. If its a trend, it’s one that’s been around since the Stone Age. It’s also not particularly dangerous: a large scale study of home births in the US found that only 12% transfer to hospitals, and only 3.4% of those transfers are urgent. No maternal deaths have been reported by home birth midwives here, and the infant mortality rate is the same as in a hospital.
So why are New York’s midwives having such a hard time finding back-up doctors? As one put it, midwives are the competition. Of course OBs don’t want to back them. And even a sympathetic OB must worry about liability issues promising to cover for another person’s practice, especially one he or she knows little about.
Photo: EyeLiam
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[...] Home Birth Midwives An Endangered Species in NYC – Stroller Derby (Babble) [...]
Media Coverage of Homebirth Crisis in NYC « Parenting Poppy commented on May 14 10 at 3:30 pm[...] urgency for New York City midwives. The city has only 13 home birth midwives, and 7 of them are currently not allowed to attend births since the hospital where they had their practice agreements closed last [...]
OBs and Midwives Battle For NYC’s Births | Strollerderby commented on Jun 18 10 at 1:22 pmGib commented on May 09 10 at 6:46 pmHome births are the same as in a hospital because only low risk babies have home birth. If your baby is shown to be high risk, only matricidal/suicidal women still try to have a home birth. So, really what you’re saying is that:
(low risk home birth deaths) same rate as (low risk PLUS high risk hospital births)Not the same thing as the author of the article inferred, is it ?
Home birth is risking your baby. If you think that risk is worth your comfort and “birth experience”, then go ahead. It’s your choice. Just don’t pretend you’re not risking your baby.
mightydoll commented on May 10 10 at 3:20 amActually, the statistic quoted above (about the same infant mortality rate as in hospital) is specifically the infant mortality rate for low risk mothers.
Infant mortality, overall, (including low and high risk pregnancies) in the USA is 6.26%.
Infant mortality for home births in the USA (all low risk pregnancies) is 1.7%. Incidentally, another study I checked out had infant mortality for hospital born babies of low risk mothers (within 10 days) at 2.14%
PlumbLucky commented on May 10 10 at 10:07 amI’m guessing that your last paragraph may have hit the nail on the head (“And even a sympathetic OB must worry about liability issues promising to cover for another person’s practice, especially one he or she knows little about.”) It isn’t medicine obviously, but my employer won’t pull permits for another contractor as it opens us up to liabilities for what was done yet over which we have no direct input. It may not be a direct correlation, but it may have something to do with.
Louise commented on May 10 10 at 11:40 ammightydoll, I think you mean 6.26 per 1000 births, or 0.626% (not 6.26%). But your point still stands.
Mainiac midwife commented on May 19 10 at 8:32 pmLouise-
The infant and maternal death rates in the united states are measured in the 100,000s of thousands.
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