Re: ACOG statement
From: Louana George, RN, LM, CPM, MA (westsidebirthservice@juno.com)
Tue Nov 28 08:17:43 2006
One only has to look at the book, "Witches, Midwives and Nurses" by
Ehrenreich & English to see that this is not the first time
obstetricians in the US have tried to discred midwifery. Oh how I wish
it were the last.
Louana
At Mon, 27 Nov 2006, Danae Steele wrote:
>
>I am sorry to hear the tone of some of this discussion. I think this is an entirely appropriate forum for this discussion, and a timely topic. I do value the input of midwives, and think that all of us can benefit by listening to eachother and learning. Name-calling is immature and destructive.
>
> I am sorry that ACOG came out with this statement. It flies in the face of many studies which have shown that OOH birth for low-risk women, and attended by a trained midwife, has very low risks to babies (with comparable risks of babies of low-risk mothers born in hospitals), and much lower risks to mothers of interventions, operative vaginal deliveries, and Cesarean sections.
>
> Doesn't anyone else on this list wonder how midwives get those good outcomes? What are they doing in OOH births that we aren't doing in the hospital? Obviously, there are lots of diffferences. I wish ACOG would focus on getting the best outcome for both mothers and babies, no matter where the births take place.
>
> And, I understand fully the risks we M.D.s take when consulting for OOH midwives. It would be wonderful to figure out ways to make it safe for the doctors to consult when needed. It would also be to the benefit of mothers if midwives and physicians could talk politely and respectfully to eachother. Who knows, maybe we could all learn something in the process.
>
> Contrary to some of the beliefs expressed here, I think that as long as women are allowed to make decisions regarding their own health care (which will hopefully be forever), some will choose to give birth out of the hospital, for a myriad of reasons. I would hope that all of us could focus on how to make birth as safe as possible for all mothers and all babies.
>
>--
> Danae Steele, M.D.
> MFM
> Green Bay, WI
>
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