Midwives: Bringing It On Themselves

As a Michigan taxpayer and mother, I strongly support Senate Bill 1208, The Michigan Midwife Bill.  For too long, Michigan midwifes have operated in an a-legal state, attending births with less oversight than your hairdresser.


SB 1208 provides moms with safety and choice.  Women who choose out of hospital birth will have the benefit of a beautiful birthing experience attended by a clinically educated and accountable midwife who puts the safety of mom and baby first.   What could be better?

If midwives want Medicaid and insurance reimbursements, it is time for them to be strictly regulated.  It is time for a consistent scope of practice.  It is time for consistent educational standards.  It is time to report outcomes. It is time for accountability.

It is time for midwives to stand up for women and babies.  It is time to stop claiming every piece of legislation designed to protect human lives is a tool of an oppressive patriarchy. 
  
The truth of the matter is that the midwifery movement has brought this situation on themselves. 



1. Not transferring high risk clients to obstetrical care.

2. Describing  high risk conditions as "variations of normal" in order to promote an agenda that all birth is "as safe as life gets" regardless of the medical needs of individual mothers and babies.

3. Refusing to set concrete and consistent educational standards for classroom and clinical training.

4. Refusing to require hands on clinical training in emergency births.

5. Fighting every attempt to hold midwives accountable.

6. Fighting every attempt to regulate midwives.

7. Unconditional support for midwives under investigation or on trial when a baby dies. Creating a culture of animosity against mothers who speak out against dangerous midwives.

8. Not speaking out against dangerous midwives. There is an intrinsic code of silence in the midwifery community. Even when they think a midwife is at fault, they will stand in solidarity with her because they mistakenly believe that prosecuting dangerous killer midwives in some kind of medieval persecution. The concept of midwifery is more important than ethics, safety, integrity, or human beings.

9. Double standards:

Saying that birth is as safe as life gets, and then switching to the statement that birth is inherently risky when something goes wrong.

Blaming mothers for not doing "research" or failing to "trust birth" when a midwife fails to do her job.

Using scare tactics to keep women from going to the hospital or seeking obstetrical care, then blaming the mother for not transferring should something go wrong.

Telling women that "babies die in hospitals too" instead of taking responsibility for midwife neglect or error.

Wanting to be considered "professional" birth attendants, yet refusing to hold to consistent standards of education, scope of practice, oversight, regulation, and ethics.

Wanting to receive Medicaid and insurance reimbursements but refusing to hold liability insurance.

Saying they are not health care providers and do not practice medicine, yet demanding Medicaid reimbursement.

Claiming to support women, yet abandoning them if they speak out against the midwives who killed their children.