Thanks for all you write. This is such an important issue.

Just to be clear, the language you quote is from legislation introduced in Missouri several years ago. To see what we’ve come to after working with interested parties on all sides, you can find our most recent legislation (passed the Senate but not the House this year) at http://www.senate.mo.gov/08info/bts_web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=50641
The midwifery advocates in Missouri have worked hard to be respected for their knowledge of the legislative process and their unwavering cheerfulness. It is an honor to work alongside them as we strive to improve our maternity care system in Missouri

Elizabeth Allemann, MD

Sometimes I imagine that when AGOG’s GOBN (Good Old Boy’s Network) gets together they do it in a *really big* sandbox that is 20 feet deep so that they can bury their heads in the sand and not have to look around at the real world…but that is just me.

Hmmmm.
who created the rift?
who refuses to provide backup (under threat from their collegiate organization)?
which group labels another group of care providers as underqualified and therefore not worthy of a collaborative relationship?

who does this really serve?

I was, originally, quite opposed to homebirth. “What if something goes wrong?!” I know better, now. My last baby was born in my bedroom, where he was celebrated, cheered and cried over (happy tears, happy tears) by a CPM who has delivered a LOT of babies. I mean a LOT (well, 20 years of serving women and babies will do that). I felt safe, protected and calm through the whole thing: much different than my first birth at a hospital with a doctor who refused to believe women could birth without him!

Until people like me, the public, those not “in the business” start to hear about this kind of garbage and know it for the trash that it is, ACOG will be able to assist in trampling the rights of women, babies and the partners/coparents who support them.

Thanks for having such an eloquent blog, and such eloquent friends, that says it all so much better than I can. You have no idea how many of my friends have been linked over here! You’ve helped change minds and hearts, and you’re doing as much for birth choices as you do for birthing women.

they are acknowledging our power. the power of women to make these decisions, the power of nurse midwives to speak their minds without bowing to ACOG, and the power of people to realize a common goal and put forth effort toward that goal - they are acknowledging this power, and it makes them very very uneasy. because they are waging a turf war, no matter if they deny it.

Anytime women find their strength, whether individually or collectively, people freak out because it means a shift in the relationships, a shift in how things are done, a shift in the power structure.

The secret is, though, that whenever women find their strength–physical, mental, and/or spiritual–everyone around them, and the world as a whole, is made stronger in the end.

Pam, I have been reading your blog for some time now, just lurking. I am a mother of four (two homebirths, one homebirth/transport/CS, one homebirth/transport/VBAC). I had to comment on this post because after my two hospital birth experiences, I know in my deepest soul that home birth is so important for mamas like me; important in ways that I don’t think the doctors will ever understand.

I love how honest you are about your journey as a midwife. Eight and five years after my two hospital births, I still have some healing work to do, and reading what you have to say has been such a help on that journey, by reminding me that I am not crazy for thinking that my hospital birth experiences kinda sucked. Thank you for sharing here!

I personally feel that this is a complete turf issue, and don’t want midwives of any kind taking over normal birth. They want to keep it in the hands of surgeons.