Thursday, 19 June 2008

• Resolution 205

  by Mama Turtle

  I am like about the 1,000th blogger to mention this shocking bit of news but, well, Holy crap!! The American Medical Association recently held an annual metting to view some reports and propose some resolutions. Among them...
  
  Resolution 205 (a .doc):
  

  Whereas, Twenty-one states currently license midwives to attend home births, all using the certified professional midwife (CPM) credential (CPM or "lay” midwives), not the certified midwives (CM) credential which both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) recognize; and
  
  Whereas, There has been much attention in the media by celebrities having home deliveries, with recent Today Show headings such as “Ricki Lake takes on baby birthing industry: Actress and former talk show host shares her at-home delivery in new film”; and
  
  Whereas, An apparently uncomplicated pregnancy or delivery can quickly become very complicated in the setting of maternal hemorrhage, shoulder dystocia, eclampsia or other obstetric emergencies, necessitating the need for rigorous standards, appropriate oversight of obstetric providers, and the availability of emergency care, for the health of both the mother and the baby during a delivery; therefore be it
  
  RESOLVED, That our American Medical Association support the recent American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) statement that “the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex, that meets standards jointly outlined by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and ACOG, or in a freestanding birthing center that meets the standards of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, The Joint Commission, or the American Association of Birth Centers” (New HOD Policy); and be it further
  
  RESOLVED, That our AMA develop model legislation in support of the concept that the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex, that meets standards jointly outlined by the AAP and ACOG, or in a freestanding birthing center that meets the standards of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, The Joint Commission, or the American Association of Birth Centers.” (Directive to Take Action)
  
  Fiscal Note: Implement accordingly at estimated staff cost of $1,929.
  
  Received: 04/28/08

  To contact the AMA: Go here and choose Advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C.

  It not only seems that the AMA wants to stamp out lay-midwifery entirely, they are encroaching on the very turf of where some women themselves want to birth, at home. There isn't even an exception made for free standing birth centers. I cannot believe they had the gall to single out Ricki Lake - as if because she is a minor celebrity women are going to blindly have homebirths after watching the movie she produced in droves. Not research options and make an informed choice based on what is good for them, goodness no, women aren't smart enough for that. The way I see it, the sheep herders are trying to call Lake another sheep herder. Pffft.  She was rightly pissed off about it too.
  
  I think (maybe naively) that this sort of drastic lobbying (which is where the AMA would go from here) cannot possibly get too far. I know that hardly anyone will be quiet about it, that is for sure. It is infringing upon way too much in my opinion (Right to privacy, reproductive rights...). Not to mention, accidental out of hospital births happen all the time, you just can't make unpredictability against the law. To just sum up my feelings... how dare the AMA try to tell me or anyone else where to give birth and with whom to give birth with?

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