Baby Steps Towards Licensed Midwives in Illinois

by Roxann MtJoy · 2011-02-28 06:00:00 UTC
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Right now, despite the best efforts of midwifery advocates, Illinois women do not have access to state-licensed midwives. Illinois provides no certification for midwives, leaving the roughly 800 to 1,000 women annually who want to have a home birth to rely on an unlicensed, unregulated midwife. This creates a home birth situation without standardized care, potential difficulty in obtaining  birth certificates, and trouble getting smoothly transferred to a hospital in the event of a medical emergency. While there is still much work to get fully-licensed midwives in Illinois, in the meantime a new bill has been introduced that would address that would take their first baby steps to ensuring safe home births.

State Representative Robyn Gabel introduced HB 1665, the Home Birth Integration Act, in the Illinois state legislature. The bill would ensure safe and quick transportation to a hospital in the event that a home birth developed into an emergency situation. No professional midwife certification means no hospital privileges for current providers. Worse, midwives are afraid to accompany patients to the emergency room because they are afraid of being arrested.

"The bill will develop protocols to make these transports from underground providers smoother and safer,"  said Rachel Dolan Wickersham, President of the Coalition for Illinois Midwifery.

There is no downside to this bill. Illinois women --all of them, regardless of what their birth plan is-- deserve to know that, if something should go wrong, emergency medical services will be easily available.  Tell the Illinois legislature to pass the Home Birth Integration Act.

Photo credit: bengrey

Roxann MtJoy is a freelance writer who previously worked as a case manager at a domestic violence shelter. She is currently attending graduate school for theater in Mount Vernon, N.Y.

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