North Carolina Midwives Risk Arrest for Attending Home Births

by Roxann MtJoy · 2011-03-16 08:21:00 UTC
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Last month, a midwife in North Carolina was arrested for doing her job. Amy Medwin, a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) licensed in the state of Virginia, had been attending home births in North Carolina and the state was having none of it. They brought her up on charges of practicing midwifery without a license. A charge that might make more sense if North Carolina if the state in fact actually offered professional licensure for midwives, but it doesn't.

Apparently, the North Carolina government doesn't want its women having home births. Why they think it is the lawmaker's job to choose individual women's birthing experience is beyond me. Unfortunately, it isn't the only state that feels that way. Fourteen states currently fail to recognize CPMs.

That statistic is even more unreasonable when you consider just how safe home births really are. Planned home births have the same infant and maternal mortality rates as hospital births and significantly lower rates of medical intervention — such as caesarean section, episiotomy, and vacuum extraction. Yet lawmakers and doctors' associations everywhere appear vehemently opposed to midwife certification. In response to a proposed law in Illinois that would ensure safe transportation to the hospital in the unlikely event of an emergency during a home birth, Dr. Steven Malkin, president of the Illinois State Medical Society said, "I think it’s the most insane idea I’ve heard yet."

Yes, women are clearly insane for wanting a safe home birth and midwives are obviously criminals for wanting to provide them. How dare they expect that a woman's right to choose and her own bodily autonomy extend to her birthing experience?

The time has come to tell North Carolina lawmakers that midwives are not criminals. They are health care professionals. It is in the best interests of everyone to recognize and regulate CPMs in North Carolina. Tell the North Carolina legislature that they must take action to make midwifery legal.

Photo credit: o5com

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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