Support the Cause

Birthing advocacy group launches national campaign in Chicago
to allow licensing of midwives
Coalition opens U.S. campaign in Chicago
By Deborah L. Shelton Tribune reporter
January 25, 2008

Illinois and other states should legalize and
license lay midwives to ensure women have safe and affordable choices for
maternity care, according to a coalition of advocacy groups that launched a
national campaign Thursday in Chicago.Certified professional midwives, who are
lay practitioners specializing in home births, are banned in 26 states,
including Illinois. They fall under a different legal classification than
certified nurse-midwives, advanced practice nurses who are licensed in all 50
states and work mainly in hospitals.The National Birth Policy Coalition, a group
of midwives and their advocates, say they are willing to undergo a minimum of
three to five years of training and pass a national board exam to become
certified.
"Licensure creates legal standards that all midwives have to
follow, and that's what we want to see across the United States," said Katie
Prown, manager of the coalition's national campaign. "As it stands now, families
have to navigate an underground network of unlicensed midwives and take it on
faith that their midwives are qualified and skilled at attending out-of-hospital
births."The coalition kicked off its campaign at a hotel near the headquarters
of the American Medical Association, a physicians' organization that opposes the
licensing of lay midwives because they are not nurses or doctors."We are adamant
that anyone providing medical care be appropriately and adequately educated and
trained to provide the services they perform," Dr. Edward Langston, AMA board
chairman, said Thursday. "Any medical care provided by a practitioner beyond
their experience and training is unwarranted and puts patients at risk."Dr.
Rodney C. Osborn, president of the Illinois State Medical Society, said:
"Without any training or education, these folks are suggesting that birthing is
not a medical procedure, which it is. They are not trained to provide any
emergency care to mothers or babies, and there is a lot of potential for injury
and death for both."Home births, which women choose for a variety of religious,
cultural and financial reasons, account for about 1 percent of deliveries in the
United States, or about 40,000 births a year. Prown put the number of certified
professional midwives in the U.S. at about 1,400.Lay midwives came under intense
scrutiny in Illinois in 2000 after a Round Lake Beach newborn died during a
difficult feet-first delivery. The midwife, Yvonne Cryns, faced an involuntary
manslaughter charge but later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless conduct.The
Illinois Supreme Court ruled in February 2003 that midwives must comply with a
state law that requires an advanced degree to deliver babies. A bill introduced
last year in the state legislature to overturn the law has stalled.Kimberly
McCarty, 28, of Forest Park delivered the youngest two of her three children at
home. Both births, in 2002 and 2005, were uneventful, she said.She plans to have
at least one more child at home -- and also to become a midwife herself -- but
is considering moving to Wisconsin where lay midwives are legal."There were
definitely times during my [last] pregnancy when I thought, 'Wow, I could end up
with no one if she gets caught,'" McCarty said. "That put me in a place where I
felt very uneasy."Meg Volk said she hired a midwife from Ohio for her second
home birth because so many Illinois midwives had left the state.A home birth is
"not for everybody," said Volk, 25, of southwest suburban Channahon. "But for
those of us who choose it, we need to be able to have qualified providers and we
need a way to measure their qualifications."