American Midwives Ill-Trained

The Arrogance of Ignorance.  Amy Tuteur on a recent high-profile birth tragedy:

The Skeptical OB: Homebirth midwives are quacks.

People need to understand American homebirth midwives are a second class of midwives with less education and training than other American and European midwives. The standards for direct entry midwives, in terms of educational requirements and clinical training, are far below those of any other midwives in the industrialized world. American homebirth midwives are, by and large, quacks, and babies are dying as a result.

Addendum: One of the things I find most interesting is how everyone involved understands that the refusal to seek real medical care led to this tragedy. Carri's family has removed the posts detailing her actions in the weeks leading up to the catastrophe, and MotheringdotCommune has removed the posts by Carri and those responding to her. The baby died possibly because of unassisted birth/homebirth, and now supporters and the family want to remove the evidence.

Comments

[Heidi]

Um... there was no midwife even involved in that birth, she's making a big leap to blame them!

[Heidi]

Forgive my comment above, I was thinking of the wrong story!!

[Squillo]

Liz,

The headline is a bit misleading. There are two types of midwives practicing the U.S.: certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) and "direct-entry" midwives (DEMs) who have a range of certifications, from none to "certified professional midwife."

CNMs--and Dr. Tuteur would concur, I believe--are highly trained professionals, well-qualified to care for women with low-risk pregnancies.

The poorly trained midwives Dr. Tuteur referred to are DEMs.

Just clarifying, since I have great respect for CNMs.