In a less well-known but no less controversial effort to find “common ground” a Home Birth Consensus summit seeks to bridge a divide between those who support and those who oppose expanded access to homebirth.
It’s the bill advocates are calling “the solution to the Illinois home birth maternity care crisis” and some have been waiting 30 years for its passage. But a strong and active state medical association is blocking the bill at every turn. Why?
Birth is not only about bringing a child into this world, it’s also about bringing a mother into the world. While the safe and healthy birth of the baby should be a concern, becoming a mother is also transformative and monumental.
Home births rise in the United States deflating the current myth that women chose out-of-hospital birth for “frivolous, selfish, or trendy reasons.”
Mississippi advocates defeated a bill to criminalize certified professional midwives and are working to expand access to pregnancy and childbirth care.
Midwives have always placed a great deal of importance on the physical space for childbirth, the personal relationships of those who attend the birth, and the metaphysics of the birth spaces to which women will consciously or unconsciously respond. A new book details, for providers, just how critical these elements are to an optimal birth experience – and how most birthing women currently don’t have these options.
In health care reform, Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) are seeking federal recognition of their vocation. But will the leadership of the Certified Nurse Midwifery (CNM) advocacy organization be their main obstacle?
Reproductive and sexual health and rights advocates must be concerned with the full gamut of access issues – including choice in childbirth, which is critical to women’s health and well-being and should be included in health care reform measures.
