make homebirths legal in Nebraska (and elsewhere)

On Monday, July 24th was the Nebraska State Board of Health meeting and, I think, the end of the 407 Review process. I attended the meeting.

I felt that Heather and Autumn both gave really good presentations. I felt like the croony-ism that had been mentioned before still existed with the BOH and the opposed group. I also felt like the concerns brought up before were brought up again by the opposition and they did not even bother to change their wording. I can understand why, when you’ve got it right, you don’t change it. But it is also good to give your opinion in different words so you don’t sound like a broken record.

Anyway, the BOH voted against the proposals, which was expected. I think there is still a legislative process, but I am uncertain what the next steps are.

I did pay my dues to Nebraska Friends of Midwives, though, which I’d been putting off.

Friday was a meeting by a subcommittee for the NE Bord of Health. Here are my thoughts on the meeting as I shared them with the NE Friends of Midwives.

I took
several notes. I felt that my jaded view of the medical
establishment was only confirmed by the actions of two specific
committee members. I don’t know how much trouble I would get the
group into by mentioning their names specifically, so I won’t. I
don’t care how much “trouble” I would get into myself.

Dr. Wills was wonderful. His introductory comments basically
contradicted the outcome of the Technical review committee and he
stated that the vote was made in “fear” rather than by analysis of
the facts. He mentioned several times that the issues brought up in
the application are already issues and they need to be address.
Closing our eyes to the acts or continuing to let DEM’s be illegal is
only causing harm and not helping.

I thought Heather’s testimony was quite calm and collected. The
committee itself did not look like it was prepared in any sense.
Because I was unable to attend any but the first of the technical
review meetings, I found her testimony quite interesting. I wish
they would have taken questions from the “audience.”

I liked Chanin’s comments as well. They were well prepared and I
liked that she addressed the fact that those who choose homebirth are
not uninformed people, but well educated and researched mothers and
fathers.

When Charles Palasin, attorney representing the Nebraska Medical
Association, spoke in opposition to the applications, one of the
doctors on the panel called him “Chuck.” I think this shows a sort
of “croony” type attitude that tells us that the people who are
making this decision already stand in the opposition category, and
therefore cannot decide this neutrally.

I feel like the panel missed the point that homebirths are already
happening and that by voting against these applications, they are
allowing an existing harm to already continue where those who are
choosing homebirth have no licensed professionals they can turn to.
We may love our midwives, but having a legal route is better.

Unfortunately, despite being told, “We are NOT introducing homebirth
to the state. It is ALREADY happening, we need to assess how to best
serve those making the homebirth choice.” The panel kept acting as
though “I don’t like homebirth” was reason enough to vote against the
applications.

I was disappointed that Chanin was the only person who mentioned our
postcard campaign and the board of health knew nothing about it. Why
did they not count how many they received? I stated this to another
NE Friends of Midwives who said that we can’t know how many were
mailed. Yes, we can. The BOH should have them and count them. If
they ignore those postcards, then they are ignoring the NE public,
and they are not serving their purpose as a board who examines
medical care for the NE public.

And, my third point on this is that the BOH needs frequent reminders
that 40 other states license DEMs and it is not any more dangerous in
the state of Nebraska. I would think comparing birth statistics for
DEM licensed states and Nebraska would show that Nebraska has higher
infant mortalities and Cesaerean births per population.

I just saw where someone asked who sat on the panel. I noted: Janet
Coleman (who was for the homebirth stuff for awhile but one comment
by Dr. Discoe dissuaded her), Daryl Wills, Ed Discoe, Linda Heiden,
Roger Reamer, Gary Westerman, Ron Briel, and Les Spry.

By the way, do they realize that most birth centers are business
propositions, either founded by midwifes or entrepreneurs with hired
midwifes? Do they realize that loans for these businesses are very
hard to come by and it may be a “middle ground” but that for those
who want a hospital birth, they will not go to a birth center, and
those who want a homebirth, a birth center is not a “happy medium.”?
I guess not.

Anyway, I am also really upset by yesterday’s meeting. Several times
I felt like standing up and saying “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!” After
Chanin said, basically the stereotype of homebirthing women is wrong,
comments made by board members (specifically the ones with “Dr” in
front of their names) showed that they believe all mothers/patients
are uneducated and incapable of making these decisions without their
guidance.

Instead of resorting to the snide comments I would like to make in
regards to specific panel members, I will end this email. I will
add that after the two meetings I have attended, I do feel like our
attendance means nothing to those who are voting. I don’t want to
dissuade people from attending and making every effort to attend, and
I certainly plan on attending the July 24 meeting, but I am thinking
I will need to go out and have a stiff drink after.

By the way, we were admonished that the BOH have lots of issues to
cover in one afternoon and they will not be spending 3 1/2 hours on
this topic.

I sent 8 postcards to the State Board of Health to support the 407 Review for Midwife Care in Nebraska. It wasn’t much, but it was about all I could do during the time period. I’m not very good at asking people to sign things. While I think this is important and I want to educate people, I find it hard to approach people. Overall, I think our group sent out hundreds of postcards, so hopefully we had a good response.

Learn more about the postcard campaign at http://www.nemidwives.org/tidbits/technical-review.php

I attended the Technical Review Committee for Midwifery yesterday. I am concerned that the committee is not as fair and balanced as the staff said they are. 4 men and 3 women, several in jobs that have been taught that homebirth is bad.

We are not supposed to lobby the review group, but I don’t see how they can say they are representing the population of Nebraska, if they don’t get an idea of what we want by us telling them. They are not elected officials, but appointed. Apparently, a lot of applications were put in to be on that committee.

All of the meetings are supposed to be public. However, the group is made of up people from all over Nebraska, and so tele-conferenced meetings were proposed. How is the public supposed to take part in that?

They were told the 2nd and 4th meeting are the most important. Or at least any meetings concerning the discussion of the topic and the meeting where the recommendation report is written. Therefore, we need to have supports of midwifery in Nebraska at those two meetings. The more of us there are, the better. It will also be important to have people at the public hearing. We may want to plan a presentation or arguments to present, as long as it is not repetitive (we don’t want to look like fools). I think even telling our stories of our successful homebirths in other states or the reasons we want homebirth option, personal stories are also good.

So, my goal with this is to attend as many meetings of these as I can. There were 7 of the public yesterday, all of whom were mothers who support homebirth.

Image is from breastfeeding.com