make homebirths legal in Nebraska (and elsewhere)

We’ve actually been pretty active on this lately. There’s an open house this weekend for a birth center in Norfolk that can’t open because the CNM can’t find a doctor to sign off on it. It’s silly that she should have to, of course, which is what we’d like to see changed.

I’ve also been working on updating the Nebraska Friends of Midwives website, and will try to keep up on that more.

One brave family shared their story with the Lincoln newspaper; I hope this might stir up some support for our side. That July 24 Board of Health meeting is going to be critical.

The state department of Health & Human Services will start holding meetings on this issue, and of course the more people who show up in support, the better. The first meeting is in Lincoln this Friday. If you can, please come.

Friday, February 10, 2006
1:30 – 3:30
Lower Level Confrence Room “C”
Nebraska State Office Building
Lincoln, NE

I’m changing this from the general “promote homebirth” to a more specific goal. Direct-Entry Midwifery (a midwive attending a homebirth) is not legal here, and it should be. Whether you have any desire to give birth at home or not, at least we ought to allow people the choice. There is no evidence that homebirth is less safe than hospital birth, and in fact there is considerable evidence to the contrary (especially if you consider major abdominal surgery to be a “complication” rather than simply a “possibility”).

There are currently people working to legalize DEM in my state, and so I’m going to try to work on this goal with specificity. I’ll be posting more info here when things come up that offer an opportunity to join in or help.

We live in Nebraska, and it’s illegal here for midwives to attend homebirths. Which makes it almost impossible to do. We ended up having to drive to Wyoming to have our baby with a midwife (in a hotel). It was incredible, and we’d do it again in a heartbeat. But obviously we’d really rather see legal homebirths in NE.