There is confusing post on HJHOP about evil midwives. What? What? I’ve never before met anyone with a bad word to say about midwives. (They would be the Mother Teresas of the health services, if you just count the public admiration and ignore all the actually unplesant things about Mother Teresa)
I assume it’s a spoof. I realise it isn’t. I read it to try to understand what anyone could have against midwives. He’s even turned off comments, hence this post. Then I see it’s another of those transatlantic definition issues.
Obviously US and UK midwives are so different that we are referring to completely different jobs when we think of “midwives”. UK midwives are the experts in childbirth. Some work in hospitals or ante-natal units, some provide home care. They can basically do pretty well anything at a birth except the really surgical stuff. They are much more skilled and qualified at delivering babies than most doctors.
There are both male and female midwives. It’s not a “girl power” thing, ffs, HJ. (That’d be like the obstetric equivalent of dental nurses having to be tooth-fairy worshippers.)
It’s a medical specialty. For the benefit of you former-tea-tax dodgers 🙂 Americans, English midwives must spend years in professional and practical training. In fact I think (possibly wrongly) that they can’t even start to train in their specialty until they’ve trained and practised as nurses. They don’t operate out of the backs of trailers.
Yes, a fair number of midwives actively favour minimising unnecessary medical intervention (the complete lack of success of which perspective is shown by the ever-rising numbers of caesarian births) but any of them would be in pretty deep dogdoo if they failed to get a dangerous case properly treated.
And, blow me down with a gas and air canister, they do have access to heart monitors, anaesthesia, scanners, medicines and the full range of hi-tech birth requisites.
It looks as if midwives are completely different in the USA. HJHop talks about them offering “empowering experiences” and “bringing woolly hats”. The sort of people HJHop is talking about sound like alternative health practitioners – at best, birth coaches, at worst charlatans.
But then, there is no mileage in amateurs charging people for inexpert birth-help in a country where you can get the real thing free from teams that always consist of doctors AND midwives. *smug smirk of person who has access to free healthcare*
very strange — i have a u.s. background and my definition of midwives lines up with yours.
Toomanytribbles
Thanks for this comment. But then I am even more confused by the HJHop post.
In some US states, midwives are not licensed (I think North Carolina is one, and apparently Missouri is another), there the nearest equivalent to a UK style midwife would be a nurse-practitioner specialising in ante-natal and post-natal care. But an NC or MO midwife is something more like a doula, which is fine, except that you shouldn’t use a doula as your primary carer.
UK midwives no longer need to be nurses first, but their training is just as long. And arguably more specialised. I know too much about this topic, for which I will blame my midwife relatives.
I have a sneaking suspicion this is driven by personal experiences. HJHOP’s post has a few links to articles where crackpot “midwives” (for want of a better term) have dropped the ball (again, for want…) and things have gone wrong. He also has some bits from an apparent midwife spouting out all manner of new-age drivel.
Speaking from my personal experience of watching midwives deliver my children (two different hospitals), they were 100% professional from the outset. There was no indication of new-agery going on, everything was based on (as far as I could see) evidence based practice. The delivery rooms were fitted out with the full gamut of high-tech baby delivery machines. They administered drugs, monitored heart rates and provided “patient support” as you would expect.
If anything, the arrival of the Doctor caused more problems than if he had let them get on with it…
However, this is very much a case of anecdotal evidence. I can literally only speak for two occasions and two hospitals. I would be foolish to try and extrapolate this to speak for every encounter in every hospital…
Plonkee – thanks for your comment, it was hidden in moderation for some reason, so I didn’t even realise it was there until after my comment.
Howdy, pardner (I thought I’d ham up the Americanness, or is it Americanity?):
TW is right, sort of. I have no experience with midwives, but my father, an OB/GYN has had on numerous occasions to fix messes by these people. And then there is the 9 minute thing, which as best I can tell is crucial. No matter what else, 9 minutes before your outcome starts to go far south.
Across the Atlantic, I know that midwives, who I assume are nurse-midwives, are incorporated into the health system. A nurse midwife, who can even train young physicians, is perfectly acceptable to monitor the progress of a pregnancy.
But everything about midwifery in the States sets off my quack alarms.
Do blokes (that’s a British word) get to climb into the bathtubs with women under National Health?
Anyway, sorry about the turning off of the comments. That’s a one time thing wrought of experience talking about this strange issue. When I told my roommate about what I was writing about last night, she rolled her eyes and groaned “Oh, Lord.” I’ll be good, unless it is decriminalized by my state, at which point I will probably have my last words on the topic.
HJ
There is also a strange “anti-intellectualism” that I see in the
Bing – I dont have any problems with you turning the comments off, I suspect it was actually a good idea on your behalf!
It is interesting, from my point of view anyway, to see different perspectives on this (or any) issue.
Erm, no.
I can only say that dudes climbing into bathtubs with dudesses might indeed be a popular innovation in the NHS, although maybe not in the context of childbirth.
I see in Yorkshire that it is possible to give birth in a bath. While all the people photographed are blokesses there seems no reason way bloke couldn’t get in the bath if he was a trained midwife and wearing regulation Speedos. As far as I know it’s still only the women who are allowed to do the actual giving birth bit.
The bath is in an Infirmary so, help should be less than nine minutes away.
http://www.midyorks.nhs.uk/News/Water babies help launch new birthing pool.htm
Alun,
I am totally cool with a midwife with a doctor in the immediate vicinity. Burn all the incense you want, have a party in the tub! But a doctor should attend the birth (of course, if someone that trained is going to be there, why would they trust anyone else and accept liability for those mistakes)? I dunno. The business here is completely goofy, and it’s not legitimate. I suspect that the midwives in the UK are more like we refer to as nurse practioners (or, sometimes, nurse midwives). It’s the lay, recreational New Age goof-balls we have over here that scare me.
HJ