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
]]>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
]]>It is interesting, from my point of view anyway, to see different perspectives on this (or any) issue.
Do blokes (that’s a British word) get to climb into the bathtubs with women under National Health?
Erm, no.
]]>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
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…
]]>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.
]]>Thanks for this comment. But then I am even more confused by the HJHop post.
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