For those of you who don’t know, I have a passion. I have a disturbing need to be around pregnant women and help them through their labors. I know it’s crazy. Most of you probably think, “Why on earth would a woman who has had five kids want to do that?” That is probably the reason I do. All of my births were natural and when I had my first baby the only person I knew who had done that was my great grandmother. I had no kind of support and everyone tried to talk me out of it. Needless to say my stubbornness on the situation prevailed and I would not have had it any other way.
Over the years I realized I wanted to birth at home but in Mississippi midwives are a dying breed and Medicaid does not reimburse them here. That was the only thing keeping me from it. Now that I am done having children, I have come to realize becoming a midwife is what I want to do in life. Getting the training here seems to be almost as hard as finding a midwife to deliver.
Other states like Florida not only have midwives that work in hospitals, they also offer Medicaid reimbursement. One would think that the poorest state in the nation would want to save the state money since a midwife cost only about a third of what an OB does. Mississippi has the second highest infant mortality rate having 10.74 deaths for every thousand births in the US. The District of Columbia was number one with an average of 14.1.
What most people don’t realize is the maternal death rate. The World Health Organization released in March the statistics for maternal death rate. What it found was shocking. More women die in the U.S. after giving birth than die in Poland, Croatia, Italy and Canada. In California alone the maternal death rate has tripled in the past ten years. One of the main causes is pulmonary embolism after a C-section. Since thirty percent of US births end in C-sections, that would be the reason for the higher rate. Most of which were unnecessary.
One may think if you have a midwife that means no drugs and a home birth. That is not true as well. There are lots of midwives who work with hospitals and anesthesiologists. Midwives are just more personal with their patients. Their job is to focus on the needs of the mother and help her bring her baby into the world in the way her body sees fit. Doctors try to push things along to fit their own schedules. This is not really good for mom or baby.
The last birth I attended the doctor showed up just in time to catch after the mother had been forced to stay on her back for hours. That disturbed me. She did all the work and he got all the glory. One of my own births was somewhat painful in the end because the doctor had been woken up AFTER he put me on a Pitocin drip. He literally jerked her out because he wanted to get more sleep. It was completely unnecessary.
I am taking FREE doula clients on now to help me get my certification as a doula which is a birth support specialist. It is just the beginning of my training to become a midwife. I have attended countless births already but none of them are on record. My dream is to one day own my own birth center so that women everywhere can have their babies the way they want to. Not how they are forced to. Below are some great links if you are pregnant or know someone who is.
Mississippi Friends of Midwives
DONA International
Midwives Alliance of North America
Below are some links to some videos. If you have had birth before you might realize the difference in the labors of these women in the videos.
Orgasmic Birth
A Water Birth
Water Birth Info
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