Obviously, you can’t always avoid having your birth attended only by, say, a cab driver. But if you plan a home birth and hire a cpm in advance and call her when you go into labor, even though your ob-gyn told you that you have special high risks, that’s a bit different. And, while no one can fault a good Samaritan…

Absolutely, but you were dealing with CNMs, not CPMs. Hospital midwives are always CNMs and they are amazing, have low intervention rates and will bring in OBs when necessary. Ditto CNMs who attend home births, where available, but often the only home birth attendants are CPMs, lay midwives, direct entry midwives etc.…

I’ve known “midwives” who have essentially zero training other than watching “the business of being born” and being heavily involved online in “natural” websites. I suspect a lot of them wait too long to call for help and the women making this choice also wait to long to call for help.

While I am grateful for the “natural birth/lamaze” movement, I don’t know that home births are such a great idea. Birthing centers close to hospitals are a wonderful alternative that puts you in the right spot for an unforeseen emergency while still honoring the idea of not medicalizing birth. Even when I had my last…

It’s not regulating the bodily process, it’s regulating the people who are employed to assist the process.

As the basis for a scientifically valid medical education, it’s pretty damn important.

Like they’re praising that the risks are double for the trained, certified midwives. DOUBLE? No way. I have to remember that 0.2% (for example) is double 0.1%, so to chill out, but no way am I doubling the risk. If I’ve carried that thing for 9+ months to the goal line, I’m not winging it on Ursula, the Magical…

Meanwhile, abortion clinics in some states have more rigorous regulation than open heart surgery.

So much this. A friend quite liked the idea of a midwife-attended birth because of the lower intervention rate, which is cool; but when I realized she didn’t know the difference between CPM and CNM I staged an immediate intervention. She ended up being referred by her CNM for an emergency C-section. By all means plan…

Yeah, there’s a big overlap with the anti-vax, anti-AMA crowd, and the home birthers. I kind of anticipate a major pushback from any attempt to get a Canadian-style regulatory scheme in place. Just look what happened in California when we took away the personal belief exemption for school vaccinations.

Because if a woman dies in childbirth, it’s all part of God’s plan (yes, I have actually heard that from some fundies...).

Because they let people like the poorly educated Duggar girls become “midwives” without real training. Real midwives are extensively trained, certified, and accept evolution because they’ve studied biology.

Especially when the mystery is “why did my baby die?”

“no central agency that oversees the certification of midwives”

Sometimes regulation is a VERY good thing.

OK, if this is part of your core:

Simple. All midwives should be trained and certified through accredited medical and nursing programs.

Proper training and regulation! Yay! Integration into the regular medical community! Woot!