So, last night, WDHN aired Part 1 of their piece on home birth.
http://dothanfirst.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=176837
On the whole, the piece was fairly concise and well done, but it started to go south midway through. While I appreciate the look at home birth, I'm agitated that Dr. Johnathon Scott (the local OB who was interviewed for the piece) presented misinformation about shoulder dystocia and midwives training with such.
In the piece, he discussed when "home birth goes bad". He relayed his story about a home birth transfer of a shoulder dystocia, and the outcome resulted in a "neurologically devastated" baby. He did not explain any other circumstances surrounding the transfer, including whether a midwife was present or not. He then went on to state that woman are not trained to handle shoulder dystocia's, nor are midwives. This is where I lost my head.
Does he not pay attention to the research in his own field? Ina May Gaskin, a world renowned midwife, pioneered the "Gaskin" maneuver, which is one of the best methods of resolving a shoulder dystocia. The maneuver is named after her, for heaven's sake! Fear mongering against midwives is NOT helpful. They are competent, trained professionals.
Ok, so maybe I'm not agitated, maybe I should say I'm irritated, angry, disgusted, fuming... whatever, I'm mad. Frankly, if you're going to run a piece on something this important, at least stop allowing fear mongering... stick to the facts, make sure that your sources are stating actual facts!
The British Medical Journal's CPM (certified professional midwife) 2000 study (the largest prospective cohort study of American home births by CPMs, including 5418 births), the overall transport rate from home to hospital was 12.1%, but only 3.4% were considered urgent. The cesarean section rate was only 3.7%. This shows that 70% of the transports DID NOT require an emergency cesarean, which contradicts the claims reported in this coverage.
Well, I guess I'll get prepared for tonight segment. Maybe I can keep flames from erupting from my eyes...
I agree...Dr. Scott was unfortunately, a typical OB who quoted the same misleading facts as usual. I can almost guarantee he has NEVER read any of Ina May's books or any other midwifery books, talked to midwives, or anything like that. I think that's what makes me most angry...these doctors, "professionals", and those people who believe all the stuff doctors say and readily accept all the hospital interventions don't even bother looking at the other side of things, or doing ANY research whatsoever. They just choose to believe whatever society tells them because if science/lab studies that are usually not long-term or a DOCTOR, who is a HUMAN BEING, just like anyone else, says something MUST be safe and ok, it IS...right? Like all those medications that have been recalled after the FDA said they were safe, because they killed people? "She ended up in the ER because of shoulder dystocia"...and what about the increasing maternal mortality rate IN THE HOSPITAL that is rising due to unnecessary interventions? OF COURSE he wouldn't bring that up!
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