|
|
|
A Midwife's VoiceMessage from your LMA President, Lynette M. Elizalde-Robinson, BS, CPM, LM, CCEd
I support evidence-based care, that promotes healthy mothers and babies! Good maternity care looks like:
1. The Midwives Model of Care
2. The Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care
3. The Six Care Practices that Support Normal Birth
40 years ago, when Ina Mae Gaskin watched the unassisted birth in Evanston, Illinois (described below), I was a sophomore at Academy of Our Lady Catholic High School 50 miles away in Chicago. Every chance I got, I would sneak down to the basement of our public housing row house to pour over my mother's obstetrical nursing books that showed uncensored black and white photos of childbirth. (It's important to note, that these books were copyrighted in 1939.)
Frozen by the imagery of graphic disproportion, I felt what must have been my first sympathetic nudge towards the calling of midwifery on my spirit. With no other example of childbirth before me, I vowed to find a better way, if for no one but myself when the time should come. However, in 1973, I lay silently on a gurnee in a maternity ward of Cook County Hospital, unable to move, walk or get up to go to the bathroom. I was strapped to the bed, as was every laboring woman, given only a bedpan, emesis basin and IV while painfully attempting to "breathe through" my contractions without husband, mother or coach of any sort. 24 hours later, silence had given way to terror and tears. Finally, without the aid of anesthesia, my son was roughly pulled from me (7lbs 14 oz) and sequestered away in the NICU for an entire week without me ever touching him. (He had Erythroblastosis fetalis, and was sensitized resulting in jaundice that required a complete blood transfusion. I was RH - Type O. I was discharged three days later and not allowed to see him until he was released from the hospital. As an uninsured welfare patient, I was herded like cattle.
Much later, remarried to an OB/GYN I found myself working through several more personal obstetrical nighmares before delivering by C-Section a 30 week premie who like his brother had an unplanned hospital stay longer than I did. The only difference in the standard of care I received this time was because I had health insurance.
While much had changed by 1989, my conviction to become a Midwife was not yet realized. It wasn't until I had the invitation to assist the Amish and Mennonite midwives in Pennsylvania in 1992, that I recognized the angelic nudges derailing my plans to return to medical school following life events that forced me to rethink my dreams. Fortunately, I was married to a supportive OB/GYN who insisted I step fully into my calling. Education, clinical training and tireless commitment are vital components along this journey, and there are no shortcuts, even when embracing a traditional midwifery path.
There are so few midwives in Louisiana and even fewer seeking licensure, therefore, I ask you to search your heart and reach for change. Midwives are all called for various reasons, but each calling is unique. Each path leading to a midwifery career is engendered with life lessons, educational choices, personal experiences and sacrifices unlike any other. Midwives are for mothers, babies and families. Support the change in health care policy that recognizes midwifery, support midwifery education, support the movement to recognize CPMs and the quality of evidence based maternity care they give. Support Medicaid reinbursment for CPMs and birth centers. Without your support, many more mothers will have a sad story to tell of their birth experience instead of a happy one. Midwives are tomorrows model of maternity care worldwide!
| |
|