Today’s Crime Stories: Theft, Murder, and. . .Midwifery?
St. Vincent’s hospital in Greenwich Village was one of the few hospitals in NYC that was willing to support midwives who do home births. But now it’s closing, and that means about half of the midwives in New York will either have to stop practicing, or practice illegally.
This is happening because of a stupid law that says midwives need to have a “Written Practice Agreement” from a doctor in order to perform a delivery at home. Then if there’s a problem with the birth, that’s the hospital they go to. This law is totally unnecessary, because midwives obviously have a backup hospital in mind when they deliver a baby at home. Just like you know what hospital you might need to go to before you go skydiving. But for some reason, the law insists on treating childbirth like it’s an illness, not a natural part of human life that most often doesn’t require any time in a hospital.
Why was St. Vincent’s one of the only hospitals with doctors who are willing to sign such an agreement? There’s a huge stigma in the medical community against supporting midwives. Why’s there stigma? No reason except misogyny and greed. The medical profession is in the pocket of the pharmaceutical companies, who are rather keen on making sure pregnant women are pumped as full of drugs as possible during childbirth, even when those drugs are dangerous and unnecessary.
We talk a lot about giving women control of their own bodies when it comes to abortion, but what about when they’re actually having a child? It’s incredibly important to take action now so home birth in NYC doesn’t essentially become a crime. Take action here and protect women’s choice in childbirth!
