ICAN supports women’s birth choices. Free the midwives. Here is an editorial written to shed light on the injustice in Alabama mother’s birth rights right now. Please click the link above if you’d like to know how to help change this.
“Letter to the Editor
My baby has a birth cer
tificate from a different state than the one in which we reside. This wasn’t a mistake; we planned to drive out of Alabama during early labor. I made the informed choice to have my baby out-of-hospital, attended by a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM). But in order to have that happen legally, I had to travel an hour and a half during my labor to Tennessee, one of the 28 states that authorize the practice of CPMs. My contractions rolled on, as did our tires along the road.
Not everyone is nestled in the great Tennessee Valley, with midwives willing to “border jump” with them, or receive them from out of state. This option isn’t feasible for all Alabama mothers. It wasn’t an easy option for my family. Logistically,it was definitely more difficult, especially with two other children. But we made the sacrifice because I wanted this birth to be different than my previous births. I wanted to entrust my care to a provider with a better cesarean rate than 38.8% and a better VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) rate than 1%. It is shocking but true that those are Huntsville Hospital’s statistics for 2010! Overall, Alabama has the sixth highest cesarean rate in the nation.
I am confident that I made the right choice for my family but it is outrageous that I had to leave Alabama in order to get the safe, low-intervention maternity care that I deserve.
Brianna T. Barker
Huntsville”
via Alabama should authorize practice of midwives (Your view) | AL.com.
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