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Back in January, there was a discussion about birthing
rooms. The link to Andrea Noll’s website was published. I
have only just followed up and found a great story about the making of a midwife
in a country she describes as: ’Well, my
country, Hungary is one of the few places in the world unfortunate enough to be
at the very pit of this diagram. Out-of-hospital maternity care is illegal, the
only independent midwife who has been in practice during the last 13 years (for
a population of ten million people!) is constantly being harassed, prosecuted
and threatened by the medical and legal authorities. Families who would wish to
give birth at home or in a freestanding birth center are forced to give up
their plans or break the law and lie about it. Women who give birth in
hospitals are usually forced to accept every decision their obstetrician is
making; the principles of informed consent and client confidentiality are
abused on a daily basis.At a conference, once I heard a fitting comparision
about the general pattern of the evolution of midwifery: It can be pictured
with a circle-shaped diagram; one descending side of the circle represents the
developing countries, where traditional midwifery from the ancient times is
still in place; then, with increasing industrialization, birth is more and more
medicalized and midwifery is on the decline, to the point, past the bottom of
the circle, where people once again become more conscious of nature, their
environment and their need for natural healing arts. Then, midwifery starts
thriving again in its modern form, using both ancient natural remedies and
modern medical tools, based on scientific evidence. Right now, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Danemark
are on the top of this imaginary diagram, with their highly professional
midwives, excellent maternity care, remarkably low perinatal mortality rates,
as well as complete freedom of choice for the individual regarding where and
with whom they wish to give birth. At the bottom of
the circle, people have no choice. Their ancient traditional midwives are no
longer in practice, birth has ultimately moved into hospitals and modern
midwifery has not yet made its breakthrough, midwives are reduced to obstetric
nurses assisting doctors, there is no continuity of care, no alternative
remedies are allowed in perinatal care and birthing women have little or no say
in what kind of care they are receiving. Oftentimes they can’t even
decline unnecessary obstetrical interventions (for example routine
episiotomies, shaves or enemas) performed on them.” In 2001,
when our only midwife’s license was suspended for half a year because of
practicing homebirth, together with that of a genuinely talented and gentle
pediatrician, Gyorgy Buki, whose „crime” was doing newborn exams on
infants born at home,.... I wonder
where |
