The AMA this week put out a resolution toward creating legislation that would make homebirth illegal and any woman who has a homebirth punishable by arrest. They are equating it to child abuse. They have taken particular offense to Ricki Lakes Business of Being Born movie

cfmidwifery.blogspot.com/2008/...o.html

Ricki, Abby's and Jennifer Blocks response
www.huffingtonpost.com/ricki-...45.html

Another article
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f...35/posts
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Fire Dakini
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  • ix-chel
    ix-chel
    offline 76

    Re: AMA feels homebirth should be illegal

    Fri, June 20, 2008 - 2:43 PM
    you know, i'm reading "witches, midwives & nurses" right now & i can see that we are repeating history that we refused to learn from. only now, instead of public hangings & burnings, they'll just put us in jail. why is the male medical establishment so threatened? maybe they're familiar with the farm's superior statistical outcomes. www.thecowgoddess.com hathor, as always, has some great comics & links.
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  • Luna...
    Luna Gitana
    offline 23

    Re: AMA feels homebirth should be illegal

    Wed, July 30, 2008 - 3:33 PM
    Un F-ing believeable! I signed the petition and commented this: "Women have not lost the power or ability to birth their children. Let us never give it up!!! And never let us allow anyone to dictate how and where we can birth our children."

    I am a doula, but about a month ago I got to be a midwife and I caught my first baby. It was about 2 am and we were on the way to the hospital to have her baby, but baby had other ideas and decided to beat us there. Mommy had been laboring beautifully and before we realized it said she told me she needed to push. Again, before we realized what was happending, (several minutes later) she exclaimed that she felt something. I checked and baby was there. I told grandpa and daddy to pull the car over, we were having a baby. Off came the undies and out came a crying baby, up to mommy's quickly exposed and welcoming breast. Absolutely beautiful and natural. The ambulance came about 10 minutes later along with several police cars to 'help'. There we sat laughing and admiring the newest arrival to the planet. On my last visit with mommy about two weeks later she said that she and daddy decided the next one will be a home birth. I told them it makes sense, after all, she figured she could have and should have had this precious one at home. I would hate to think that her rights and her baby's rights could be possibly taken from them and she would not be allowed this option. So sad this is even a threat to us here.
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    • Judith
      Judith
      online 31

      Re: AMA feels homebirth should be illegal

      Wed, July 30, 2008 - 5:11 PM
      it's all posturing on the part of ACOG/AMA. there's no way it could ever be made "illegal" to have a baby in a vehicle en route to the hospitsal...proof of intent???


      now they can harass midwives, birthing center staff, make a bynch of noise...but babies have their own sense of timing and there is no way they will ever be held legally "accountable" for that...


      I personally feel being pissed off at AMA and AVOG is acceptable, but being afraid that they will somehow make a bunch of laws that make even an accidental non-hospital birth :"ilklegal" is absurd.

      uh, we have a legislative branch of GOVERBNEMNT that passes laws. not medical trade associations.

      they are only making (medical) noise.
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      • Sprout
        Sprout
        offline 50

        Re: AMA feels homebirth should be illegal

        Sun, August 3, 2008 - 7:23 PM
        I would like to agree with you Judith, but the AMA's pressure on the legislature is still stronger than any midwives group.
        True, they can't punish people for "accidental" home or vehicle, but if they can make enough noise and put birth centers and midwives out of business, that's the same as putting a mom in jail.
        Plus, just by saying this they are playing on people's fears once again (they really like to do that to keep themselves in business, don't they) and possibly scaring women who don't know any better away from even examining other birth choices. I am reminded of a paragraph in "What to Expect" (which, sadly, is the main resource most American women get and trust) which basically brushed off the idea of water birth because 'doctors don't feel it's safe". This book also says a c-section is less dangerous than having your tonsils out..........
        I guess my point is that people tend to listen to doctors........
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        • Judith
          Judith
          online 31

          Re: AMA feels homebirth should be illegal

          Mon, August 4, 2008 - 10:42 AM

          "What to Expect!" that book and its sequels are SOOO annoying and yes, they ARE what the mainstream hears...

          hehheh, I;d missed the tonsils remark, which is funny in a sick way...when I was a child, tonsillectomy was almost routine (I lost mine at age 4 or 5, I think, because of frequent ear infections...today they say that it;s not efficacious anyway!), cesareans less common but general anesthesia for childbirth and a mandatory 7 to 10 day hospital stay, and of course bottle feeding, the norm...


          mainstream doctors have been saying that all kind of stupid ass junk for years.

          persecution of midwives has been off and on heavy at least here in California (the state Med Assoicaition is VERY conservative, surprisingly in some ways) since the revival of home birth midwifery in the 1970s...meantime, it USED to be there were progressive doctors backing up homebirth MWS or even attending home births. doesn;t happen any more, even with licensure...

          I don;t think the AMA is as powerful as they say; they;d still have to draft legislation and get it to the starte assemblies and senate, Congress and such. and sure midwives associations and especially these puny online petitions really mean very little in comparison with a powerful trade group of professional MSDS...but it;s not like legisdlators have nothing else to think about jsut now eityher, heh heh...

          I'm sad to see options for non-hospital birth dwindling and good people working within them getting shut out, bt I also feel it;s been the norm for so long...speak up but don;t panic.

          no one is going to put you in jail for having a baby at home. and if you want to organize to keep your local midwife from going to jail...well, there;s a cause!
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