My friend Hannah, who is already a wonderful mother, posted a very thoughtful response to my earlier rantings about contraception and insurance and the general anti-woman tendencies in conversations about child bearing or lack thereof. You should read it: Hannah's comment
She has a much different set of experiences with women's health care than I do (having experienced labor and pregnancy and all of that joyousness), and brought up two really important points: High quality breast pumps are a lot more important to the health of women and babies than most people think about, and when insurance and entire states refuse to acknowledge midwives and other pro-woman, natural childbearing assistance personnel, they also deny important choices to women.
Up with midwives! Down with the pathologization of pregnancy and childbearing! Pregnancy is a natural state, not a sickness!
Thanks, Hannah, for your voice of experience :-)
Aw, thanks!
ReplyDeleteJust so none of your readers gets confused, all states recognize CNMs.
Many states either prohibit CPMs (who are specially trained for birth at home) from practicing, or leave them in a legal grey area where they cannot be legally licensed, giving them no protection and recognition under the law.
Here's a complicated chart of the details: http://mana.org/statechart.html
I really have loved the care I've gotten from my midwives so far (planning a blog post about it soon, or may wait until after baby is born to post). Even if I end up having to give birth in the hospital for some reasons (unlikely, but always a possibility) the prenatal care in itself is vastly superior and has contributed, I think, to a healthier pregnancy for me.
Finished up my prenatal care with midwives blog post:
ReplyDeletehttp://moltoscherzando.blogspot.com/2011/09/midwife-helped-me-out-prenatal-care.html