Tag: midwife

Kentucky Poised to License Certified Professional Midwives

Kentucky may become the 34th state to license certified professional midwives after the State House of Representatives voted 96-1 on a bill to establish a state license. 

Certified Professional Midwife is a credential developed by the North American Registry of Midwives. These midwives aren’t nurses or doctors but do have specific training, clinicals and must pass an exam in order to obtain licensure. They specialize in providing maternity care for women wanting to give birth at home and in birthing centers.

Currently 33 states recognize the licensure – most of Appalachia, including West Virginia, does not. The new Kentucky bill will recognize the licensure of about 20 CPMs that already serve Kentucky. Although the certification is recognized in neighboring states Indiana, Tennessee and Virginia, until the bill passes, practicing as a CPM in Kentucky is not legal.

Proponents for licensure argue that recognizing certification means that midwives have to maintain specific standards of care and that CPMs can help provide services to women living in rural areas without obstetric services.

Opponents argue that although most birth is “normal” birth, obstetric emergencies happen quickly and that CPMs are poorly equipped to handle worst case scenarios.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from Marshall Health and Charleston Area Medical Center.

Author Patricia Harman Talks Midwifery, Loss and Hope in Her New Novel

Patricia Harman is the author of the bestselling novel The Midwife of Hope River. We last heard from her during our April, 2016 Inside Appalachia episode on home birth. Harman’s latest book – the Runaway Midwife – was released today. Kara Lofton talked with Harman about how more than three decades of work as a midwife informs her writing today.  

On Being a Midwife

“One of the things about midwives is similar to a solider or someone in combat we’re right on the border between life and death and I think that makes for a great hero.”

On Writing About What You Know

“When you’re a writer they often say write what you know and the midwife in this new book, The Runaway Midwife, she could be any woman. She could be a broadcaster, she could be a teacher, she could be a counselor, any woman who has had it, who just can’t go on any longer and decides to run. But the fact that I am a midwife makes it easy to write stories about midwives and their experiences.”

On the Theme of Running Away

“I think women in particular, but probably all people in these modern times live with great stress. And often it’s things that we could maybe get out of, but sometimes its not. It’s family problems, its marriage, its work stress. And I think from time to time there will be for everyone you wish you could reinvent yourself you don’t want to kill yourself, you just don’t want to be here anymore and I think that’s why some people fantasize about running away.”

 On Ending Her Books with Hope

“I remember one woman said ‘why does every strong female heroine in a book have to end up with a man?’ And I thought to myself ‘yeah! Why do I have these nice little endings to my books?’ And I think it’s because I really believe in hope. And after I thought about it I think that’s what unites all my books from my memoirs to my children’s book is the feeling that there is hope.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

Catching Babies in Appalachia

Midwives have a long and storied history in Appalachia. Can they help decrease the region’s high C-section rate?

On this week’s Front Porch podcast, we talk to two women who help “catch babies” in West Virginia: Leila Nichols, director of Midwifery Services at FamilyCare, and Staysha Quentrill, Strong Start Peer Leader at FamilyCare Birth Center.

The World Health Organization says 5 – 10 percent C-section rate is ideal. That rate is 33 percent for the whole U.S., and 36 percent in West Virginia – the 5th highest rate in the nation.

Nichols gives 7 reasons for the high C-section rate.

  1. Women being told they can’t have a vaginal birth
  2. Induction methods
  3. Continuous fetal monitoring
  4. Women not being given enough information about vaginal birth after C-section
  5. Casual attitudes toward surgery
  6. Reimbursements are higher for C-section
  7. More convenient for provider

Bonus information – what NOT to do if you’re the partner for a woman having a baby.
Subscribe to “The Front Porch” podcast on iTunes or however you listen to podcasts. An edited version of “The Front Porch” airs Fridays at 4:50 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s radio network, and the full version is available above. Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you’d like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @radiofinn or @wvpublicnews, or e-mail Scott at sfinn @ wvpublic.org

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