Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Time, respect, and dignity

It's easy to sit around and bemoan all that is wrong with childbirth in the United States. But one woman is doing something about it: 81-year old midwife Ruth Lubic. She opened a midwifery clinic in Washington, D.C., where the infant mortality rate is twice the national average. She sees primarily low-income women on Medicaid in one of the poorest areas of the city. So far, all 800 babies have survived, and she has halved the prematurity rate. Her secret?
She believes low-income women, many on Medicaid, need the prenatal education that midwives provide. Everything from posture, to nutrition, to how the baby grows....

"Do you think it boils down to just the time you spend with them," Andrews asked Lubic.

"I think so," she replied. "I'm convinced that's what it is. It's time, respect, it's treating people with dignity."
Read the rest here: Midwife On a Mission. And thanks to Fearless Birth for pointing it out!

6 comments:

  1. Wow Rixa thank you that is awesome!!! Can we xerox this woman? and her city council member too by the way.
    p.s. I wish they would stop with the pitbull analogies though.

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  2. What a woman! Thanks for posting this article.

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  3. So simple & yet so profound!

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  4. This is what I've been trying to tell my girlfriends for years! Shouldn't this tell us that even those of us who aren't "low-income" would have better outcomes with more face time with our care providers, and more education about pregnancy and birth?

    Great story, thanks for posting it!

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  5. I really wish we had a clinic with midwives here in MO. They are basically outlawed in the medical community here. I loved my midwives in Indiana. They were wonderful1

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