Pages

Friday, April 30, 2010

New York City's midwives in jeopardy

With the closing today of St. Vincent's Hospital, New York City's home birth midwives have found their livelihoods cut from under them. Their pregnant clients, some only weeks or days away from giving birth, suddenly are without care providers. New York State law mandates that home birth midwives have signed practice agreements with either a physician or an institution. St. Vincent's Hospital provided this agreement to most, if not all, of New York City's licensed home birth providers. With the hospital's closing, more than half of the city's home birth providers have been unable to find a new institution or physician willing to sign the agreement and are thus unable to legally practice midwifery.

To learn more about the situation, read these articles and blog posts:

4 comments:

  1. My family went to the press conference after yesterday's meeting with HHC. Here's an update:

    http://greepfamily.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/an-update-homebirth-in-nyc-temporarily-illegal-after-today/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for posting about this, Rixa.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you so much for spreading the word. I'm beyond upset about this. I had my baby at home with one of these fab midwives in NYC 2.5 years ago and I wish every woman this option.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is heartbreaking.

    Earlier today I wrote a post about my fears of birthing in a hospital (that isn't our plan, but there's always that slight chance) and it stresses me out beyond belief.

    I can't imagine losing my amazing midwives at the last moment.

    I feel so horrible for these ladies.

    ReplyDelete