Midwifery: Bill to renew, revise CO midwifery law to be heard today by Senate committee

• Some fascinating statistics, Michael. Thanks for posting.

• Interesting, that you should bring up a fact on the perinatal mortality by Colorado's Direct-Entry Midwives. When our Nation alone ranks 46th in Infant and Maternal mortality rates in the world. As a Nation we have a 36% C-Section rate when the World Health Organization calls for a 15% or less. It seems to me that more effort needs to be made into educating and instructing for Direct-Entry (Home Birth) Midwives is needed as this Law will hopefully allow and due, and reduce the Medical Interventionism of the Obstetric field. After all why is it that a Surgeon is need to oversee something so inherently natural as a Birth.

• My opinions: Westword hasn't done its homework on Colorado's lay midwives. It is significant that the national midwifery association is hiding its statistics on perinatal mortality. It is also reprehensible of Colorado's lay midwives to equate themselves with the excellent care given by nurse-midwives and European midwives. The 2009 perinatal mortality rate for Colorado’s Direct-Entry Midwives (DEMs) is a shocking 11.3 deaths per 1,000 births. (This data is not in the 2010 Sunset Review, but in the October 2010 DORA Newsletter for DEMs.) This rate is almost DOUBLE the state average of 6.3 per 1,000 (which included high risk cases), and TEN times what it should be considering that DEMs are only allowed to have low risk clients. Moreover, the statistics from 2004-2009 show the death rate is on the rise. In addition, the 2009 transfer rate to hospitals is a disturbing 23%. Unfortunately, DORA does not keep track of injuries resulting from DEM-assisted home births. Neurological damage to infants is my fear. The additional privileges requested in this bill will do nothing to lower the risk of perinatal death, but only increase the risk to mothers. Giving IV and prescription privileges to lay midwives is insane. IV’s can cause dangerous fluid overload — if the lay midwife can insert one with as little practice they will get. Giving Pitocin for hemorrhage also assumes that the lay midwife can determine the cause of the problem in the first place. If a hospital OB department had the same record as Colorado DEMs, it would be closed down. Every OB-related death is well investigated, but the deaths at the hands of DEMs appear to be swept under the rug. If legislators are to have any metric for judging public protections in regulating DEMs, it has to come down to the last available perinatal mortality rate. The reasonable response for Colorado legislators is to close down DEM practice while an independent panel of experts investigates the deaths, injuries and emergency transfers of the last five years.

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