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We should advocate for midwifery

Posted 5/4/11

To the Editor: May 5th is International Day of the Midwife. (A midwife is a healthcare provider who is trained to provide high-quality, family-centered and reasonably-priced care to pregnant women.) …

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We should advocate for midwifery

Posted

To the Editor:

May 5th is International Day of the Midwife. (A midwife is a healthcare provider who is trained to provide high-quality, family-centered and reasonably-priced care to pregnant women.)

Now is the time for all Americans to advocate for increased access to midwifery care. Healthcare costs continue to spiral upwards, Medicaid rolls are swelling, and state budgets are at the breaking point. In 2009, 34.8% of births in New York State occurred by cesarean delivery, one of the highest rates in the country. Even more concerning, the four hospitals in St. Lawrence County that do deliveries all reported c-section rates higher than the state average. While c-sections can be a life-saving procedure, there is extensive evidence that suggests c-sections and other medical interventions are being overused in healthy pregnant women in the United States. Not only can the misuse of interventions cause harm in some cases, they are costly; cesarean deliveries can cost twice as much as vaginal deliveries. Because Medicaid pays for a significant number of births in New York State and across the country, we, the taxpayers, are footing the bill. And all that money does not buy us good results; in the United States, mothers are more likely to die around the time of birth and babies are more likely to die in the first year of life than in other first-world countries and even some developing countries!

The solution to the Medicaid budget crisis is not to deny services to mothers and infants who need them. Instead, Medicaid could save millions of dollars by creating incentives for midwifery care and hospitals that use technology appropriately. Tort reform is another component of the solution so health care providers can make decisions based on what is best for mother and baby, and not fear of litigation.

A quote attributed to Albert Einstein defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If we want a saner, higher-quality, lower-cost health care system, we need to stop doing the same thing over and over again. Midwifery care offers a new direction for our maternity care system. I urge childbearing families, taxpayers and legislators to educate themselves about this solution to our health care and budget crisis.

Sharon DeJoy, MPH,

CPH, CPM, LM

Pierrepont