First of all, a big thank you to the Sono-Ma readers (both mothers and midwives) who were so generous with their time and birth stories. From these women, all enthusiastic home birth supporters, I got a sense of the local home birth environment, as well the areas of agreement and disagreement among those who care for Sonoma County’s babies. Their stories were echoed in those of the Summit participants, who came from all across the country to try to make progress on a very challenging issue.
The Home Birth Consensus Summit was a remarkable experience. It was fascinating to interact with 70+ representatives of all the major national and international obstetrics, midwifery and pediatric organizations, as well as those from major hospital groups and insurance companies, and consumer groups and educators. The mere fact of these groups agreeing to meet was a minor miracle–many of them have not had face-to-face talks in the past, and a whiff of distrust was in the air as the Summit began.
It didn’t last long–it soon became obvious that those present had the best interests of mothers and babies at heart, and that formed the basis for moving ahead.
I’ve been writing a series of posts about the Summit over at my blog. Nine vision statements were produced during the two-and-a-half day conference. At first glance they may seem a bit generic and short on particulars–after all, who doesn’t agree that “communication and collaboration among care providers is critical to good outcomes”? But the Summit was an important and necessary first step toward real change in how home birth is viewed in the U.S., and the work groups established at the Summit will move ahead on the kind of concrete steps that are critical to that change.
This will be a long and complicated process, and one that is sure to generate considerable controversy. I’ll be writing about it as things happen. Please have a look at my posts (such as this first one), and let me know what you think.
Thanks again,
© 2010 by Mark Sloan, MD
Mark Sloan, MD has been a pediatrician and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics for more than 25 years. His book, Birth Day was named a finalist for the 2010 Northern California Book Awards in Creative Non-Fiction, and named one of fifty notable Bay Area Books of 2009 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Read his complete biography here. Also, find more Dr. Sloan via his new blog here.
One Comment
As a mom who has three children, 1 hospital and 2 homebirths, I can honestly say that the biggest difference for me was having a midwife. In the hospital, my first labor lasted over 36 hours. The physician on duty kept pushing me and my midwife to have a cesarean. I know that without her support I would not have had a normal vaginal birth!
As an RN who has attended many home and hospital births my input is that docs can learn a lot from midwives if they will take the time to listen! And of course many do.
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