At midnight tomorrow, April 30th, the majority of New York City’s home birth midwives will no longer be able to practice legally. Unless immediate action is taken by the Governor and the NYS Department of Health the women that these midwives serve will be denied access to a home birth with their chosen provider and these providers will no longer be able to practice legally in NYS.
YOU MUST ACT NOW to save the home birth option for New York Women:
Call:
- 311 (if outside NYC, call
- Wendy Saunders, Executive Deputy Commissioner for the NY State Department of Health, appointed by Governor Paterson. 518-474-8390
- Larry Mokhiber, he Secretary of the Board of Midwifery (518-474-3817, extension 130)
And say….
With the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital, half of the licensed, highly trained home birth midwives serving NYC have lost their Written Practice Agreement (WPA). St Vincent’s was the only hospital in the city supportive of a woman’s right to choose a home birth and willing to sign a WPA. In the weeks since it’s announced closure, these midwives have reached out to hospitals and obstetricians all across the city looking for support, with no success. Please help us to save the homebirth option in New York.
People can also email the Governor at http://www.state.ny.us/governor/contact/GovernorContactForm.php.
We are in our final hours!
Please forward this post and help us flood 311 and the Governor’s office with calls supporting home birth.
And while you’re at it, please sign our petition supporting the Midwifery Modernization Act which will remove the WPA from the midwifery law effectively removing this barrier to accessing midwifery care.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/midwifery
See NYSALM’s fact sheet about what the Midwifery Modernization Act Means for You.
you have no idea how freaky it is to be four days away from my due date and having to face this. i have been emailing people like crazy trying to get anyone and everyone i know to call, so thank you for posting this.
ReplyDelete(oh, and i think you knew i was planning my 2nd homebirth with kristen leonard, one of our fabulous homebirth midwives, but just in case you didn't, that is why i'm freaking.)
ReplyDeleteRobina, how scary! I just called 311 and spoke with an incredibly nice and helpful representative who forwarded my concern to the Mayor's office. I also emailed the Gov. It was easy to call and write, so I hope I can encourage others to do the same. Please help, folks!!!
ReplyDeletePS: Kristen is amazing! I saw her once for a prenatal when I was pregnant with W. Love her.
This makes me so angry! Women are going to continue having home births even if it's outlawed; it just won't be as safe. I sent an email to the governor asking him to keep homebirth safe and legal. Fingers crossed!
ReplyDeleteoh we have been having this battle here in australia as well. Lisa Barrett is a wonderful independent midwife here whose blog is full of wonderful home birth activism. just google her i'm sure she will turn up. Good luck - I had my second home birth and then organised our local rally before parliament sat to decide (they put it off in the end) when he was weeks old. Crazy world.
ReplyDeleteThis is outrageous & deeply upsetting. I'll do everything I can. Thank you for posting about this.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a NY resident, but did take a few minutes to write the Gov. from the perspective of someone who has friends in NY and from the perspective of someone who lives in state that doesn't offer the option and hates it. Good luck NY!
ReplyDeleteI called, and had a great conversation with someone at the DOH. My midwife says that they have ears in City Hall. All this work is definitely worth doing--we really can make something happen.
ReplyDeleteI hope all works out. I leave right outside Philadelphia and planned home births and any kind of water births are illegal in PA. Crazy, I know.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck with this fight!
thank you for posting this! I'm not sure why I didn't get that email from CIC, I'm on their mailing list. One thing that I can't seem to figure out is if this will effect midwives who do not have admitting privileges at St. Vincents. I need to call my midwife, but I just wondered if you had any insight. Even if she doesn't lose her license, we've all lost a friendly place for transfers. I'm completely heartbroken over this whole situation, and my heart goes out to Robina and all the other mamas who will be immediately effected. I'm only 20 weeks and I feel very lucky that I have a few more months to figure it all out. I just heard on wnyc that there will be a town meeting tonight to work out a way to revive St. V's, how do you think us homebirthers can participate? (I'm not sure if this meeting is mostly a push for emergency services...)
ReplyDeleteThere is a last minute call to action happening in one hour--just received this alert about a press conference happening in one hour--spread the word if you can!
ReplyDeletehttp://marycatherinehamelin.squarespace.com/blog/2010/4/30/last-minute-call-to-action-for-homebirth.html
Gonna go take action now! Thanks for posting this!
ReplyDeletewhy did they wait until now to say anything?
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