LETTER: Legalize midwifery in Alabama

   Published: Monday, February 3, 2014 at 6:40 p.m.

The birth of a child is perhaps the most spiritual and deeply personal event in  human existence, yet Alabama mothers have very little control over where and with whom they endure and celebrate this miraculous occasion.

After much prayer and research, my husband and I decided to seek the services of a Certified Professional Midwife for the birth of our first child. Since that option was not available here in Alabama, I traveled to Chattanooga, Tenn., to birth my son at my midwife’s home in September 2013.

Because my pregnancy remained low risk up until delivery, it was statistically as safe or safer for me to deliver in an out-of-hospital setting as compared to a hospital birth under the care of an OB/GYN.

The state of maternal care in Alabama is not admirable. Our Caesarean section rate is more than 35 percent, significantly higher in some hospitals, and exceeds the national average. Home births are legal in Alabama, but midwives — medical professionals who are trained to provide care to low-risk mothers in and out of the hospital setting — are not.

Please visit www.alabamabirthcoalition.com for more information. To support the Homebirth Safety Act of 2014, a bill aiming to decriminalize midwifery in Alabama, contact your senator and ask him or her to support SB 99, tentatively up for public hearing Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Meagan Posey Winningham

Rainbow City

via LETTER: Legalize midwifery in Alabama | GadsdenTimes.com.