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WHERE’S MY MIDWIFE PRESS NEWS
CONTACT: Gaby Merediz, 718-753-1174 info@wheresmymidwife.orgFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFriday, September 11, 2009
THE PERILS OF NBC’S “EXTREME” REPORTING ON MIDWIFERY ANDHOME BIRTH AND ITS EFFECT ON HEALTH CARE OPTIONS FOR WOMEN
NC BASED GRASSROOTS GROUP RESPONDS TO NBC’S TODAY SHOWSEGMENT REGARDING MIDWIFERYThe Today Show segment aired the morning of September 11, 2009, (just a few weeksafter the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, or ACOG, posted asurvey on their website for obstetricians asking for adverse outcomes for home birthtransfers) entitled “The Perils of Midwifery” wrongly implicates midwife-attended homebirths as unsafe and draws unsubstantiated conclusions between the safety of midwiferyand infant mortality. The very title, “The
Perils
of Midwifery” (emphasis ours) shouldalert the viewer to the bias of the story against midwifery care. Further, Meredith Vieiraand Matt Lauer both introduced the story with the words “extreme birth.” Thissensationalistic use of terms calls to mind “extreme sports,” and scares or warns theviewer that they are about to view something dangerous. Webster’s definition of “extreme” includes “outside the normal,” “the farthest point from the center,” and “of relating to…a form of sport that involves an unusually high degree of physical risk.”Worldwide statistics and research show that midwife-attended births are just as safe asphysician-attended births. The unfortunate story about the birth of the McKenzies’stillborn baby is irresponsibly correlated with midwifery care and implies that midwiferycare is inherently riskier than maternity care by an obstetrician. As consumers of healthcare in this country, we should all be advocating for an increase in options formaternity care for women, including increased access to midwifery care, and not scaringthe public with unsubstantiated, sensationalistic claims.Infant mortality rates are lowest in countries with the highest rates of midwife-attendedbirths. The five countries with the lowest infant mortality rates in the world have 70% of births attended by midwives. In contrast, the U.S. ranks second highest in theindustrialized world in terms of infant mortality. A recent 4-year study conducted inCanada found that perinatal death and other adverse perinatal outcomes were low inplanned home births attended by registered midwives, and comparable to midwife- andphysician-attended planned hospital births (August 31, 2009). In the Netherlands, 1/3 of births take place at home, yet the infant mortality rate there is lower than that of the U.S.(4.73 deaths per 100,000 live births compared with 6.26 deaths per 100,000 live births inthe U.S. in 2009 according to the CIA World Factbook). With these statistics readily
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