Was My Last Home Birth Illegal? (I Need Your Help!)

Katie – You didn’t let me reply to this: “Elizabeth- please be kind to other commenters in your replies. If you want to bring out the claws against me, that is fine, but please be kind to them” So I have to start a new conversation far below to the response of this…
If commentators such as Meagan, whose comment you agree with, that say “Just because you are an ultrasound tech doesn’t make you any more equipped than a plumber to educate on the subject” would cause me to respond in kind to her specifically with a similar comment but insert housewife instead of ultrasound tech. Instead my comments have been to the point rather than using that individual as an analogy to a plumber.
If commentators such as Aubryn who say ” need for job security” when in reality I speak for genuine concern that someone is telling women there is no or less risk than a hospital equipped with an OR and surgical team.
if commentators such as Aubryn who say “her opinion is fully formed-she formed it on a foundation of her own biases, her need for job security and a healthy (or not) helping of faer mongering.” LOL she is actually my favorite! That is why a brought her up twice. I mean come on! how hypocrite do you have to be to talk about my claws when Aubryn is here! we covered the definition of bias and illegal. Lets do mongering =a promoter of something unpleasant. You are right it is unpleasant to bring up known statistical risks of home birthing and to bring up the flip side omitted in this article. It is hard to protect your other commentators when they seek me out with THEIR claws and I guess I surprised you I can make it personal too if that is the level they want to play. Up to that point all of my comments had been general and “sweeping” as another brought up with counter statistics that were omitted, not necessarily want you want to hear but I personally felt necessary to bring up since they come from the same links and since I care more than just “job security”. Anyway… again your article is not just you asking from people around the nation to call Kentucky to add midwives under their regulation BUT also a one sided argument about only the benefits of home birthing. THAT is the part I have been trying to emphasize only. Finding an awesome OBGYN is also a word of mouth struggle too, not just findings a good qualified midwife. Took me 4 tries before I found the OBGYN for me that did not fit in that small box you all have painted about all OBGYN’s. And I only found him from word of mouth and of course I interviewed him and he knew it because I believe doctors are human and I wont have chemistry with every doctor I meet.

This is straight out of this link that is a website dedicated to fighting for you cause!
https://kentuckyhomebirthcoalition.com/is-home-birth-legal-in-kentucky/

“There are no laws in Kentucky that specify where a baby can or cannot be born. We’ve all seen a news story where a baby is born on the side of the road while on the way to the hospital (or some similar story). It is not illegal for these babies to be born on the side of the road just as it is not illegal for a baby to be born at home.”

This is straight out of this link that is a website dedicated to fighting for you cause!

So “my claws” as you pointed out with me but not Aubryn or Meagan for your own reasons, towards you came out when I realized how misleading the title to your article is “Was My Last Home Birth Illegal? (I Need Your Help!)” When more accurately it should have said what your article says which is, why does my midwife not have a kentucky permit to practice? Then you wouldn’t get commentors like Riri, Christy and Valeria saying… disgusting you can’t own your own body… because even when they don’t read the article that it ACTUALLY wasn’t illegal to birth at home or in a car, what IS not legal is for a non kentucky permitted midwife to “practice nursing without a license” as stated in the last midwife lawsuit that was brought to her in “the late 1990’s”, yes people … over 17 years of midwives practicing “illegally” with no lawsuits.
“Despite the lack of prosecution of midwives in Kentucky, many midwives still exercise great caution in making themselves widely available since they are practicing without the required state-issued permit. The goal of the Kentucky Home Birth Coalition is to see the state of Kentucky issue licenses to Certified Professional Midwives so that they can fully exercise their scope of practice in caring for women and babies.”…”No one knows precisely what happened in 1975 to prompt this change, but we do know that it effectively pushed direct-entry midwifery underground, and no new permits have been issued since that time. There have been numerous efforts to change midwifery law and regulation of the past 40+ years, all unsuccessful.

A lot has changed in the midwifery landscape of the United States since 1975. Since that time, 31 states have licensed or otherwise legalized direct-entry midwifery. Also in that time, the Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) credential was created. The CPM is the only midwifery credential that requires knowledge about and experience in out-of-hospital (OOH) settings.”
“There are no laws about where you can have your baby, or who must be in attendance.” So actually you DO own your body in kentucky, yay! It sounds like something happened up to 1975 that made the lawmakers change their minds about giving out permits but I am sure they are as educated as plumbers and you all know better!

Katie, I am so happy for you and how well things went for you. I understand where you are coming from. I am so blessed to be able to have birthed 3 of my 4 children at home and in 2 different states with 2 WONDERFUL, CARING AND COMPASSIONATE midwives. I would NOT trade that experience for anything in the world. It was the best experience my husband and I experienced. He was totally behind me in this desire. I had a similar experience where in my state it was illegal to birth twins but yet legal in another state. To keep the story short, our midwife had already delivered twins that no doctor or midwife suspected. They were fine. We knew our midwife was well experienced but would not take any risk. My labor with her was very short for the first baby but then contractions slowed. She kept the heart monitors on both of us and neither were under stress. Finally we decided to go in and have the 2nd baby at a hospital that would be less apt to do a c-section. In short, the baby was head down but face up. The doctor used forceps to deliver. The baby was fine. The doctor gave me 6 weeks of emotional trauma! I believe I was allowed to have the hospital birth to be able to understand better how bad they can be. Then when I gave birth to my last baby, I would probably have been considered high risk because of my age but everything went perfect! I understand both sides and I know it is not for everyone but I too think it should be available for all to consider.
Maybe the ultrasound tech, Elizabeth, is not aware of the women that die or have to be transferred to a hospital from an abortion clinic who were in care of a doctor. Maybe she has not heard the stories of the many women who were traumatized from a hospital birth. I understand they are not trained to know how many of the things our children are faced with today, come from. I do not beieve you will not find 1 child without immunizations with autism for one! We can all do the research. My heart aches for all the children that have suffered and some have become parrilized by some of the things they inject into the bodies of our children! Thank you again Katie for all your wonderful articles!

I should try to get some of my sisters in law to read, comment, and hopefully call. They have some incredible stories of homebirth. Several scenarios there and all with happy endings.

I had my two children at home with a CNM. I had no complications with my first beyond a tear that healed on its own. She was perfect. My son was born with the cord kinked over his shoulder. My midwife knew something was wrong and had me push him out fast (resulting in another tear that also healed on its own). He was limp. Blue. Looked dead. She was in the pool with me and had my husband grab the baby oxygen, handed baby to me, and had me check to see if the cord (obviously free now) was pulsing. It was and I know that helped him tremendously. It seemed forever, but maybe 30 seconds of oxygen and he came around. He’s an active (very active) year and a half old pure boy now!

It makes me sad that Kentucky is like this. My dad’s grandmother was one of the Frontier Midwives based in Leslie Co, KY. She came on mule back and delivered my dad (likely others of the 8) at home just down the mountain from where I grew up. I and the next 4 kids my mother had were born at the Mary Breckinridge Hospital in Hyden, KY., which at least at the time (not sure now), trained midwives. If you don’t know who Mary Breckinridge was, look her up. She was the original Frontier Midwife.

I realize that I’m posting so far down that, Katie, you won’t even read this, but here goes anyway. Even though I’m a Labor and Delivery RN, I, unlike most of my colleagues, am not against homebirth. Even though I see every type of disaster that one could imagine, and more, I realize that most, but not all, of these cases would risk out of a homebirth. And that that women choosing homebirth tend to be a self selected group that are far more educated and informed than your typical woman having a baby in a hospital, who just wants to deliver as quickly and pain free as possible.

What my problem is, is that there is hostility anda lack of collaboration between the homebirth midwives and the hospital community. This fosters some risky behavior, like transferring too late and making what should have been an urgent situation into a STAT one. Also, I don’t like that, in my area at least, that midwives straight out of school are going right into solo practice without taking a few years to apprentice with an experienced homebirth midwife. And they go to births without any assistant. What if they need to take care of, say, suturing mom who has a bleeder that can’t wait, but baby needs help getting started? I am aware that hospital practices can cause problems, but some problems can arise spontaneously. Or, as the saying goes, “Meconium happens.” My wish is for a truce to be called, which will make birth safer for all.

Sorry for the length off this post, but, believe me, I held back. There’s lots more to say on the subject.

Hi Katie, I had a VBAC in KY last year but also have some experience with this subcommittee and could possibly help. Please send me an email to talk offline. Thanks for posting this!