Consider the following scenario:
A doctor, practicing without a license, presides over a risky procedure that results in the entirely preventable death of a patient.
Or how about this scenario:
A lawyer, practicing without a license, rejects the standard legal procedures in a murder case, mounts an unusual defense that results in the death penalty for a client who could have expected no more than a ten year sentence.
Can you imagine the American Medical Association insisting that it didn’t matter that the doctor wasn’t licensed? Can you imagine the AMA defending the entirely preventable death of a patient? Can you imagine the American Bar Association claiming that it was irrelevant that the lawyer was unlicensed? Can you imagine the ABA holding a fundraiser to support the lawyer whose risky strategy sent his client to the death penalty?
It is difficult to imagine any of these responses because the AMA and ABA are professional organizations that expect to follow professional standards. Both state medical and legal boards have procedures to evaluate incompetent practitioners and safeguard the public against them.
Is it any surprise, then, that homebirth midwives, in contrast, are supporting one of their number, Karen Carr, who has been charged with practicing without a license and who presided over the entirely preventable death of a newborn? Carr has been charged by the state of Virginia with practicing without a license and with involuntary manslaughter? It’s not suprising since homebirth midwives are not professionals; they are merely pretending to be professionals, complete with pretend “professional” degrees that they award to themselves.
Carr has been charged for presiding over the entirely preventable death of a baby known to be in the breech position, known to be at substantially increased risk of death, who died far from any competent medical help that could have and would have saved the baby’s life. No matter. Homebirth midwives and their supporters could not care less about the dead baby.
There has been no investigation into the midwife’s conduct. Why investigate when it makes no difference to her supporters that she made a choice that killed a baby? There has been no attempt to discipline the midwife for practicing without a license. Why bother when a license is just a public relations ploy designed to trick unwitting parents into believing that high school graduates who couldn’t or wouldn’t get a college degree, a nursing degree, or any training in preventing and managing complications, are “professionals”?
Carr’s supporters are “heart-broken” that she has been inconvenienced by the legal proceedings. The same supporters have expressed not a whit of concern for the dead baby or the parents who will have to live with the knowledge that they hired a “professional” who led them to refuse the medical help that could have saved their baby’s life. Why bother pretending to express “support” for the baby or the parents, when homebirth midwifery is all about the midwives, those “birth junkies” who entertain themselves by attending births, but can’t be bothered to meet professional standards. At least homebirth midwives and their supporters don’t have to worry about being labeled hypocrites.
Just as in the case of North Carolina “midwife” Amy Medwin, also charged with practicing without a license and presiding over a preventable neonatal death, homebirth advocates have made it crystal clear that the law if for suckers, not for them. Accountability is for real professionals, not for them. Investigations of competence are for doctors, nurses, lawyers, and everyone else, but not for them.
home birth midwifery is all about homebirth “midwives” and has nothing to do with babies or pregnant women. It’s all about feeding the “birth junkie” habit and has nothing to do with meeting, or even acknowledging, professional obligations. The strongest, best argument for refusing to license homebirth midwives is repeatedly provided by homebirth midwives themselves. They are uneducated, they are dangerous and they believe that they are unaccountable to anyone.
