The Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) has to say something. After all, the American Academy of Pediatrics has declared that they don’t meet the minimum standards for providing safe homebirth.
Fortunately for them, they think their own followers are morons, easily tricked by mistruths, half truths and outright lies. It’s been working for them so far.
MANA routinely bandies about the high US infant mortality rate, assuming (correctly) that clueless homebirth advocates have no idea that infant mortality is the wrong statistic. Perinatal mortality is the correct measure of obstetric care and that the US has one of the lowest rates in the world.
MANA routinely compares its members to midwives from other countries, assuming (correctly) that homebirth advocates aren’t smart enough to research and learn that homebirth midwives don’t meet the midwifery standards of ANY first world country.
MANA routinely fobs off the fact that it hasn’t published the death rates from the 27,000 homebirth in its own database, assuming (correctly) that homebirth advocates are so gullible that they will believe that the death rates are going to be published “next year.”
So when basically outed by the AAP as unsafe practitioners, MANA has doubled down on its policy of relying on what it presumes to be the stupidity of homebirth advocates.
As detailed on the Science and Sensibility blog post MANA Response to Recent AAP Home Birth Statement: High-quality out-of-hospital newborn and postpartum care is standard for midwives, MANA thinks it can fool homebirth advocates with this gem:
CPMs are knowledgeable, expert and independent midwifery practitioners who have met the standards for certification set by the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM). NARM is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) to issue the professional credential of Certified Professional Midwife, which is the same agency that accredits the American Midwifery Certification Board to issue the professional credentials of Certified-Nurse Midwife, and Certified Midwife.
Read it quickly and it sounds as though the NCCA has passed judgment on the CPM credential and found it adequate. But that’s not what it means, because the NCCA does not certify credentials; it certifies the EXAMS used to award those credentials.
According to their website:
The NCCA Standards are comprehensive and cover all aspects of the certification program(s), including administration, assessment development and recertification. NCCA standards are consistent with The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing… (my emphasis)
So, for example, the NCCA certifies the EXAMS administered by the Crane Institute of America required to become a industrial crane operator. Specifically, the exams for:
Certified Crane Operator, Large Telescoping Boom Crane Over 75 Tons
Certified Crane Operator, Lattice Boom Carrier 1 to 350 tons and over 350 tons
Certified Crane Operator, Medium Telescoping Boom Crane 21 to 75 Tons
Certified Crane Operator, Small Telescoping Boom Crane under 21 tons
Qualified Rigger & Signalperson Certification
It does not determine whether certified crane operators are competent. It merely determines whether the EXAM is appropriate to evaluate the skills and knowledge deemed relevant by the credentialing organization.
Similarly, the NCCA does NOT determine whether CPMs are competent. It merely determines whether the EXAM is appropriate to evaluate the skills and knowledge deemed relevant by MANA and its sister organization NARM (North American Registry of Midwives).
Apparently the folks at MANA figure that if their supporters are so clueless that they can be fooled by the deliberate use of the wrong mortality statistic, so ignorant that they don’t know that CPMs don’t meet the same standards as European midwives, and so gullible that even after several years, they still believe that MANA is going to publish its death rates “next year,” they are stupid enough to believe that the NCCA, which certifies EXAMS, has certified the CPM.
So tell me, homebirth advocates, are you as ignorant and gullible as MANA believes you to be?
