This morning I wrote about the tremendous amount of web traffic to the story of the baby who died while Jan, Tritten, the Editor of Midwifery Today crowd sourced the medical decision on his mother’s care with her Facebook friends. The response is a testament to the power of social media: blogs, Facebook and Twitter.
I also wrote about the fact that the homebirth community is silent on this baby’s death (like the deaths of all the babies that have died at their hands) and their plan appears to be to do nothing about it, investigate no one, hold no one to account.
Let’s not let them bury this baby twice, once in a tiny coffin in the ground and then again by erasing him from public consciousness. To prevent that, let’s leverage the power of social media to finally hold homebirth midwives to account.
I’ve been banned from just about every homebirth website and Facebook page, but they can’t ban everyone, can they?
I propose a Facebook and Twitter campaign to grab the attention of the people whose current plan for handling this baby’s death appears to be to do nothing, wait for people to forget, and then get back to business as usual.
Let’s send Facebook messages, Tweets and emails to:
Jan Tritten
Jan Tritten’s Facebook page
@JanTritten on Twitter
Midwifery Today
Midwifery Today’s Facebook page
The Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA)
MANA’s Facebook Page
@MANACommunity on Twitter
and
Melissa Cheyney, CPM in her role as Head of the Board of Direct Entry Midwifery in the state of Oregon (where Jan Tritten lives).
Email: melissa.cheyney@oregonstate.edu (She does not appear to have a separate email address at MANA or the Board of Direct Entry Midwifery)
What should you write? I leave that up to you, but for those who aren’t sure, I have a suggestion:
Can you tell us what you plan to do to investigate the death of the home birth baby whose care Jan Tritten crowd sourced on Facebook?
Short, simple, polite and to the point.
These midwives and organizations can ban and delete me, but they can’t ban and delete everyone. In memory of the baby who died a preventable death, let them know how you feel.
If enough of us get involved, perhaps we can prevent the tragedy that befell this baby from happening to any other babies.
