05/16/2022
My heart has been heavy the last couple of weeks. Helping clients figuring out where to transfer their care as Women's Birth and Wellness Center seemed to teeter on the edge, to finally announcing they were "pausing" births for an undetermined amount of time.
This marks the end of an era of decades of work by Maureen Darcey and many midwives, nurses and staff who poured themselves into this work and sustaining an out of hospital birth option in a state that is not out of hospital birth friendly.
The loss is heavy in the community. Pregnant people rushing to find appropriate care in their last weeks of pregnancy in a place where homebirth midwives fill their books 36 weeks in advance many times. Some coming to terms with their location of birth may end up being a hospital where they will not have the option for a water birth or won't be able to be discharged to spend their first night with baby in their own home.
If this change is affecting you in any way, the best thing to do is twofold:
1) Write an email to the board expressing how this change is affecting the community
2) Get involved in community efforts to change laws to make out of hospital midwifery more accessible.
♥️
