midwife

11 Stories

US Has 'Profoundly Disturbing' Stats on Maternal Mortality

We're the worst out of all high-income nations, with Black patients especially suffering

(Newser) - When it comes to how patients fare during pregnancy and after giving birth, the United States is lagging. According to new research released Tuesday by the private Commonwealth Fund, the US has the highest maternal mortality rate of the 14 high-income nations examined in the study , and Black women fare...

Long Island Midwife Gave Kids Pellets, Not Vaccinations

Jeanette Breen hit with $300K fine for giving 1.5K children homeopathic pellets, falsifying records

(Newser) - A midwife from Long Island has been hit with a $300,000 fine, accused by the New York State Department of Health of writing up false vaccination records for hundreds of children. News 12 Long Island reports that the inoculation scheme run by Jeanette Breen began in 2019, via her...

They Used to Come to 'Salome Cave' to Pray. Now, a Big Dig

Inside the 2,000-year-old burial cave said to be for Jesus' midwife: lots of beautiful oil lamps

(Newser) - An ancient tomb traditionally associated with Jesus' midwife is being excavated anew by archaeologists in the hills southwest of Jerusalem, Israel's antiquities authority said Tuesday. The intricately decorated Jewish burial cave complex dates to around the first century AD, but it was later associated by local Christians with Salome,...

Midwife Faces 20 Years in Death of Breech Baby

Angela Hock, unlicensed, charged with negligent child abuse

(Newser) - An unlicensed midwife is facing charges after she unsuccessfully tried to deliver a breech baby, who later died. Angela Hock of Nebraska Birth Keeper was paid at least $3,000 to assist 25-year-old Emily Noe in delivering a baby at her Omaha home, per the Omaha World-Herald and KETV . Some...

Midwife Arrested for Delivering Mennonite Babies

Mennonites are making a rare public stand in her defense

(Newser) - Mennonite women in upstate New York are making a rare public stand to defend a midwife who has delivered hundreds of their babies. Elizabeth Catlin was arrested in November for, authorities say, practicing midwifery without a license. She's a certified professional midwife, but New York requires midwives to possess...

Sweden Debuts 'How to Give Birth in a Car 101'

Swedish maternity ward is closing, so midwives take preemptive measure

(Newser) - While expectant American couples taking Lamaze classes prepare for labor with breathing exercises and relaxation techniques, midwives in Sweden are busy prepping soon-to-be parents on worst-case scenarios. "Car accidents, the car could break down, you maybe drive off the road. You have to be ready," Stina Naslund tells...

WHO: Doctors Not Always No. 1 When It Comes to Care

Midwives, nurse practitioners can be as good, better

(Newser) - Not only do midwives, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants do as good a job as doctors, they sometimes do better—and patients would agree, according to a World Health Organization bulletin. NBC News gives an example: When it comes to delivering babies, midwives use less drugs and perform fewer episiotomies...

Midwife Delivers Own Baby
 Midwife Delivers Own Baby  

Midwife Delivers Own Baby

I 'went into autopilot,' British mom says

(Newser) - When a British woman went into labor more than three weeks early there was no time to get to the closest hospital in Kent. But luckily enough, there was a midwife present: herself. The 28-year-old midwife, who had finished a 13-hour shift at a London hospital just a few hours...

Women Battle 'Birth Rape'
 Women Battle 'Birth Rape' 

Women Battle 'Birth Rape'

Uncaring, brutal exams can traumatize laboring moms

(Newser) - The mothers of the world are mad, and they're not going to take it anymore. A growing movement against "birth rape" is placing institutions on notice that women in labor oppose any vaginal intrusion by "fingers, hands, suction cups, forceps, needles and scissors" without consent, notes the Sydney ...

Cash-Squeezed Bereaved Hold Funerals at Home

Home funerals can save thousands in tough times

(Newser) - Amid the recession, many who’ve lost loved ones are turning to less expensive in-home funerals, the Los Angeles Times reports, and it's creating a booming business for “death midwives,” consultants versed in preparing bodies and completing paperwork for such services. Once, such midwives were in demand for...

Stay-At-Home Mom, Indeed
Stay-At-Home Mom, Indeed
COMMENTARY

Stay-At-Home Mom, Indeed

Home-birthing 'strange and magical,' but trade-offs hurt—like Mo. law against midwives

(Newser) - Home-birthing isn’t only strange and magical—it requires some covert-operation skills, Madeline Holler writes in Babble. After finding she preferred an attending midwife in the birth of her first child, Holler found using one for her second to be illegal in Missouri, where she'd moved. As such, she found,...

11 Stories