Politics, politics

"Too many OB/GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country."
--President George W. Bush
Sept. 6, 2004, Poplar Bluff, MO.

Yeah, the Republican Party has some precious gems, doesn't it? But my post today isn't about George W. or Cheney or even Schwarzeneggar. Instead, I would like to introduce you to Utah State Senator Margaret Dayton.

Our friend Margaret here was a labor and delivery nurse who worked, uh, "closely," shall we say, with Dr. Lynn Dayton, an OB/GYN. They had an affair (Dr. Dayton was married to someone else at the time) and they are now married and she is now the State Senator from the Orem area.

(And what do you bet that her political platform was "family values" or some such handy Republican catch-phrase that magically hypnotizes the Republican Sheep of Utah and causes them to automatically vote for her.)

(I digress...)

Two years ago, the Utah Legislature passed a bill that would legalize Midwifery. This bill was written jointly by the Utah Medical Association and the local midwives.

Now, allow me to clarify. When I talk about "midwives" here, let me help you to understand what kind of people I am talking about. I am not talking about women who suddenly decide that it is their divine calling to deliver babies and they go out, armed with nothing but towels and boiling water, and begin to catch babies. Rather, I'm talking about LDEM's--Liscensed Direct-Entry Midwives--who go to years of schooling and attend hundreds of births and pass strict tests and regulations before becoming liscensed. These are women with extensive education, experience, and equipment.

Anyway, after much trial and tribulation, an excellent bill was passed into law two years ago legalizing these midwives.

And this year, our friend Senator Dayton has introduced a bill to strip all of that away from them. The bill is worded very badly, but in essence it limits LDEM's from practicing at all.

As someone who has birthed at home, I know what the general public thinks of us. They think we're completely psycho. They think that we're granola-eating, tree-hugging, leg-hair-loving hippies. But, once informed (when they choose to become informed) people stop thinking of us as whackos and actually begin to admire us.

So what's interesting to me about this new bill is that Ms. Dayton is not uneducated nor uninformed. She has access to all of the data that we have access to and probably more. All of our statistics and research PROVE that a low-risk mother is every bit as safe birthing at home with an LDEM as she is in the hospital, if not more so. Senator Dayton knows this as well as, or better than, anyone.

She is choosing to prey upon the lack of education (on this subject) of her fellow legislators in order to make a new law that will eliminate her and her husband's competition, or something! It can't be that simple, though. There's some bias, some prejudice, some unexplained animosity here. But whatever it is, she has not right to pursue any of it. As my dear friend and midwife Holly said,

"No other profession has ever been allowed to write rules for another, different profession.

No other profession codifies hospital policy into statute.

The profession that most directly benefits from severely restricting the DEMs is the OBs - the ones writing the bill."

But Republican Doctors in Utah can pretty much do whatever they like, can't they? Have you smelled corruption yet? Believe me, by the time I'm done, you will.

Anyway, the bill was assigned a committee for review. If it passes the committee it goes to the Senate Floor for debate and a vote. No one expected this bill to pass committee because it's so badly written and its content is so ridiculous.

Ah, but which committee do you suppose it was assigned to? Logic would tell you that a bill about childbirth would be assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee. But no. It was actually assigned to the Agriculture Committee.

WHAT???!!!??

Yep. Agriculture. A great place for Childbirth.

A closer look will help you understand this. This committee is made up of a small handful of senators who voted against legalizing midwifery in 2005 and the committee itself is chaired by... can you guess? Senator Margaret Dayton.

(Just what strings did she pull to obtain that interesting maneuver?)

Any other committee would have thrown this piece of baloney into the garbage where it belongs. But, you'll be happy to know, the Agriculture Committee voted this morning and passed the bill. It goes to the Senate now. What a joke.

Whether homebirth interests or terrifies you, you have to see what a bunch of garbage this whole thing is. If you find yourself interested in aiding us in our plight, let me know and I'll show you how you can help.