PA Court tells State Medical Board to shove it

Big news in the midwifery world on Friday. I know lots of people across the country were tuned in to hear the outcome of this one. Thankfully, the humans came to their senses and an innocent midwife pervailed!

Diane Goslin has been a practicing midwife for like 25 years, and she's attended over 3,000 births. In that time, she has received one (ONE!) complaint against her - and it wasn't even by a parent or family she was serving. It was by a coroner, who examined an infant's body from a birth she had attended. You see, the coroner found the infant's death had nothing to do with the birth or the midwife, but he didn't like that the midwife had attended the birth at all so he complained to the PA Medical Board. What a kind fellow.

So Diane was ordered to cease and desist her midwifery practice and was brought up on numerous charges, including practicing medicine without a license, and given $11,000 in fines. Diane is a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), an internationally-recognized certification for midwives. But silly Pennsylvania doesn't recognize them and therefore won't give them licenses of any kind. There were a bunch of rulings, and it looked like homebirth midwifery was about to be shutdown in Pennsylvania. But Diane fought hard, and she had thousands of supporters along the way. Save Homebirth joined the fight. The Amish and Mennonite (Diane's primary customers) came out in full force to support her. You can see some amazing pictures here.

Well, it all worked. Diane won. The court decided that practicing midwifery was not the same as practicing medicine, and therefore Diane wasn't guilty of practicing medicine without a license. AND, the court gave the PA Medical Board a slap on the wrist for trying to claim she was practicing as a nurse-midwife, because the Board is only allowed to police women who are trying to do this, and at no time did Diane advertise or call herself a CNM. PLUS, the court decided Diane was denied due process in these charges. Wow. You can read the final ruling here.

This is amazing news for all supporters of midwifery and homebirth. Midwifery is not "practicing medicine" and it should never be judged as such. Midwives should never be prevented from practicing because of misunderstandings about what they do. If states are afraid of midwifery (and that is what it comes down to here - FEAR), they need to take the time to learn what a midwife does and what a midwife doesn't do. If they would open their minds just a little, they would realize that supporting midwifery (and specifically homebirth midwifery) is not only cheaper, but better for the health of mother and baby.

Man, I'm so glad Pennsylvania saw the light. And now onto the local fight - whether or not Oregon will begin mandatory licensure for all practicing midwives (it is currently optional). OMC (Oregon Midwifery Council) is debating how to coordinate a unified front and what they should be arguing for. More to come...