The CPM “credential” (and I use that term in quotes) referred to in post 1697 relies on the NARM exam, which is full of complete misinformation about various obstetric conditions – preeclampsia in particular, where their philosophy and treatment flies in the face of all credible scientific understanding of this condition.
It would be rather like certifying an astronomer based on his / her knowledge of astrology and zodiac signs.
I’ve looked up some licensing info.
Arkansas licenses lay midwives after they meet certain criteria, most of which is less than what NARM requires. Jill (?) only needs a high school diploma, GED, or equivalent so no need to leave home and enter the big, scary, world of college classes. If she gets the NARM designation as a Certified Professional Midwife, then she is automatically eligible to be licensed in Arkansas.
NARM talks about “educational prerequisites” but after sifting through their info there is nothing specific like “pass anatomy and physiology at the college level with at least a C”.
Sad but true that this is a perfect career choice for a Duggar daughter.
If I were an obstetrician, I wouldn’t be so hasty about criticizing midwives, knowing that my professional colleagues had been doing those harmful 37- and 38-week elective inductions and C-sections by the tens of thousands for the last few decades, and are still doing them. But hey, who cares about some breathing problems, learning problems and behavior problems if the doctor can schedule the delivery at 37 weeks?
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Just because some obstetricians don’t practice evidence based medicine doesn’t mean that there aren’t standards for evidence-based medicine in place, CF. The theoretical underpinnings of lay midwifery are to real medicine what creationism is to evolution. Have you seen some of the readings? Affirmations help treat postpartum hemorrhage? If I have a PPH, I want a doctor or nurse which is going to spring into action and DO something so I don’t bleed to death, not tell me to “trust my body” and repeat to myself 10 times “I will not bleed, I will not bleed.” Don’t even get me started on their “understanding” of preeclampsia - prevention, management and treatment, or how they seem to think the only good induction or CS is done when the baby is already clearly in peril and needs out this very second, while time is brain. Maybe you’d feel differently if you were an ob tasked with cleaning up the mess that some of these birth junkies leave behind when they get in over their head, dump mom at the hospital and then run -knowing that you’ll be blamed for the subsequent bad baby and your professional liability is going to be charged. It’s rather like if I, completely untrained in electric systems. Came over to your house, mucked with your wires, and then called an electrician to fix it and disappeared. There are bad OB-gyns - obviously. But they aren’t rogue. There are systems with which they are re hewed and identified. Not so for lay midwives. They can keep making oopsies and no one will ever know.
None of my comments apply to CNMs who are well trained professionals who play a collaborative role in health care. They go through big-girl training.
pizzagirl, your complaints seem a bit over the edge. ACOG has changed it’s guidelines for many things and done so recently. Does that make them “rogue” somehow for the wrong information they gave all those years? No, they’re not perfect and neither is NARM but hopefully they can actually work together for better maternal and infant health because the US doesn’t have the best track record. In fact, we’re something like #48 in the world in maternal mortality. Did all those women see lay midwives? Very, very few women see lay midwives.
The midwives I knew would stress proper nutrition and it’s place in preventing preclampia. After all, didn’t Dr. Brewer figure that out decades ago?
Wasn’t Jill in labor at home for 70 hours after her water broke before throwing in the towel and going to the hospital? I guess those positive affirmatives didn’t work. Surprised the baby didn’t get sepsis.
As that story became public, there were SOOOO many red flags with it. They are fortunate that both mom and baby came out OK. Yet… some people will line up to have her as their midwife.
I will admit, one time her training came into excellent use, was when they were in China (IIRC), and one of the show’s producers traveling with them, went into premature labor - I think 3-4 weeks early. This poor woman was in a foreign country with very few practitioners who spoke English. I DO think the presence of Jill and either Jessa or Jana was of great use to this poor woman, who probably needed someone to tell her in English what was going on.
Of course, one could ask who authorized this woman to go that far away from home when that close to term.
The Brewer diet isn’t evidence-based. Good nutrition is always good, but to assert a truth that it prevents preeclampsia is poor practice. But I’m off topic, sorry.
And our mortality rates have far more to do with lack of universal health care but I’m way off topic! Lol.
My spouse works with CNMs, physician assistants (he was recently honored as the preceptor of the year at our local PA school) and of course RNs. He also employs a CNP (certified nurse practitioner) who is a prof as well. While the scope of each of those is different, they are all healthcare professionals grounded in science - and whose practices change as new scientific knowledge comes to light. They are worthy of respect, just like physical therapists, occur therapists, pharmacists and other auxiliary health professionals, because they undergo rigorous training in fundamentals before they get to “the fun part” of their actual specialties.
CPMs do no such thing. The NARM “curriculum” doesn’t ground in the basics, requires little more than a hs diploma, and works from an ideology - that’s why their practices don’t change, the way that other health care professionals do, because they let ideology and not evidence drive their practice patterns. Sorry. It’s interesting to me that the OT/PT professions have “upped their game” by requiring the equivalent of a PhD and the CPM crowd stays mired in the “I watch a dozen births and I’m good to go” mindset. Want to be a midwife? Great! Do the work and be a CNM.
There’s a reason CPMs aren’t integrated into health systems in many states. They don’t have the rigor. There’s a reason no one wants to back them up or insure them. They just luck out because yeah, most births will go swimmingly without much interference.
A Duggar in a bikini! Ok, it’s just Amy.
http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-body/news/amy-duggar-bikini-2015149
http://www.people.com/article/jill-duggar-dillard-not-pregnant-announcement-midwife
Jill’s now a CPM.
^^
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Now begins the fruit of that labor, that is, having a valuable skill and ‘tool in the tool belt’ to use for the furthering of God’s Kingdom.
I am very surprised to see Amy in a bikini! That would have been a big transgression in the church I grew up in, and the Duggars seem even more conservative.
The comments are interesting in the link from post #1712. There are even some haikus!
Jinger in a courtship with Lawson Bates?
The Bates family has had a reality tv show.
I see the wheels turning in Jim Bob’s head.
Ack. The Bates family went to the wedding and the photo is a mix of Duggars and others. But time will tell. Of course, not much time, if they do connect. You could have another wedding in a few months.
So both Jinger and the Bates kids have 18 brothers and sisters. Let’s see – how many first cousins will their children have? 36 siblings X – oh, 10 kids each, conservatively? So, 360 first cousins?
I’ve got two myself.
According to this source, only two members of the Bates family went to Amy Duggar’s wedding:
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The 19 Kids and Loving Tumblr page notes that Trace and Lawson Bates appear to be the only Bates in attendance.