CONTACT:* Russ Fawcett, (910) 471-5187, spigget@aol. com
> *IMMEDIATE RELEASE:* Wednesday May 19, 2010

> *MIDWIFERY JOINT COMMITTEE TELLS MOTHERS & FAMILIES WHO GIVE BIRTH AT HOME –YOUR SAFETY DOESN’T MATTER***

RALEIGH, NC – The NC Midwifery Joint Committee (MJC) has given a clear
message to Mothers who choose home birth; deeply-entrenched medical special
interests matter more than your right to health and safety. The MJC voted
against licensure for certified professional midwives (CPMs) even though the
North Carolina General Assembly asked them to propose a licensing framework
to regulate CPMs.

“CPMs are the only professional healthcare providers who specialize in home
birth,” said Russ Fawcett, Legislative Co-Chair of the NC Friends of
Midwives. “Every year, more and more Mothers in North Carolina are choosing
to have their babies at home. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence
presented to the MJC showing the proven safety of homebirth when attended by a trained midwife, the physician members on the panel chose to vote against
providing a means to ensure that safety.”

The MJC has met over the last eight months to hear data and testimony from
many stakeholder groups including midwives, physicians, epidemiologists and
consumers. The panel authorized a graduate nursing student to perform a
review of all available literature and data, resulting in a report that
clearly showed the safety of home birth attended by a CPM.

“It is unfortunate that the physicians on the MJC are consciously choosing
to ignore the overwhelming scientific data in support of home birth and
maintain their position that degrades safety for mothers,” added Fawcett.
“If the opponents of CPM licensure have true concerns about safety, then
they should be the biggest proponents of regulation. I wonder what is their
plan? Absent that answer, consumers are left to wonder about the true
motivations of doctors and other opponents of CPM licensure.”

A Centers for Disease Control National Health Statistics reportreleased in March showed a five percent increase in demand for
out-of-hospital midwife births in 2005. In North Carolina, homebirths
increased by 32 percent from the 2003-2004 period to the 2005-2006 period
analyzed. This new data increases the urgency for passing the current
pending legislation in North Carolina to license and regulate Certified
Professional Midwives (CPMs).

“Now more than ever it is crucial that North Carolina’s home birthing
families have access to trained midwives,” said Russ Fawcett, Legislative
Chair for North Carolina Friends of Midwives . “Each
year, more North Carolina families choose out-of-hospital birth for
religious, cultural, philosophical or financial reasons. Home birth is happening whether or not North Carolina chooses to join Virginia, Tennessee,
South Carolina and 23 other states in licensing CPMs. Why not do everything
we can to regulate that practice and ensure safety?”

Currently, there are no laws in North Carolina to regulate CPMs, who
deliver babies in private homes and freestanding birth centers. Studies show
that low-risk women who plan home births under the care of CPMs have
outcomes equal to low-risk women who deliver in the hospital, but with far
fewer costly and preventable interventions. A study commissioned by the
Washington state legislature found that during the last five years alone,
the state’s licensed midwives saved taxpayers and private insurers more than
$10 million.

North Carolina Friends of Midwives is a grassroots organization of midwife advocates dedicated to promoting, supporting, and protecting midwifery in North Carolina.