SC hospital coerces state agency to suspend midwifery birthing center, the survival of SC maternity centers now at stake

Monday, December 09, 2013 by: Lance Johnson
Tags: midwifery, birthing centers, South Carolina

(NaturalNews) A growing number of expectant women in America are reverting to a more natural, less invasive approach to child birth. As the price of a contemporary hospital delivery goes up and becomes more invasive, women are opting out and going to midwifery maternity care centers for a more calming child birth experience.

(Contemporary hospital Caesarean section rates have risen from 5 percent in 1970 to roughly 33 percent today!)

Hospitals schedule profitable C-sections and hate seeing expectant mothers go elsewhere for care

As hospitals lose millions of patients to midwifery birthing centers, profits begin to dwindle. It's easy for a hospital to charge over $ 10,000 for a basic delivery and even schedule a C-section on top of that, raking in multiple thousands more from this often unnecessary and invasive surgery.

Desperate, hospitals may try to eliminate their competition by activating government regulation to suspend midwifery centers. This is the case in Rock Hill, SC, where obstetricians conspired and emailed board members of the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), asking to suspend operations of the Carolina Community Maternity Center.

According to employees of the Carolina Community Maternity Center, the DHEC board went along with the obstetrician's demands and suspended the midwifery practice.

Christine Struther from Carolina Community Maternity Center states, "[W]e been suspended since September 2nd because of two citations. One was thrown out because they were saying that we didn't have an agreement with EMS, which we do. That wasn't a valid citation. The other one was regarding a policy statement that we changed and got resolved."

SC statute now being used to suspend non-hospital maternity centers

Struther says the only reason that the maternity center is suspended now is because of a "physician on call" statute that the agency is just now deciding to enforce. This statute requires all birthing centers in South Carolina to be supervised by certified physicians from a hospital. This may not always be possible, especially in rural areas, where physicians may be preoccupied with work at a hospital or be several miles away.

The newly enforced statutes could ultimately affect dozens of non-hospital birthing centers across the state and shut them down.

The Carolina Community Maternity Center, known for providing mothers more affordable, less invasive birthing options, delivers, on average, 30 newborns every month.

The owner of the center, Lesley Rathbun, says that the people who go there "are looking for a really different product than they're going to get in the hospital, and they're not going to be able to get that elsewhere."

She states, "This is safe, it's cost-effective, and it's what the customer's desire."

And she asks, "So what's going to happen to all these mothers who are due in three weeks?"

The Carolina Community Maternity Center reduces Caesarean section incidence, as seen in contemporary hospitals, from 34 percent to just 2 percent! This shows just how much more effecient and safe the midwifery is compared to contemporary hosptials. This work should be applauded, not banned.

But this excellent work is costing hospitals a lot of money, as people turn to a more natural, less invasive approach. As hospitals in SC try to coerce government agencies to force something good out of existence and out of practice, life and liberty is lost in this country.

To sign the online petition to reopen this birthing center, go here.

Sources for this article include:

http://benswann.com

http://www.wsoctv.com

http://harvardmagazine.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

About the author:
Passionate about holistic wellness, Lance Johnson and his wife invite you to www.allnaturalfreespirit.com, where you can buy clean, chemical-free body care products.