NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Monday, July 24, 2006 7:00 pm
One mom who believes that Nebraska women should have the option of a safe home birth assured the Nebraska Board of Health Monday that women like her are not wacky.
“We are not a bunch of tree-hugging, Volkswagen-van-driving, stick-it-to-the-establishment lunatics here,” said Autumn Foster Cook of Omaha.
“We are thoughtful, well-educated mothers and fathers who devote great amounts of thought, time and energy to what is best for our children,” she told the board during an afternoon public meeting.
About a dozen other Moms who support the option of home birth (and a few dads) politely showed their support for changing state law, filling the seats in the board’s meeting room at the State Office Building.
When a baby got fussy, the mom quickly left the room so the noise would not be so distracting. But the muffled wails of several infants wafted over the meeting.
The board had also received several hundred postcards from Nebraskans who support the home birth option.
But the show of support didn’t erase board members’ concerns over the safety of babies and their moms.
The board rejected the recommendation that the state’s certified nurse midwives be allowed to help with home deliveries.
They agreed with the representatives of the Nebraska Hospital Association and the Nebraska Medical Association that a hospital setting is best for mothers and children.
“A low-risk pregnancy can become a high-risk pregnancy very quickly,” said Carly Runestad, with the hospital association.
But leaders of the group of Nebraskans formed to support the home birth option said they will not be derailed by the health board decision, which will become a recommendation to the Legislature.
“This just means it will take a little longer,” said Cook, chair of the Nebraska Friends of Midwives.
That group will seek a law change next year and “every year until it passes,” said Cook, who wanted to give birth to her third child at home but was stymied by Nebraska’s law.
Currently women who give birth at home don’t break the law, but any midwife who helps them does.
That leaves women with the choice of an unattended home birth or giving birth in the hospital.
The board’s decision doesn’t remove the problem, said Dr. Daryl Wills, a board member and chiropractor from Gering, and the only board member to vote for liberalizing the home birth law.
“We will still have women who want to give birth at home and want to have someone with skills there to help them,” he said.
The board vote was part of a regulatory process intended to advise the Legislature. It came after a technical review committee also rejected changing the state’s restricted home birth law.
Nebraska’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Joann Schaefer, will also make her recommendation in late summer or fall.
The health board’s decision should not stop the discussion over how to improve health care and over creating more collaboration between nurse midwives and doctors, said Linda Lazure, of Omaha, chair of the board.
“Reasonable people can reach reasonable solutions,” she said.
Home births was one of three major issues in the study.
The state board also rejected creating a state licensing process for direct entry midwives, people who are not nurses but have had training and experience in midwifery. Lay midwives can practice legally in more than 30 states.
The board also recommended maintaining current law, which requires certified nurse midwives to have written agreement with a physician to practice in the state.
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.