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Jeannine Parvati Baker On Drugs, Drugwar and
Midwifery by Dan Russell, webmaster@drugwar.com Listen to this: http://www.friendsofnan.org: "On July 6, 2002, Nan Koehler of Sonoma County, California, mother, grandmother, geriatric caretaker, herbalist, agronomist, author, midwife (traditional birth attendant), was arrested and jailed for "reckless child endangerment", "practicing medicine without 
a license", and "administering a controlled substance to a minor" (oxygen), carrying a
maximum sentence of four years, in connection with a birth she attended on February
28, 2000." This is one of the most expert birthing teachers in the country, a practitioner and writer with more than 30 years experience. In reaction to the indictment, the city of Sebastopol, California, proclaimed Tuesday, October 15, 2002, Nan Koehler Day and Home Birth Day. Jeannine Parvati: My support for Nan being free of legal action is total, even fierce. I have two midwife friends, Abby Odam and Gloria Lemay, who have been in prison or are presently incarcerated for some of the same criminal charges against Nan. What I have learned is contesting the alleged crimes is a probable way to become "Joan D'Arc". Yet how can anyone plead guilty to crimes not committed?" I saw Preston comment on Midwife Who Supplied Illegal Drugs Headed To Jail and dashed off a note to Jeannine, asking for her comments. Jeannine is another brilliant midwife, author of Hygieia: A Woman's Herbal; Prenatal Yoga & Natural ChildBirth; Conscious Conception: Elemental Journey Through The Labyrinth Of Sexuality. Jeannine: The challenge I have with this is that the use of pitocin or methergine (medical synthetics to stop uterine hemorrage) are dangerous and only licensed medical practicioners are best advised to use it, especially at home. I think this Amish midwife is actually a MEDwife. Dan: very interesting insight. so what safe medications and/or practices are now prohibited that ought not to be? or are the regs such a state-to-state patchwork that there is wide variation? or has enough progress been made so that there is more home-birth freedom now than previously? to what degree are the drug regs still being used to deny home-birth freedom? Jeannine: You write Dan, 'what safe medications and/or practices are now prohibited that ought not to be?' This question above you ask limits the truth. First - "safe" is a red herring. Birth is as safe as life gets. Next - Regarding homebirth, any regulation is unwelcomed. Those laws that do exist, limit the use of controlled substances, such as oxygen, pitocin, and other medical tools such as delee suction devices, doplars, forceps and vacuum extractors. As well they should: All of the above carry risk, require skill and are unnecessary for spontaneous birth. 'or are the regs such a state-to-state patchwork that there is wide variation?' There is some variation. For example, in Utah, there is proposed regulation of midwifery promoted by a small faction of MEDwives connected to the one state friendly midwifery school, just this last month. The proposed law sounds benign - yet I saw through the loopholes. For 30 years, I have watched how state by state, midwives let the medical monopoly gain control over birth. They are seduced by the illusion that licensure will provide immunity from legal and criminal harrassment, greedily enticed by 3rd party reimbursements, malpractice insurance and other "benefits" of becoming legal. Then, as one lawyer last month giving testiomy at the meeting I attended with the Senator from Orem, who is backing the midwifery proposal said, "This law would let the camel into the tent. Once the nose was in, next would come the head, then eventually the whole body so there wasn't room anymore for a midwife to come into the tent to attend a birth." This is not fantasy - check out the States who have regulated or "legalized midwifery" - there are scant authentic midwives left. The rest have got into bed with the state and are now what I call MEDwives. And MEDwives need drugs, not mothers who give birth. 'or has enough progress been made so that there is more home-birth freedom now than previously?' In one sense only, there is now more homebirth - but not much. Nowadays 98+% of all births occur in hospital in the USA - when I began my work as a midwife in the 1970's, 98% were having babies in hospital. So there are more babies born at home - yet only proportionally. The stat is still the same - only about 2% have homebirth despite all of the propaganda to make midwifery more "available" by midwives becoming more like doctors and getting licenses. 'to what degree are the drug regs still being used to deny home-birth freedom?' Once again, the question itself holds the problem in place. There are no drugs exogenic needed to give birth. Indeed, any drug is redundant. (See HYGIEIA: A Woman's Herbal) Nature provides all that is required in birth - endorphins (opiates for pain relief), oxytocin (to promote labor/expulsion of placenta and curtail post partum henorrhage), prolactin (to not only make milk but aid in post partum uterine involution), etc. All of these lovely endogenous hormones are free drugs, unregulated by the state. Dan: so the answer to my question: 'to what degree are the drug regs still being used to deny home-birth freedom?' is that that the drug regs are an effective red herring, using the assumption that drugs are necessary for home birth (what about a local anesthetic to mend minor ripping, or traditional herbs falsely defined as drugs?) to put a legal ring around midwifery. When my wife ripped a little, the local midwife here, fully qualified, couldn't even administer a local anesthetic for the two or three stitches needed. So we have medical issues, and political red-herring issues, suffused with profound medical lies. Does the indictment of Nan Koehler have a political element? Jeannine: First, drug regulations do not inhibit our freedon to choose where and with whom we give birth. It limits the scope of the birth attendant's practice, that's all. Second, all of the medical drugs under medical jurisdiction are wisely regulated. If a pharmaceutical needs to be used in labor or delivery, then it's best used where the probable other interventions will need to be employed anyway - the hospital, for it no longer is a spontaneous birth. "is that that the drug regs are an effective red herring, using the assumption that drugs are necessary for home birth (what about a local anesthetic to mend minor ripping, or traditional herbs falsely defined as drugs?) to put a legal ring around midwifery." "When my wife ripped a little, the local midwife here, fully qualified, couldn't even administer a local anesthetic for the two or three stitches needed." Yes, this is a red herring. Though administering a local anesthetic sounds benign, if not done properly, nerve damage could occur. There are alternatives to stitching that midwives know. MEDwives use needles, metal instruments, and drugs - not midwives. "So we have medical issues, and political red-herring issues, suffused with profound medical lies." I refer you to the extensive body of work of Henci Goer who has unravelled the medical conspiracy to wipe out midwives and homebirth. She is like the Dr. Mendelsohn of the 21st century for revealing obstetrical myths accepted as consensual reality. "Does the indictment of Nan Koehler have a political element?" Is this a trick question? It's all about politics - what if more women, mothers, gave birth as an ecstatic celebration of female sexuality? Mothers who do will often declare, "Now I can do anything!" What would the world look like if half of our population felt empowered to make a difference with their lives? Dan: so the legal misdefinition of whole herbs as medical drugs falls under the heading of the 'the medical conspiracy to wipe out midwives and homebirth,' n'est pas? Jeannine: It is a little more complex than that, Dan. I gave a talk on WITCHES MIDWIVES & HERBALISTS at the Green Nations Herb Gathering in NY just this last season. It took 90 minutes to articulate the connection you reference above. I tend to see the primacy of birth ritual affecting people (if unconsciously) for life. Then what you just wrote is the story I also tell. The history suggests that the co-option of birth from midwives by medical men was co-arising with the persecution of herbalists - for herstorically, we are often one in the same: midwives are herbalists. Yet whenever I spin a story with such obvious "bad guys", I get suspicious. Life isn't black and white and when it comes to birth and herbs, we have more than a full spectrum of color. I recommend the new book by Michel Odent entitled, The Farmer and the Obstetrician, for its brilliant deconstruction of the rise in agri-business along with hospital birth in this last century and what to do about it now. As Einstein said,"No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it." For the most part, mothers weren't forced into hospitals or into eating factory farm foods. These changes away from homebirth and family gardens came from an impulse to ease suffering in birth and feed the growing populations - both noble motives, at least in intention.  As we know, the results from industrialized childbirth and farming have been mixed. From something as simple as homebirth and natural foods, we now have evolved to epidurals and GMO's as standard fare. Yet my point is that these things exist only because they fulfill a need. My work in midwifery and herbal education is to fill this need rather through a transfomation in consciousness. There are no "good" or "bad" guys in this scenario - rather, the way we have been thinking about birth and healing with plants needs some adjustment. Perhaps then we can reclaim our roots and re-earth our souls by giving birth at home (and without the paid paranoid) instead of in hospital with the masked man. Babies born without trauma (AKA the normative obstetric and pediatric management - or abuse of mothers and babies) are less violent, more connected and kinder people, especially to their own mothers. This imprint of respect and gratitude can extend to being kinder to the Mother Earth. Whole babies can become whole adults who ideally will support whole foods and herbs to sustain the original unity of consciousness with our source. |
