Midwifery in Atlanta, Georgia

After I fractured my spine in a car accident in April 2015, I took a year away from the course halfway through my second year. Leaving my beloved cohort and friends was a hard thing for me to do, but ultimately best for my recovery and future health. It took a few months before I was back on my feet properly, but when I was, I was determined to make the best out of the time I had. My poor mother didn't sleep for about three months whilst I was gone for worry, but eventually I packed my bags and went volunteering around the world, experiencing maternity wherever I could. My first stop was in the USA.


In August 2015, I had the privilege of spending three weeks living with and shadowing a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) at her Home Birth practice in Atlanta, Georgia. As a CNM, usually you work for a Doctor within a hospital environment, however Kay is different. Kay and her partner in crime Debbie, a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), run a Practice together providing antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care for on average 60 women a year from around the region. Appointments are conducted in Debbie's cosy front room and deliveries are wherever the women chooses, with most preferring in a paddling pool within the comfort of their own home.

As we all know, in America healthcare is almost exclusively privatised and increasingly medicalised. Although CNMs are autonomous practitioners, they usually work in close partnership with the obstetricians who take the lead. Induction and caesarean section rates are high, with one hospital I visited having rates of 70% and 50% respectively. Kay used to be one of these midwives but one day decided enough was enough. She wanted to move away from the medical model of care and back towards woman-centred, women-empowered births within an environment that they create themselves. It was then that she found Debbie, a fantastic CPM holding the qualification influenced by Ina May Gaskin and the Farm, and a member of the board of the regulatory body, NARM. Between them, Kay and Debbie have built a widely renowned service with clients coming from far and wide to experience the amazing care that they provide.

 

During my time, Kay showed me around some of the hospitals in which she had worked, we attended appointments and three births, one of which led to a transfer into the local obstetric unit for a caesarean. It was during this time in which I realised that despite being halfway through my training, I had never attended the birth of a woman who I had met before. Having known them since their initial booking, Kay and Debbie had formed such strong relationships with the women and families. The trust between the midwives and the women was like nothing I had ever seen before. As well as this, the trust in the human body and belief in normal birth was almost a mutual understanding and it was if there was never any doubt that anything but that would happen (although hidden in the corner of the room was always any equipment you could possibly need for an emergency). When the National Maternity Review 2016 with Better Births came out in February, it really made me think about how incredible it really could be.

The births I saw were beautiful. One in a pool in their en suite, one on all fours on their bed and one emergency caesarean for failure to progress and fetal distress after a long hard labour. Each undeniably beautiful in their own ways.

The lovely Crystal shared her home birth that I attended on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9rn0NTz7o8

See more about their practice here: http://www.gamidwife.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaBirthCare/?fref=ts

National Maternity Review 2016: file:///C:/Users/user/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/IE/CF1NFT2B/national-maternity-review-report.pdf



Personally managed births to go: 20