Deborah Smithey makes a great point in her article, "The need for certified midwives," when she argues that midwives are a great asset to any city's emergency preparedness plan. Pregnant women are at great risk during and following natural or man-made disasters. When hospitals may be over-flowing with sick and injured survivors and electricity may not be available, women who would otherwise have given birth at the hospital will have to seek alternatives. Smithey explains how midwives are prepared to handle just such circumstances:
"Certified Professional Midwives are trained to work in homes and other out-of-hospital settings. Many midwives serve the Amish and Mennonite communities, and are accustomed to working without electricity or other modern conveniences."
Having certified midwives accessible throughout each community ensures that all pregnant women have access to high quality care regardless of any disaster that may occur. Read her full article here.
1 comment:
Okay, so I can totally relate to this. When we went through the great ice-storm disaster of last year, I kept thinking "how awful would it be to be pregnant right now?" Traffic lights weren't working, hospitals were running on overload, people were dying in their homes from lack of heat and other necessities . . . I kept thanking my lucky stars that I wasn't going to have to try and find my way to a doctor to deliver a baby in the midst of that chaos.
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