Hacker News Reader

Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

> The field itself is fractured. Many midwives make the point that a complication free birth is not a medical event, and the majority of births are complication free.

Midwives are not part of the field of obstetrics, any more than sanitation workers are part of the field of engineering.

View on HN

Midwives are certified medical professionals (comparable to specialized nurses or physicians' assistants), at least in the United States. You're either talking about somewhere else or you don't actually know what you're talking about.

In the US, deliveries are done by CNMs, CMs, and doulas. Only the former has a nurses level of training.

Don't be absurd. Midwives are practitioners in the field of child birth. Some will have acquired a highly developed sense of what works and what doesn't. It is foolish to ignore their experience.

Midwives are practitioners in the field of child birth in the same way barbers used to be practitioners in the field of surgery. Yes, they engage in the practice and for a long time they were the only game in town. But it's not a systematic discipline and therefore experience isn't cumulative.

This isn't true. Midwifery is a serious discipline and you must be licensed in the US. Also, they even have Doctors of Nurse Practice (DNP) of Midwifery at the respected Baylor [1] and other schools. I would recommend watching "The Business of Being Born" (it is on Netflix) - it is very enlightening about the safety and discipline of midwifery, and why hospital births are unnatural and in some ways incredibly unsafe.

[1] http://www.baylor.edu/nursing/nursing_grad/index.php?id=5668...

The University of Washington educates midwives alongside do tors and nurses: http://nursing.uw.edu/node/371

My wife's cousin is going through the program right now and will graduate with the equivalent of an MD. She's doing residency at a large hospital in Seattle and did clinical at another in Boise. When she graduates she'll be working adjunct at either another hospital up here, or through Stanford. I'm no medical expert, but I trust her experience and expertise. I'm not sure where you're information is coming from, but I think you may be misinformed.

Not only are they serious medical professionals now, but they have been for a while. Watch the British TV show Call the Midwife. Even back in the 50s midwives were well-trained specialized nurses who dealt with serious medical issues on a regular basis.

I think you're thinking of midwives from a few hundred (or more) years ago, before the fields of medicine and nursing existed as they do today.

I think you are mistaken. In Britain, the term 'midwife' means specifically a postgraduate qualification on a general nursing degree. They are certified medical professionals and have a level of specialised knowledge akin to a ICU nurse or a surgical nurse. Indeed, midwifes attend Caesarean sections, as part of the surgical team.

I have a cousin in Australia that is a midwide - it's the same deal, she started out as an RN before getting her postgrad midwife quals.

Yes, because obviously nurses are just there to do menial labour that it would be demeaning for doctors to do. This is the most ignorant thing I've seen you say on this website, ever.

In France they are. At least my French neighbor has what might be considered physician assistant level education in France and she would run the show during a birth. The US is very different in this regard.

Doctor's are no more than overpaid, highly inconsistent expert systems.

And midwives aren't even that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com