Trigger warning: discussion of infant loss.

Let me be very clear: I am in favor of midwifery-led care for all low-risk pregnancies with proper regulations and standards. That’s how most of the rest of the world outside of the United States does it, including where I currently work in New Zealand. The midwives here are highly skilled, highly trained, able to attend home births and hospital births, have better outcomes overall than in the US, and more - the benefits of midwifery-led care cannot be overstated.

But the way the laws work in the United States right now - which is to say, hardly working at all - is so incredibly dangerous. A patchwork of laws that change from state to state allow dangerous midwives like Karen Carr - the subject of today’s video - to continue to practice even after being convicted of serious, deadly errors. They just have to move one state over. There are so many reasons for why the system in the US is the way it is, and the medical system carries a lot of the blame. But we have to talk about this problem so that families who may want to seek midwifery care for one reason or another can at least know everything about the midwives they hire.

Watch next:

We need to talk about midwives:    • We need to talk about midwives...  
Why you can’t eat in labor will SHOCK you:    • Why you can't eat in labor will SHOCK...  
Homebirth vs. Hospital birth:    • Is Home Birth Dangerous? | ObGyn Comp...  

00:00 Intro
1:00 Types of Midwives
3:23 Karen Carr's Career, Legal Troubles
6:27 Homebirth in the US
8:09 More Legal Troubles
14:38 Loss of Baby Sophie DiVincenzo
20:54 Trial
26:02 Dangerous Laws

References:

Washington Post article from 2023: https://www.washingtonpost.com/invest...
Washington Post article from 2011: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...
ABC News article from 2011: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/midwife...
Center for Disease Control 2021 home birth statistics: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nv...
Congressional report on midwifery care in the US: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105...
Research on homebirth transfers to hospitals: https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomed...
American College of Nurse-Midwives comparison of midwife types: https://www.midwife.org/acnm/files/cc...

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** The information in this video is intended to serve as educational information and is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images, and information, contained in this video is for general information purposes only and does not replace a consultation with your own doctor/advanced practice provider. **

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