Comments on: Legal Status of Unlicensed Midwives in Indiana

By: Trying to have a home birth in Evansville, Indiana… at Harvest of Daily Life

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:49:11 +0000

[...] http://www.kemplog.com/2006/06/16/legal-status-of-unlicensed-midwives-in-indiana/ [...]

By: Talina

Talina — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:44:46 +0000

It is unclear and it is also infuriating that the laws prevent us pregnant women from getting the type of care we want.

Many women opt to hire a midwife because they want to avoid all the requirements hospitals have for birth and delivery. Women should be free to choose and under this law they are not. That is the real problem here.

By: miriam

miriam — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:05:05 +0000

I am pregnant and have had 3 c/s. 2 of them I had were not needed but told they were. Now if i want to vbac I need to hier a midwife because doc’s say Indiana law says no vbac’s after 2 but the midwife i found says med. I can vbac but if something goes wrong she can loose her license so she said to hier a lay midwife. If something goes wrong could we both have a problem with the law.

By: Pila

Pila — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 19:34:10 +0000

My guess–and it really is just a guess–is that the law was intended to exclude unlicensed midwives from practicing midwifery at all. I think that the prosecutor in the Williams case would argue that if you are not a licensed midwife, then you are not a midwife in Indiana and you are not to perform any midwife services.

The current statutes probably need to be reviewed and made either more clearly restrictive to exclude unlicensed midwives or or less restrictive in order to make at least some of what they do legal. Perhaps once a certain threshold of care is passed, that is when licensure would be required. I have no idea what that threshold might be, however.

I don’t expect any changes to current law without a fight, however. Most licensed professionals (including attorneys :)) don’t like it when they perceive that anyone is nibbling around the edges of their profession.

Have to say, I’ve received quite an education on this issue.