Women and Babies in a Disaster Situation

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Mum forced into home birth after floods cut off road
Thursday, February 12, 2009, 08:22


WATER baby Charlie Beattie made a memorable arrival into the world when floods meant his mum could not make it to hospital for his birth.

Debbie Beattie went into labour on Tuesday morning, but she and husband Russell, along with three-year-old daughter Lauren, found the roads out from their home in Rayne were blocked by floods and they could not get to William Julien Courtauld Hospital (WJC) in Braintree.

They had to turn back home and two emergency care practitioners, Steve Colmer and Steve Monk, from the ambulance service, who had fought their way through the flood water, made it there just in time to deliver Charlie.

He was born at four minutes past eight and weighed in at a healthy 8lb 13oz.
Proud dad Russell said: "We set out at 7.30 in the morning and found that the road from Rayne to Braintree was about 4ft under water and the alternative route out of the village had flood water 2ft deep.

Continue at UK Mum forced to do homebirth because of flooding

This and many other new reports continue to fuel my concerns for pregnant and birthing women and babies who will inevitably be caught up in situations that do not allow them access to the hospital, and/or in many states, including Missouri, ACCESS to a midwife. As the Columbia, MO community prepared for disaster possibilities, I was at a forum in June of 2007 and repeatedly asked every representative from the mult-organization team about the plight of women in MO. At that time, it was a felony for a midwife to practice in MO. All women in MO did not have the option to choose midwifery, and this meant that many women in the rural areas (most of MO) were forced to accept the choice of driving hours to give birth.

At this meeting, all day long, I continued to asked the representatives of the Red Cross, the Fire District, the city, all the members of the diaster readiness teams,

"What about the pregnant and birthing women, and women with infants?"
"What if the hospital is unable to accept patients because it is destroyed, or quaranteened?"
"What if a laboring woman can not make it to the hospital? This happens now in an ice or snow storm now?"

And, I point out that in other industrialized nations, including the UK, midwives work WITH doctors and nurses in partnership. Their government and hospitals accept and promote midwifery care. There, a woman has a societial learning and knowing that birth outside of a hospital without a doctor anywhere near by is doable and even preferrable. So, when a diaster happens she IS ABLE to do it without the ingrained fears and beliefs that American women have. But, my question, "What are you doing in this area?" receives only uhmms, ahhhh, or "that is question for so-and-so who is on next panel."

All day long people just looked at me, some dumbfounded, some annoyed ... Midwifery was still illegal at that time and the social and political battleground was very bloody at that time. The only possible options given were that emergency workers or medical staff would have to be called. MY QUESTION, "Is this being considered -- is a plan for pregnant and laboring and birthing women being developed?'

"Ahhhh, uhhhmmm."

For some very strange reason, the dire needs of the pregnant, laboring and birthing woman and her baby during a disaster have not even been considered. I blows me away everytime I think about it, and everytime I think about that day of asking different people, experts in preparing for disaster and protecting us, about pregnant and birthing women and babies needs during a diaster. I am sure it is the same in most places. Every community, big and small, needs an elaborate system in place to care for these most vulnerable of people in a diaster. Is there a "committee" just to look at this need -- from another perspective OTHER than the medical perspective and what they can do and need? Is there a plan in place, with a team on board, of midwives, doulas, and nurses and doctors who will GO TO the woman? Why is this not a high agenda for the Red Cross?

HOMEFIRST in Chicago is a good model to begin to see what is needed.

For the Safe Baby Resolution, which I co-wrote with Star Newland and was introduced in Hawaii Legislature in 2007, I wrote a broad document of questions for legislators everywhere:

Legislative Research Study Questions
by Janel Martin-Miranda, MA, LPC,

The Safe Baby Resolution team asks our state legislators to form a Safe Baby Commission to be comprised of representatives from birthing women, doulas, midwives, physicians, therapists, psychologists, teachers, clergy, attorneys, representatives from women’s and children’s group (i.e., Shaken Baby, Domestic Violence, March of Dimes, Drug Prevention) and a legislative liaison to consider how to answer the following questions.


We are asking the state legislators to assign the commission (or appropriate department, such as Maternal Health and Child Wellness) with the objectives:

- Gather and study the current science that supports the resolution,

- Facilitate multi-disciplinary collaboration,

- Determine the feasibility of launching a major research project to look for long-term solutions, and

- Report the findings of the resolution study at the next legislative session


Number Five addresses homeland diaster preparedness and need to provide for pregnant and laboring women:


5. Homeland Disaster Preparedness – Include a plan for Pregnant, Laboring and Birthing Women, and Infants. How is the Missouri Home Land Security disaster plan prepared to care for pregnant and birthing women in MO in the event of a disaster? Currently, the practice of direct-entry midwifery is against the law in MO, and the CNM must be backed by a physician; therefore, out-of-hospital birth is rare and socially feared. In the event of a disaster hospitals will be focused on trauma patients and/or may be quarantined, and there will be zero options in Missouri for safe and quality care for pregnant and birthing women and babies outside of the hospital. What will they do?

I hope every community will look at this and make provisions for the most vulnerable during a disaster -- pregnant women and laboring and birthing women and babies. I find it interesting in the stories coming out of the recent weather and bridge situation in UK. When a woman can not get to the hospital there is not a collective panic. Women there know they can give birth outside of a hospital.
What what about this stupid, "Shoe lace" thing to tie off the cord? One report was father was struggling to get his shoe lace off!?!? As I prepare the research and father's voices for my film, I am just appalled ... WHY IS THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY STILL PROMOTING THIS!?!? The baby needs to stay attached to the mother. The BABY NEEDS his or her CORD BLOOD. The mother's body and the PLACENTA ARE the RESUSCITATOR. The BABY's physiology WORKS and will clamp the cord. THE FATHER NEEDS TO BE CONNECTING WITH HIS BABY, NOT SEPARATING him or her PREMATURELY from the mother. There is NO MEDICAL REASON to clamp the cord! #*$ &$& )$)__$&#^$*

From the UK article:
"We stayed at the scene for a couple of hours and worked together with the midwife to carry out full health checks, making sure both mum and baby were stable.

"Fortunately they didn't need to go to hospital and the family, including the proud older sister, were able to stay at home, allowing the new addition to settle in comfortably."

NOTE the MENTAL and EMOTIONAL difference? NO way in H-ll, would that happen in America -- leaving the mother and baby in the sanctity of their own home, after being assessed by the medical team on site. In America NO ONE can be born with out the interrogation of the multiple teams of nurses and doctors. Don't we all know the babies who were born at home only to be whisked away for hours and days of intrusive, violating, painful "tests" by strangers and separation from mother?

Now, that I've blown off some steam, back to work on the film ....