Monday, April 28, 2008
Blawg Reviews & Other Bloggy Goodness
Next week's Blawg Review will be hosted right here, by Yours Truly. Not coincidentally, May 5th is also International Midwives' Day, so of course the theme of Number 158 will be "Midwifery and the Law". But posts on a wide variety of legal topics will be included as well. If you would like to submit a post for consideration, instructions are available at Blawg Review.
This week's Blawg Review has been posted at Thoughts From a Management Lawyer, a Canadian labor & employment law blog. Also of note: Carnival of Moms in The Law is a monthly law-moms roundup hosted by Power of Attorney. Moms In Lawschool is a weekly carnival which rotates between PT-LawMom and A Little Fish in Law School. And the law-student author of the intriguing The Art of Manliness is starting The Manival, a blog carnival "for posts dedicated to man stuff."
Enjoy, and please come visit next Monday for Blawg Review!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Breastfeeding in Moscow

Muscovites, amid a baby boom and changing attitudes towards children, wrestle with public breastfeeding:
Sheer lack of an alternative may ultimately have an effect on general attitudes and official handling of the issue of breast-feeding in public.
Britain, for example, introduced anti-discrimination legislation mandating that mothers be allowed to breast-feed babies wherever they like. Under the law, restaurants, stores and other public establishments preventing women from breast-feeding would face fines of up to ?2,500, or $5,000.
An incident last year in London, in which an exhibit attendant at the National Gallery told a woman to either stop feeding her 11-month-old daughter or to take her to the museum's mother-and-baby room, focused attention on the issue in Britain.
Similar incidents in the United States at shopping malls, restaurants and other public places over the last two decades have prompted many states to prohibit bans on public breast-feeding.
There are also countries, including Italy, Israel and many in Africa where legislation has never become an issue because there is no cultural bias against the practice.
It would appear to be an issue in Moscow.
A highly random and even more unscientific survey of employee attitudes at Independent Media, which publishes The Moscow Times, provided insight into how Muscovites feel about the issue. Of the respondents, who were divided almost evenly between men and women, about 80 percent said they did not think that breast-feeding should be done in public unless in an emergency, and then only discreetly.
This is the same traditional Russian approach that led to the creation of special "mother and child" rooms in Soviet times that are still found in airports, railway stations and some metro stations.
Outside of the transport milieu, however, things are tougher.
Finding herself in the city center with a screaming baby and no plans to travel by plane or train, Charlotte Baring said she had no other option than to feed her infant son on the nearest park bench.
"I was terrified I would get shouted at by a babushka for subjecting my baby to the germs of a public place," said Baring, an interior designer from Britain. "Nobody actually said anything to me, but I definitely got a few stares and funny looks."
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Midwifery in the News
California - Midwife surrenders licenses to regulatory boards.
Florida - Linda McGlade and her daughter-in-law, Tanya McGlade, will get a new trial after being convicted in 2006 of practicing midwifery without a license, a third-degree felony:
Under the law, there are three components to midwifery: supervising labor and childbirth; advising as to the progress of the childbirth; and rendering prenatal and postpartal care. Also, there is no standard instruction for the crime of midwifery, according to the 4-page ruling written by Chief Judge Stevan Northcutt.Judge Nicholas may have misled jurors to believe they could use only one of the three elements of the charge to determine if the McGlades were guilty, according to the higher court's ruling.
"In the absence of a standard jury instruction, the trial court clearly attempted to craft a proper instruction by employing the statutory language," Northcutt wrote in his opinion. "A defendant is entitled to have the jury correctly and intelligently instructed on the essential and material elements of the crime with which she is charged."
The court "rejected the McGlades’ claim that they were entitled to a jury instruction on the defense they were engaged in the free exercise of religion" (Link). The full court opinion is available here (pdf).
Missouri - Midwife legislation still stalled in Senate; Fierce Debate Over Midwifery Licensure; Midwifery bill runs into issues in Senate.
Pennsylvania - Diane Goslin's case in the news. Midwives Alliance of Pennsylvania has more information.
Also check out Midwifery World's Legal Cases in the News.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Breastfeeding and FLDS Mothers
I am saddened to say that many Texan breastfeeding mothers may be separated from their nursing infants immediately, if not already... While we may not agree or understand the circumstances, I think we need to fight for the right of the children to have the best care and nutrition, which includes breastmilk.
Monday, April 07, 2008
NaBloPoMo - March
See you next November, NaBloPoMo!
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
NY Hospital Bans Vaginal Births
Nation’s Largest Hospital to Ban Vaginal Birth, NY State Likely to Follow
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Breastmilk as a Human Right
Can fashionable young women who do not breast feed be pulled up for violation of human rights of the child? Alleging that many young women influenced by television ads on bras are not breastfeeding to maintain their breasts, CPI(M) member in Lok Sabha Varkala Radhakrishnan on Wednesday said: "It (denial of breast milk) is human rights violation."Maintaining that "breast milk is not just the only wholesome food, but also the child's right", Radhakrishnan said that "breastfeeding must be strictly enforced".
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Childbirth Classes as a Tax-Deductible Expense
You can deduct a number of medical expenses as they pertain to the expansion, or even delay, of your family. Deductions include fees paid for childbirth preparation classes, certain fertility enhancement procedures, birth control pills and/or legal operations to prevent having children.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
NaBloPoMo - Redux
So, I was really interested to hear that NaBloPoMo is going monthly ("This is not the same as Blog365. Those [crazy -ed.] folks are blogging every day FOR A YEAR."). Each month they will have a theme, and this month's theme is: Lists. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am a list-kind-of gal. I am totally about lists. I can do this. So to kick off the month, here's an easy one: Movies I Want to See.
- All the President's Men
- American Dreamz
- Analyze This/That
- Anchorman
- Anger Management
- Around the World in 80 Days (Disney 2004)
- Batman Begins
- Bourne Supremacy/Identity/Ultimatum
- Catch Me if You Can
- Cheaper by the Dozen (modern)
- Cinderella Man
- Devil Wears Prada
- Dodgeball
- Facing the Giants
- Groundhog Day: The Weight of Time
- Hamlet (Brannaugh)
- Hamlet (Gibson)
- Jurassic Park 2
- Legally Blond
- Legend of Zorro
- Little Miss Sunshine
- LOTR: Return of the King
- Love Actually
- Man of the Year
- Manchurian Candidate
- Master and Commander
- Matrix 1, 2, & 3
- Music & Lyrics
- National Treasure I & II
- Ocean's 12/13
- Office Space
- Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure
- Pride & Prejudice (Kiera Knightly)
- Prince of Egypt
- The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
- Rocky
- RV
- Serenity
- The Seige
- Surf's Up
- Three Musketeers (Mickey Mouse)
- Topsy-Turvy (1999)
- Two Weeks' Notice
- War of the Worlds (Cruise)
- What a Girl Wants
- Yentl
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Midwifery Legislative Updates
Here's what's going on - at least, what's been in the news lately. Not a comprehensive list, but hopefully I'll get these updates out more often.
Alabama - SB240 and HB 314 establish a State Board of Midwifery. Link: Bill would allow home childbirth, a healthy option.
Idaho - HB 488 would provide for voluntary licensure for CPMs. Link: Idaho midwives want licensing option, ability to offer meds.
Maryland - HB 1407 would end the requirement that nurse-midwives practicing in Maryland have a written agreement with a doctor. Get the info from VBACFacts.com.
Missouri - Home birth supporters return with new midwifery measure:
Last year, lawmakers unwittingly approved a lay midwifery law after [Senator John] Loudon inserted an obscure medical term into a broader health insurance bill during the legislative session's frantic final days. The measure was signed by Gov. Matt Blunt but has since been overturned by a Cole County judge. An appeal to the state Supreme Court is pending.
Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons responded to Loudon's tactics by removing him as chairman of the Small Business, Insurance and Industrial Relations Committee. He earned the job back by promising to push a bill repealing the law allowing those with private "tocological certification" to offer pregnancy-related care.
Tocology is a synonym for obstetrics, coming from the Greek root word of childbirth.
On Wednesday, the Senate Pension, Veterans' Affairs and General Laws Committee considered two Loudon bills - one to repeal the midwifery law, and the other to create a state licensing board to monitor midwives - but took no action.
New Hampshire - The NH legislature has passed a bill, SB131, which requires insurance companies to cover midwife-attended home births in that state:
The bill builds on New Hampshire's long history of supporting alternatives to hospital birth. For more than 20 years, the state has permitted "lay midwives" who do not have medical or nursing degrees to practice in the state once they obtain proper training. Two years ago, it approved a measure that required health insurers to pay for deliveries in birthing centers run by midwives.The newest bill does not change much other than the range of places where a woman can deliver her baby, but that choice is critical, many of the bill's advocates said."This gives women a real choice," said Rep. Jim Martin of Sanbornville, a Republican who was one of the bill's sponsors.
North Carolina - Midwives seek state sanction:
Rep. Charles Thomas, R-Buncombe, submitted language to legislative bill drafters last year but never turned it into a bill. He said the supporters didn’t meet with doctors and trial lawyers seeking common ground, as he had encouraged.So Rep. Ty Harrell, D-Wake, won legislative leaders’ agreement to form a commission to study the issue. The panel includes medical professionals as well as Thomas, Harrell and other lawmakers, and is co-chaired by Rep. Bobby England, a doctor and Democrat from Rutherford County.
After the panel’s first meeting, Thomas was skeptical of the proposal he called “an end run around medical school” but said a compromise might be reached if concerns about safety and liability are met.
Ohio law only recognizes nurse midwives, who are registered nurses with a master's degree in midwifery, according to Stephanie Beck Borden, chair of Ohio Families for Safe Birth.
"In Ohio, nurse midwives are not independent practitioners" but rather have a "written collaborative agreement with an obstetrician to practice," she says.
But CPMs or direct-entry midwives like Helwig, who care for women giving birth in their homes, lack official approval.
"Direct-entry midwives are at risk of legal prosecution for practicing medicine," Beck Borden says. "In Ohio there is no protection, no regulatory body for direct-entry midwives. (They can be) prosecuted for practicing advanced-practice nursing without a license or practicing medicine without a license, which is a felony."
South Dakota - Senate Bill 34, which allows Certified Nurse-midwives to attend home births, passed both the House and the Senate by wide margins. House Bill 1155 which would license and regulate Certified Professional Midwives, is struggling. See also Home Birth Midwifery "Smoke Out".
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Babies at Work

Time Magazine had a piece in January, Bringing Babies to Work. It reminded me of a website I stumbled across a while back, Babies in the Workplace (www.babiesatwork.org), which details the why-tos and how-tos of developing a truly family-friendly workplace.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
The Latest from ACOG
Childbirth decisions should not be dictated or influenced by what's fashionable, trendy, or the latest cause célèbre. Despite the rosy picture painted by home birth advocates, a seemingly normal labor and delivery can quickly become life-threatening for both the mother and baby.
Attempting a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) at home is especially dangerous because if the uterus ruptures during labor, both the mother and baby face an emergency situation with potentially catastrophic consequences, including death.
ACOG encourages all pregnant women to get prenatal care and to make a birth plan.Really??? Then don't ignore our birth plans when we make them. And put pressure on the hospital staff to respect them, as well. How come the L&D nurses think that birth plan = cesarean section? What's up with that?
The main goal should be a healthy and safe outcome for both mother and baby. Choosing to deliver a baby at home, however, is to place the process of giving birth over the goal of having a healthy baby.
And I'm sorry, women who are so traumatized by their birth "experiences" that they will not set foot in a hospital again unless they are dying, are not "healthy". Women whose bodies are cut and then stitched back together are not "healthy". Babies who leave the hospital formula-fed when their mother had planned to breastfeed them are not "healthy". Healthy is not the absence of disease or medical condition. Healthy is body, mind, and spirit.
So ACOG, if you don't like out-of-hospital birth, start practicing evidenced-based medicine. Start trusting women's bodies to birth. Stop pretending that you know everything (anything?) about natural (normal, physiological) childbirth. Stop lying to women. Try listening to them instead.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Midwives & Malpractice Insurance
When looking through this lens, it becomes clear that lawyers and insurance companies have more to gain from legislation mandating insurance policies for midwives than do birthing women and their families.
This frequent contributor argues convincingly that making malpractice insurance mandatory for midwives will lead to more profitable lawsuits and decrease the number of homebirth midwives to deliver babies, rather than improving birth outcomes or public health.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
California Raw Milk Regulations
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Moms in the Military and in Prison
People in prison are the only group in the United States with a constitutional right to medical care. ... In practice, however, securing needed medical care can be daunting, as numerous lawsuits and investigations attest. Women encounter multiple barriers to care - from co-payments they can ill afford to having to convince a guard that they need to see a doctor. Gynecological and obstetric care is often woefully inadequate. In a nationally representative government study, 20 percent of pregnant women in prison reported getting no prenatal care, and 50 percent of pregnant women in jails went without care.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Things You Should Never Have to Say to a Customer Service Agent
Friday, November 23, 2007
Leftovers (or, a tale of two grandmas)
My Grandma Pat died this week. I have years and years of Thanksgiving memories of her cooking a turkey and making gravy. One year, not too long ago, she decided she was done cooking. And she quit, just like that. She was like that when she had her mind made up. I'm speaking at the funeral tomorrow and I might post my comments, if I feel like it.
Friday, November 09, 2007
US immigration agency sets new policy after arrest of breast-feeding mother
U.S. immigration officials said they have enacted a new policy to show greater consideration for breast-feeding mothers, days after authorities arrested a Honduran woman in Ohio on an immigration violation and separated her from her crying baby.Sayda Umanzor, 27, admitted to being in the United States illegally when sheriff's deputies and federal agents knocked on the door of a house in Conneaut, Ohio, on Oct. 26.
Umanzor was breast-feeding her 9-month-old daughter, Brittany, at the time, and the baby cried as her parents were led away.
"It was like a piece of me was torn away," Umanzor said Thursday, speaking through an interpreter.
The baby cried incessantly over the next several days as she went without breast milk and Umanzor suffered soreness from engorged breasts.
Greg Palmore, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said the agency approved Wednesday a new policy to address the needs of breast-feeding mothers.
"It basically ensures that you take humanitarian issues involving nursing moms into consideration," he said Friday. "It also ensures we make contact with state social service agencies to address caregiver issues."
In Umanzor's case, the first jail where she was held did not know it had a nursing mother until Monday, when Lucia Stone, a Spanish-speaking representative of the La Leche League of Ohio, alerted them, said jail commander William Schultz.
Schultz said jail officials then accepted a breast pump and tried to work with local Spanish-speaking mothers to get milk to the baby, but the two sides failed to connect, and the milk had to be thrown out.
Umanzor was transferred to a county jail in Tiffin, Ohio, before immigration lawyer David Leopold secured her release Tuesday night. Leopold argued it was inhumane to hold a nursing mother and unnecessary to jail someone who the ICE knew how to find.
Umanzor was permitted to rejoin her children and was fitted with an ankle bracelet that tracks her whereabouts. She is expected to be deported soon.
Umanzor's husband, Marcus Antonio Bejarano, also an illegal immigrant from Honduras, was taken into custody. A 5-year-old son, David, also has been ordered deported. The couple's 9-month-old baby and a 3-year-old daughter, Alexandra, are U.S. citizens.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Vaccinations Among Homeschooled Children
With the spectacular growth in the number of homeschooled students, it is becoming more difficult to reach these youth to ensure that they are immunized at all. These children are frequently unvaccinated, leaving them open to infection with diseases that are all but stamped out in the United States with immunization requirements. States should encourage parents to get their homeschooled students vaccinated through enacting the same laws as those used for public school students. This could be done by enforcing current laws through neglect petitions or by requiring that children be immunized before participating in school sponsored programs. As most states require some filing to allow parents to homeschool their children, it would be easy to enact laws requiring that homeschooled children be immunized or exempted before completing registration.
This line of thinking - or rather, illogic - is similar to that of the recent push for a mandated HPV vaccine for school children. The state has an interest in seeing that public school students are vaccinated because in the schools, large numbers of children are congregated in conditions which make it easy for diseases to spread quickly. There is a logical nexus between the state's action (requiring vaccinations) and the context of the requirement (enrolling in school). HPV, however, is not spread by casual contact, so there is no reason to require it in order to enroll a child in school. Likewise, homeschooled children are not more likely to spread diseases while "in school" than anyone else is at any other time. If the government has the authority to require homeschooled children to be vaccinated, does it not then have the authority to require anyone and everyone to be vaccinated?
HT: Saying No To Vaccines
And for a related article, Parents Use Religion to Avoid Vaccines.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
National Blog Posting Month
Anyhow, I'm in! If you haven't noticed, I am currently posting maybe every week or two. It's not that there's a lack of important things going which need to be blogged about, either. On the contrary; sometimes I feel overwhelmed by bad news and the amount of cruddy stuff still going on in the world.
I'm qualifying my participation by saying that since I have three blogs, I only plan to post to one of the three each day. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Where does your candidate stand on health care?
Health08.org
One caveat: looks like the information was compiled from the candidates' websites, speeches, debates, etc. (sources are listed) rather than from questionnaires submitted to the candidates, so one cannot rule out bias on the part of the information-gatherer.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Why we have EMTALA
The incident happened in August 2006, but was reported in Japan on Thursday in the wake of the case of a 38-year-old woman who suffered a miscarriage last month after ten hospitals refused to admit her and her ambulance collided with another car.
The cases have raised concerns about shortcomings in emergency care for pregnant women, an growing worry as Japan grapples with declining birthrates - among the lowest in the world - and a burgeoning elderly population.
...
Last year, a pregnant woman in western Japan died after being refused admission by about 20 hospitals that said they were full.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Ignore Us At Your Peril
I just want to remind the media and all of the Presidential candidates not to dismiss us. We "Mommy bloggers" are a force that can't be denied. We are well educated and vocal. We are doctors and lawyers and journalists and political followers. We care deeply about the future of our children and this country. We have checkbooks and blogs and we aren't afraid to use them.
Take heed, candidates. We may be mothers and we may be women, but we will not be ignored.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Planning a Protest
Well, I'm back from the Applebee's protest. I'm exhausted! We had 30 adults (moms, dads, and grandparents) and over 50 babies and children. But no press :( despite all my efforts at sending out press releases this week. One station (NBC5) did carry a blurb on the six o'clock news, just using the information we provided, but did not have the personnel to send a crew out to the protest itself. Numbers are still coming in, but looks like nationwide we had nearly 2000 people at 101 events in 43 states.Oh, but the really exciting news (at least to me) is that I finally bought the shirt I have wanted for at least two years. Mine looks just like the photo and has "I Make Milk. What's Your Super Power" embroidered on it. I bought it at Granola Threads, and the owner, Keri, was most helpful in making sure I received it in time for today's event. You can buy shirts with the same slogan at Cafe Press and the like, but they are about as expensive and not nearly such good quality. Plus, it was on sale.
One interesting thing about planning this protest is that I learned a bit more about First Amendment law. Perhaps I should say "re-learned" - I'm pretty sure it was on the bar exam. I interfaced with an assistant city attorney, a police lieutenant, and a patrol officer. I discussed easements. I read through the Arlington Municipal Code and now know how to apply for a parade permit, should I ever wish to organize a parade. I didn't speak to the press, but I learned how to write and send out a press release. And I sharpened my skills at organizing people, by doing it and by watching others do it. I took the lead when no one else was willing. I'm looking at this big picture. I'm adding tools to my toolbox.
Friday, September 07, 2007
Eatin' Good in the Neighborhood?

Applebee's restaurants are the target of a nationwide protest to take place this Saturday, September 8, 2007, at 12:00 noon (local time), in a response to an incident that took place last June in Kentucky. While discreetly feeding her baby at an Applebee's restaurant, Brooke Ryan was asked to either leave or cover her baby's head with a blanket, in violation of 2006 Ky. Acts, Chap. 80 , which reads in part:
No person shall interfere with a mother breastfeeding her child in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be.
Shortly following the incident, Ms. Ryan retained the services of a lawyer who contacted Thomas and King, the company that owns and operates the Lexington Applebee's location. Nearly 2 months later, the company responded with a letter stating "we are considering keeping blankets in the restaurants for use by breastfeeding mothers that may not have them readily available,"...
Our Applebee's is not nursing friendly... (Azuroo)
Breastfeeding Advocates Sending Nationwide Message to Applebee's (Breastfeeding 123)
Applebees Hates Babies, Try Hooters Instead (Breeders are Eaters Too!)
Applebee's accuses nursing mother of having "an agenda" (Human Lactation Information)
Applebee’s Nurse-In, Nurse-Out (The International Breastfeeding Symbol)
Breastfeeding nurse-out Saturday (Journal of a North American Celtic Bobtail)
August is World Breast-feeding Awareness Month (Kentucky Women)
Applebee's Ticks off Nursing Moms or "I Won't Be Eating Good at THAT Neighboorhood" (The Lactivist)
Applebee's Nurse In (Mama Knows Breast)
Eating not-so-good in the neighborhood (The Mother Tounge)
Nationwide nurse-ins at Applebee's (Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog)
Eatin’ Good In The Neighborhood? (My Little Tribe)
Applebee's Nurse-in (Nursing Your Kids)
Wear Your Burka if You Want to Nurse at Applebees (The Twinkies)
Eatin’ Stupid in the Neighborhood (Women's Health News)
If I missed anything good, leave me a comment.
