I wonder if anyone out there knows the legal position around who is entitled to attend a woman when she is giving birth?
I'm not talking about being named as a birth partner, or what each individual hospital's policy is. Apparently there used to be a law preventing anyone giving medical treatment to a woman in labour except a qualified midwife or doctor, and the question has come up as to whether a healer, who is not a qualified midwife or doctor, can attend a woman in labour as a healer (not as a birth partner).
Hi
A woman can have a 'healer' with her if she so wishes as long as she is aware the midwives/medics do not recommend it as it is outside their sphere of practice and do not have enough knowledge or understanding to completely accept it. Therefore the woman needs to take responsibility for that side of her care. REMEMBER YOU ARE THERE AS A COMPLEMENTARY HEALTH PRACTITIONER AND NOT A MIDWIFE!
NICE do not recommend complementary therapies at all because of lack of evidence however they do recognise that more women are accessing them for pregnancy and labour and this view may hopefully change in the future.
Many units already offer complementary therapies where they have midwives trained, including myself, a reflexologist (the only one) and a acupuncture service with 3 midwives. I have had non midwife acupuncturists / reflexologists at births, mainly homebirths to add, and have asked them to work certain points i felt necessary at the time (before i had written NHS guidelines to enable me to work them myself) and they were more than willing to oblige. Birth partners also use childbirth homeopathy kits with no problem.
I believe that complementary health is an addition to and not a substitute for professional midwifery care and they can work well together in childbirth as long as the complementary health worker is competant and confident in this specialised in this area. I can't emphasize the importance of knowledge and recommend a specialist course for both the womans and practitioners benefit.
Hope that helps
A Midwife must attend a woman in labour but the woman can have whoever she likes to support her during this time. Most Midwives are not experts in complementary therapy however having said this most midwives will be happy to work alongside complementary therapists providing they are qualified in what they do and the woman and her partner are happy to have them there. As Cheryl says the woman takes responsibility for having the practitioner there and arranges it all. I have attended many home births ( as a Midwife) where homeopathy and acupuncture have been used with good success. I think the important thing to remember is what the woman wants. There needs to be much more reserach into this area, but understandably without the research the medical profession is unlikely to support complementary therapies, catch 22 really.
I'm just repeating something I read, so forgive me if it's irrelevant and/or innacurate.
But...
seeing as it's legal for a woman to give birth on her own, but illegal for a woman to birth with company if there isn't a midwife among them (or something like that), I'm sure your prescence would be welcomed at the birth as a professional, as long as there are midwives present.
From what I have read though, it's very much down to local authority's discretion as to whether they pursue these cases of "illegal" birth. Some births are so quick they happen with just a panicky dad present (illegal), but where do you start to prosecute in such an innocent situation? Other mums have had themselves investigated after having had a legal birth, simply because they have kicked against the system so much during their pregnancies (quite rightly), that the LA think they must have cheated the systems anyway!
So in a nutshell, if there's a midwife present, you'll be fine. If there isn't, then you may have to do some more research.
Hope that helps, Chris!
Love,
Sarah xxxx