I’m a homebirth mom, Perinatal Mental Health Therapist, and Birth Doula in Fredericksburg, VA.
I wholeheartedly support midwives to practice at their full scope for the health and safety of the families they serve, including access to critical medications for birth and postpartum. As someone who works with a midwifery practice professionally, has experienced midwifery care personally, and offers counseling to persons during the perinatal period, I trust midwives, their training, their practice, their profession, and scope. Additionally, I trust birthing persons to make the best decisions for them regarding their prenatal and birth care. Birthing parents are best able to make these choices when midwives are able to practice at their full scope. So often I meet with parents who have experienced tremendous birth trauma and have desires midwifery care but have been denied largely due to concerns for access to some of these critical medications. The trauma these women experience impacts their mental health significantly as well as their ability to care for their babies and form attachments to their children, which we know has additional long term effects. Supporting midwives is supporting families and family values.