“Lay Midwives Should Not Give Medications”
By Danell Swim
April 25, 2008
These lay midwives are not necessarily college graduates and while they may be credentialed by a number of professional organizations, they do not have the level of medical training of certified nurse midwives. Most of them are trained through apprenticeships, not through formal university-based programs.
And they shouldn’t be prescribing medications.
But Maine’s almost two dozen lay midwives went to the Statehouse this session and asked for just that — the privilege of prescribing a group of emergency drugs and other substances.
The Legislature granted their wish and Gov. John Baldacci has just unwisely signed the bill.
Now, lay midwives can prescribe and administer potentially dangerous prescription drugs and other medical treatments.
They can give newborns Vitamin K injections, which if done the wrong way can cause life-threatening bleeding. They can administer oxygen which, if given in large amounts can cause blindness in children.
They can give oxytocin to a mother who is hemorrhaging which, if not monitored correctly, can cause the uterus to rupture.
We have no quarrel with mothers-to-be choosing to be attended at home births by lay midwives. That’s a choice they are free to make.
But those lay midwives should practice to their level of education, which does not include the medical background to prescribe medication.
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I would have to argue that many, if not all, of these midwives’ level of education does include the training necessary to prescribe and administer this extremely limited group of medications. Just because they may have received this training outside of a conventional university setting, does not mean they are untrained.