Two weeks ago I sent this letter off to my local newspaper, Chico Enterprise Record.  This morning a friend called me to say it had been published.  They cut out a bit, but the main message is there.  This is a bad move for EnloeMedicalCenter -- it shows that despite the practices the facility is trying to implement, by losing their option for midwifery, they don't really care about patient-centered care and holistic alternatives to harsh (over)medicalization when it comes to their mothers and babies.  All I envision is, these new, beautifully spacious and accommodating rooms, with private bathrooms, tubs, and a nice place for a partner to sleep, while a woman does not have the option of a practitioner whose goal is to be "with women," during the birth experience.

Here it is:

Chico is losing a valuable resource. Soon, there will be no certified-nurse midwives delivering babies at EnloeMedicalCenter. Enloe has painstakingly taken the difficult steps toward becoming a baby-friendly hospital. This is an arduous process, and once achieved, it will place Enloe on a list of only 77 U.S. hospitals that can boast of such status. This program "promotes, protects and supports breastfeeding." The core tenets include avoiding artificial nipples and unneeded supplements, and keeping mothers and babies together during their stay. This is best for babies.

Enloe has recently adopted the Planetree Philosophy designed to treat patients in a kind, compassionate way, and to put their needs first. This is best for patients.

The midwifery model of care focuses on birth as a normal life event, not a medical crisis where a woman needs saving, perhaps from an iatrogenic intervention. All over the world midwives safely help babies into life, and it has been this way since the dawn of man. Midwives in our area provide safe, gentle, kind and compassionate birth options — whether a certified midwife at a hospital or a community midwife at home. This is best for women. It is unfortunate that Enloe will no longer have a place for families choosing midwifery care. — Stacie Bingham, Chico

For more information:

Health Care Crisis Claims Chico Midwifery

Enloe Addressing Provider Squeeze

Midwives Should not be Eliminated

Letter to Midwifery Patients and Supporters



If you are in support of women having the option of a midwifery-assisted birth at Enloe, please take a minute to let the facility know:

Patient Service Excellence

I want to empower her. I hear this a lot. I understand the idea. And yet, I maintain, you cannot empower someone. Where I think we often go wrong is, we say empower, but what we really mean is overpower.

Within the modes of discourse, I have often been a fan of The Essay of Definition. Coupled with this simplistic, overused style, I will add a little pet named, Compare and Contrast.

(Now, the obligatory introduction.) According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, empower means to give official authority or legal power to, or to promote the self-actualization or influence of. Common use: I want to empower her to have a great birth experience.

Many of us would like to think we are such convincingly dynamic childbirth educators, doulas, empowered-women-who-have-had-great-birth-experiences – that simply through our shared thoughts and feelings, we can convince a woman to come over from the Dark Side and want to have something like we had or believed should be had.

To affect with overwhelming intensity the way a woman feels and interject one’s own agenda is not empowering, but overpowering. Likewise, to overcome by superior force her intended desires in regards to birth is to overpower her. When, overcome by passion, zest, zeal, and one’s own pre-conceived notions about the way a woman should birth, one may begin to provide…more power than is needed or desirable. Yet these are the ways we often try to empower.

This is just not reality-based.

Empowerment is not giving a woman your personal tools and teaching her how to build your perfect birth. Empowerment is opening the shed, allowing her to become familiar with all the tools held within, and then stepping back and confidently trusting she will build for herself the birth that is right for her, her baby, and her family.