Dr. Elizabeth Allemann states that the state of Missouri is endangering the health and well-being of pregnant women and their children, especially moms who choose home birth.  Some media reports have recently “romanticized” the labor and birth process in private homes with a YouTube video of some home birth advocates. Women certainly have a right to choose where to deliver their babies. However, the state of Missouri would further endanger these women and their children by a return to the past by allowing the relatively unfettered practice of direct entry midwifery under the potentially life-threatening conditions and lack of appropriate safeguards in SB 1021. Certified Nurse Midwives are eligible to practice in Missouri under collaborative practice agreements with physicians capable of personally dealing with obstetrical problems such as shoulder dystocia, breech presentation, pre-eclampsia, diabetes and abnormal placentas such as placenta previa.  Direct entry midwives want to circumnavigate the rigorous training and education that CNMs are required to do: a baccalaureate degree in nursing and an internship in a hospital setting where they are exposed to a wide variety of high risk situations in collaboration with physicians.  Direct entry midwives, also known as certified professional midwives, lack this type of rigorous training and exposure. Allemann argues that Missouri should allow lesser trained midwives to be independently responsible for not just one patient — but two: a mother and her unborn baby. Read more