THIS IS ALSO kind of old news. (Sorry friends.) But surely it’s not too late for me to express my deep sadness over the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital in downtown Manhattan after serving the public for 160 years. St. Vincent’s was the only hospital in NYC that supported home births, and since closing, it is now be illegal for more than half of New York City’s licensed midwives to deliver babies at home.
A blurb from New York Daily News:
An overlooked casualty of the closure is the loss of an agreement between St. Vincent’s and 22 of the city’s midwives, seven of whom practiced home births.
State law requires midwives to partner with a doctor or hospital in order to practice, and St. Vincent’s was the only hospital in the city that supported home births
Well, I was a baby “caught” (as I’ve sometimes heard the expression go) by a dear midwife (for whom I’m named) back in the days when all home births were illegal in the state of New York. I hope that the New York’s Health and Hospital Corporation will find a solution for the many expectant mothers who were planning on delivering their babies at home that are now stranded without an ob-gyn’s support.
I’m a big supporter of the movement for women to choose home birth. Let’s hope this legal snarl in NYC is only temporary!
(photo by Parenting Poppy via Marvelous Kiddo)
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My Ted was born by midwives in St. Vincent’s in NYC! It was a wonderful hospital and that first night in my Greenwich Village hospital room there was a big full moon just over the rooftops of the village. Thanks for making this post.