ON JAN. 20, my sister, Karen Hunter, was arrested, as her children watched, at her home in Glenarm in Baltimore County. Her crime: As a lay midwife she assisted in the birth of a baby who arrived still-born in December.
Did the parents of the dead infant order her arrested? No, in fact, the parents -- Cynthia and Johnny Morgan of Carroll County -- are appalled that she was arrested; they don't blame her for the death of their 13-pound son, Jonathan Caleb Morgan.
Her arrest came at the behest of authorities eager to close down the practices of all lay midwives. Maryland is one of 13 states where the practice of lay midwifery is illegal. Some 14 other states, including Pennsylvania, provide for licensing or some form of legal recognition of lay midwives. The rest of the states don't regulate lay midwives and have no laws forbidding them from practicing.
Under state law only certified nurse midwives -- registered nurses trained in midwifery -- may practice in Maryland. But most nurse midwives won't do home births. So couples wanting home births seek out lay midwives.
Because my sister is not a nurse, she was charged with practicing nursing without a license, misrepresenting herself as a nurse and two counts of reckless endangerment. She faces up to 12 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
But these charges raise this question: How did she misrepresent herself?
The Morgans were informed consumers who knew they were contracting with a person who had not gone to nursing school. They chose to have the birth at home, attended by Karen because she is well-known in the community as being a caring, competent and trained lay midwife who has attended more than 145 births over the past eight years without incident.
Karen has delivered the babies of physicians, nurses, chiropractors and, perhaps most evident of her competence -- certified nurse midwives.
In this age of high health care costs, lay midwives provide safe home births and nine months of maternity care for a fraction of the cost of a doctor-assisted delivery at a hospital. This is a welcome service for poor families who lack adequate insurance and for others who simply would prefer an at-home birth. Further, if people are willing to use lay midwives why not let them?
Legislating birthing methods is government interference into our personal lives at its worst. If a mother cannot even chose the manner in which she gives birth, how can she be assured that her child will live in a world that allows personal freedom in the most intimate aspects of human experience?
Those who value a woman's right to choose abortion and those who are pro-life should support the lay midwives who work so hard to bring babies into the world safely. After all, this is one issue that embodies both ideas: the birth of a child and the parents' right to choose to have that child as they see fit.
Joe Otterbein writes from Shrewsbury Borough, Pa.