A midwife accused by the Order of endangering mothers is summoned this Friday. Her patients claim their support for the professional.
A midwife practicing home deliveries is summoned Friday before the Council of the Order, which accuses her, according to her supporters, of having “endangered” mothers. Isabelle Koenig, liberal midwife for three years near Tours, after 32 years in hospital, is accused of having in particular “delayed in transferring patients to the maternity ward” following complications and of having them “Endangered”. He is also accused of a lack of insurance. She risks radiation.
No complaints were filed from the mothers concerned. It was the hospital where three of his patients were transferred that made a report to the Council of the Order of Indre-et-Loire, which itself lodged a complaint. These patients have or were due to give birth at home, but they had to be transferred urgently to the maternity ward.
“She saved my life”
A collective was created, “Isabelle’s babies”, in order to defend the midwife. One of the patients concerned by a problematic home birth – she suffered a hemorrhage after giving birth at home at 11:25 p.m. in July 2016 – maintains that the midwife did contact an ambulance, but that the vehicle did not arrive until two hours later.
“I do not blame him at all, she says, quoted by AFP. On the contrary, she saved my life, if she had not agreed to follow me, I would have given birth alone (…). Isabelle should not be prosecuted, it is we who asked to give birth at home “, she explains, while defending a” personalized support where the human takes all its dimension “.
“Witch hunt”
For the collective, made up of a hundred members, the implication of Isabelle is in reality a lawsuit against home childbirth and a “witch hunt” against those who practice it. Only about sixty midwives would still agree to perform home births in France, explains the collective. In question: “pressures” exerted on the profession, in particular by means of insurance contracts at the prohibitive cost, close to 25,000 euros, that is to say an average annual income.
Scheduled home births (DAA) are legal in France, although very little is done. There is no official census of these births; deliveries outside the maternity ward are estimated at less than 1%, an assessment that includes unannounced deliveries such as in fire trucks as well as those scheduled at home.
Giving birth at home is accessible to pregnant women who choose to do so, provided they are at low risk. The midwives who respond to this request do so within the framework of global support: the same professional follows the patient throughout her pregnancy and until after childbirth.
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