Picketing, Day 1

Day 1 of picketing went well! We had good support: moms and dads, babies and kiddos. It was covered by two news stations, one of them even doing a live report.   We had rain - some of the first in a long while - but we all stayed on.

We had various people honking and showing support. Someone even stopped and said they had a midwife many years ago with her two kids. 

We are hopefully showing Union that their decision will be impacting many families, and that midwifery care is an option women from ALL walks of life choose and cannot be replaced by care from an OB.  

Our desire would be to continue the midwifery services at Union.  It has been a wonderful program that has served many families.  We made the decision to picket due in part to Union not answering our more specific questions about the contract not being renewed and why.  Our goal was to find out more information as to WHY the contract was not being renewed, so we could work out a solution that would keep the midwives there.  It is currently not feasible to expect another private physician to pick them up immediately, to help the many patients who are left without a midwife and are currently pregnant.  Union's fast decision led to these women being left without their chosen provider during their pregnancy.  While having a private provider has worked in other cities, and may work in Terre Haute, it is something that takes time.  Comparing Terre Haute to cities like Indianapolis and Bloomington, in terms of midwifery practices, does not make sense.  We are not these cities, size wise, demographic wise, etc.

So - we will continue our campaign to support the midwives and hope that we can keep midwifery services in the Wabash Valley!

Links: There are two news stories here - make sure to click the link under the video to see both.  One was our Noon Live Interview:

http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/local/Parents-protest-outside-Union-Hospital

Our other news story:

http://mywabashvalley.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=142545

Website

We have a new website!

Check out:
https://sites.google.com/site/wmmterrehaute/

A Brief History Of Our Journey So Far

On August 3, 2010 , a patient of the Heartland Midwives (who is due at the end of October) was informed that the midwives would no longer be in practice as of October 29, 2010.  Union Hospital (their employer) was terminating their contract at that point.  As news of this spread, their was widespread disbelief among families in Terre Haute and throughout the Wabash Valley.  We wanted to know - WHY?  What was really happening?  Is there anything we can do?

From these initial questions, a group called the Friends of Wabash Valley Midwifery was formed.  Seeing similarities with a situation that occurred in North Carolina (see http://www.wheresmymidwife.org), we got in touch with the women there and became the Terre Haute Chapter of Where's My Midwife?

Things rapidly took off.

On August 14, 2010, the Tribune Star newspaper in Terre Haute had a story about the situation.  Here is the story:   
Article #1 -  http://tribstar.com/news/x1316176442/Union-Hospital-ending-midwife-nurse-services

A petition was created to show support for keeping midwives in Terre Haute.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/terrehautemidwives/.

We created a FaceBook page to gain support:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=142794109077400

We had our first meeting of "Friends of Wabash Valley Midwifery", which was covered by the local Tribune Star 
Article #2 - http://tribstar.com/news/x239934446/Group-eyes-support-for-midwives-in-Terre-Haute



We got together and created a letter, which we sent to Union Hospital, as well as local media and government: 
Our letter to the hospital - https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B__E7-XSVQ1cOGU3NWNkMTktNGYwYi00NzMwLTlkMGYtMzM3NDQ2MTRlNWUx&hl=en
 
We awaited their response.  In the meantime, one of our local tv stations did an interview with us about our group, and the response from Union Hospital (which we received right as the interview took place. 
TV Interview - http://mywabashvalley.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=139845


We read their response...which raised a lot of new questions as well as not answering a lot of our original questions...

Their Response - https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1eJjqeo0Mp2aKSRgvYiTUftB-c_U9jOIATeWHT_4u-94&hl=en
(note the use of "midwiFes" - makes us wonder about a place that does not even know the correct term ("midwiVes"))


We got together and crafted our response to Union Hospital, once again asking them to respond within 2 business days. 
Our second letter:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B__E7-XSVQ1cOTU0ZDY5YTktMjNkMS00MWUzLWIyY2QtZWY3NmE5MGVhY2Ex&hl=en


We have not heard from Union Hospital since.  


Our next step is to picket Union Hospital.  
sign up to help us:
 http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q3HZ3PZ

We want to let Union Hospital know that this is not just about the Heartland Midwives.  It is about choice - women deserve the right to choose their healthcare provider:  for pregnancy, postnatal, well-women checks.  It is not about income or insurance.  Midwives cannot simply be replaced by OBs or residents.   The care is not the same.

Please join us on our journey.