{"id":1620991,"date":"2022-08-25T17:48:42","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T21:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1620991"},"modified":"2022-08-25T17:48:54","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T21:48:54","slug":"why-are-hospitals-making-women-give-birth-in-hallways-instead-of-backing-vital-birthing-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-are-hospitals-making-women-give-birth-in-hallways-instead-of-backing-vital-birthing-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are Hospitals Making Women Give Birth In Hallways Instead Of Backing Vital Birthing Centers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-are-hospitals-making-women-give-birth-in-hallways-instead-of-backing-vital-birthing-centers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1620991&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>As most young parents can attest, having a baby these days is a stressful affair. There\u2019s a multitude of risks to be concerned about during the pregnancy \u2014 which doctors are quite happy to report, however minuscule \u2014 and it\u2019s all but assured that the delivery will be a long, uncomfortable slog that will cost a gargantuan sum of money. Added to this is the unnatural and dehumanizing environment of the hospital, where patients are treated with the same consideration and sensitivity as a lifeless product on an assembly line.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s for reasons like these that parents who can have their children with a midwife at home or at a birthing center are so grateful and enthusiastic about it. Whereas most hospitals are loud and stressful environments, most birthing centers are homey, warm, and quite relaxing. And whereas personnel at the hospital prioritize efficiency and toeing the line on processes, the midwives and nurses at a birthing center prioritize comfort and keeping the birthing process as calm as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, as Covid revealed, what\u2019s good for human beings is usually bad for established medical institutions. This is illustrated in the recent court case <a href=\"https:\/\/pacificlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2022-08-17-chubb-v-boyd-stamped-complaint.pdf\"><em>Chub<\/em><\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/pacificlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2022-08-17-chubb-v-boyd-stamped-complaint.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">b<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/pacificlegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2022-08-17-chubb-v-boyd-stamped-complaint.pdf\"><em> v. Noggle<\/em><\/a> in which Katie Chubb, the director of Augusta Birth Center, filed a complaint against Caylee Noggle, the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/midwife-clinic-sues-georgia-after-local-hospitals-block-its-opening_4671939.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> in the Epoch Times, the birth center had shut down after \u201cGeorgia denied the Certificate of Need (CON) required for the clinic to operate when all three local hospitals refused to sign direct transfer agreements with Chubb\u2019s center.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Without a CON, birthing centers aren\u2019t allowed to open, and without those transfer agreements, birthing centers can\u2019t receive the CON.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Like many other states, Georgia requires that birthing centers meet certain guidelines to ensure safety and fit with the needs of the communities in which they are located. For this reason, most birthing centers are staffed with fully certified midwives and nurses and are usually near a hospital if a mother or baby experiences complications and needs emergency treatment\u2014hence the requirement for a \u201ctransfer agreement\u201d with the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Denying birthing centers CONs effectively gives hospitals the ability to \u201cveto\u201d the operation of a birthing center. And whether a birthing center receives a transfer agreement largely determines whether they are eligible for a CON.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In other words, the Georgia Department of Community Health relies on the hospital administrators\u2019 opinion on whether the birthing center should be allowed to exist. In actuality, it should be the other way around, and the department should compel hospitals to cooperate with safe and compliant birthing centers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to the details of the case, the Augusta Birth Center met Georgia\u2019s parameters and was set to serve an area with a critical need for more childbirth care. According to the law firm representing Chubb, the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), the childbirth outcomes in the Augusta area were abysmal and local nurses would tell \u201cstories of a lack of beds and women giving birth in hospital hallways.\u201d Moreover, the closest birthing center was over two hours away.<\/p>\n<p>If the clinic was allowed to open, the Augusta Birth Center would have allowed women with low-risk pregnancies a more natural, far less unpleasant alternative that would allow them to have their children on their own terms. A young mother herself, Chubb experienced what it was like to have to travel so far just to have a non-hospital birth, and this motivated her to fix this problem by opening her own clinic.<\/p>\n<p>The actual basis for the local hospitals denying a transfer agreement \u2014 also known as a \u201chospital veto\u201d \u2014 is unclear. According to an emailed statement from PLF attorney Josh Polk, the hospitals could claim that \u201cnew services are unnecessary\u201d or \u201cthat birth centers are unsafe,\u201d but both rationales are \u201cfalse and contrary to the conclusions reached by the Georgia legislature.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>By Georgia\u2019s own standards, the birthing center was more than necessary for relieving childbirth care, and it met all the safety guidelines, which, Polk added, required a great deal of time and money.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to Polk, \u201cKatie and her team expended over a year, hired an attorney, secured financing, entered into a property purchase agreement, brought several medical professionals on board, and spent thousands preparing and submitting the CON application \u2014 only to be denied because the local providers don\u2019t want any competition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This means that the most likely reason the hospitals vetoed the Augusta Birth Center was that \u201cthey are in direct competition for childbirth care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite offering mediocre care for mothers, hospital directors nevertheless wanted to maintain their control in Augusta. Although the power to veto the existence of new birthing centers is intended to promote high health and safety standards, this policy leaves out the crucial fact that hospitals are businesses with owners who want to make money.<\/p>\n<p>If there\u2019s a conflict of interests between what makes money and what helps patients, the former will win out almost every time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Based on the evidence, Chubb and the Augusta Birth Center should win their case and be allowed to operate. This would be a just victory since it\u2019s clear that Chubb did everything that was required of her and nonetheless fell victim to entrenched interests that shut her down simply because they could. She could then achieve her dream of helping mothers have a better experience bringing life into the world, and mothers could make use of the center\u2019s services in full confidence that it\u2019s safe and legal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More importantly, however, it would be a victory for mothers. It\u2019s well past time that mothers everywhere have options for how they handle their pregnancies and births. There are still too many parents being subjected to impatient doctors who are all too ready to induce them with drugs, numb them with shots, drag out labor, and hold them captive in the hospital for days on end.<\/p>\n<p>Along with a host of other factors, this brutal approach to childbirth has understandably frightened many women out of starting families. Fortunately, birthing centers and the midwives who staff them are taking the trauma of childbirth and restoring it to something exhausting but beautiful. In the pursuit of promoting a <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmind.org\/features\/a-human-event\/living-dobbs\/\">culture<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/americanmind.org\/features\/a-human-event\/living-dobbs\/\">of family and life<\/a>, they should be encouraged and supported, especially when the self-interested medical complex tries to stop them.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher in the Dallas area. He holds an MA in humanities and an MEd in educational leadership. He is the senior editor of The Everyman and has written essays for The Federalist, The American Conservative, and The Imaginative Conservative, as well as the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Follow him on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MeyratAuguste\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As most young parents can attest, having a baby these days is a stressful affair. There\u2019s a multitude of risks to be concerned about during the pregnancy \u2014 which doctors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1620991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1620991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1620991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1620991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1620991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}