The South Carolina Board of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is attempting to rewrite the current Licensed Midwife (LM) regulations with inclusions that are not evidence based nor in the best interest of the patient.

These include but are not limited to:
*Not allowing a LM to attend a birth after 41 weeks gestation. Gestation can vary greatly and putting such an early arbitrary date helps no one.
*Not allowing a LM to attend a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). This one really makes me angry as a c-section mama. Midwives scope of practice includes the care of low risk pregnancies and attendance of low risk births. DHEC is essentially saying that THEY know better than ME or my DOCTOR if I am low risk or not. That is not their call to make. They don't know me or my history, a history of cesarean alone does not make me high risk. Informed consent is critical, but I have the right to choose what risks I am comfortable taking.
*Not allowing a LM to administer antihemmorragics until AFTER a very heavy blood loss. Again, this is DHEC saying they know better than the midwife in the situation what is best for the patient. This is simply not true.

Here is what I can gather about the DHEC board using their own website:
Allen Amsler, Chairman; CEO of a construction company
Mark S. Lutz, Vice Chairman; administrator at an OBGYN office, holds an MBA in Organizational Development
Ann B. Kirol, DDS, Secretary; Dentist
R. Kenyon Wells; owns a medical supply company
Charles M. Joye, II, P.E.; CEO of an engineering firm
L. Clarence Batts, Jr; chemical engineer
John O. Hutto, Sr, MD; cardiologist
William Lee Hewitt, III; owns a real estate firm

While I have no doubt these are good people who together can solve many issues, birth is not one of them. Not one of these board members are equipped with any sort of formal training on childbirth, especially not out of hospital birth. And on top of that they have NO RIGHT to make medical decisions for me or anyone else for that matter. Period.

DHEC continues to put politics above people and it has got to stop. It is those who bear children who are the consumers of birth services; whether they be at a hospital, at a birth center, or in our own homes is OUR decision to make. No one else's. The women, and men, who actually work with home birth and birth center patients are the ones who know the nuances of out of hospital birth best. We, the undersigned, assert that the Midwifery Advisory Council are the ones who should be writing the regulations.