By Toby G. Hayes

It used to be that doctors were only for sick people. Not pregnant people.

"Back in 1900 everyone knew what a midwife was and no one had a problem with that," said Heather Johnston, a midwife in Ogden.

Now people rely on hospitals and doctors, she said, just as Brigham Young predicted.

In 1872 Young told a crowd of LDS faithful that "it will be so in a little time that not a woman in all Israel will dare to have a baby unless she can have a doctor by her." They shook their heads in disbelief. Having a baby at home made much more sense than having it with a doctor. Doctors were for sick people.

The tables have turned across the country and in Utah.
Having a baby at home is like being a part of the underground railroad, everyone involved must keep quiet for fear of being found out, Johnston said. Because they take away business from hospitals and encourage natural childbirth, midwives are often harassed by medical professionals. In Cache Valley, there isn’t even a midwife to be found.

For Johnston, the harassment got so bad after she began taking her patients to one Utah hospital for complications. She had to tell the doctors and nurses that she was the expectant mothers’ sister so she could stay with her patients to offer comfort and support as labor progressed, just as any midwife does. Now she doesn’t even bother going back there, but stays clear of that hospital, and others if at all possible.

At one time there were two midwives in Logan, but they have been run out of town, threatened by the fear of lawsuits and prosecution for practicing medicine without a license. In 1996, the Utah Legislature passed a law which updated medical definitions. It stated that even birth is a medical condition.

"Everything is considered medical," Johnston said.

Since midwives are not certified by the state, anything other than attending a birth and providing emotional support to the mother can be construed as practicing medicine without a license. Even listening to the baby’s heartbeat or providing oxygen to the mother.

Johnston is lobbying in the Legislature to get midwives certified in Utah and allow them to carry oxygen and administer certain drugs, such as Pitocin, which helps stop post labor hemorrhaging. Being able to use medicine and oxygen in labor will provide even more safety to mothers, she said.

"Midwives will feel more free and more open," Johnston said.

Historically, midwives offer emotional support, often having had home births themselves. They monitor fetal heart rate, use massage techniques to ease labor and position the baby for faster delivery. Because most midwives have some medical training, they typically know neo-natal CPR and can readily assess and often correct any abnormalities which can occur during labor. They are there for the mother and baby, to make sure the beauty and peace of the special day remains intact as a new family is born.

Even after 10 years she has been a practicing midwife, Johnston still looks forward to the spiritual feelings she gets to share with the new parents at each birth she attends.

"The thing that strikes me about all midwives is...they truly want people to have the best birth experience they can have," she said. "We see how birth changes people’s lives."

Sarah Thimmes had her first baby, Sophia, now age 4, in the hospital in Logan. Her bad experiences are what drove her to want to have her next child at home. She is due in May.

"I really don’t like hospitals in a lot of ways," she said. In the hospital "women miss out on a lot, like the bonding with their baby and the time spent alone with their family. We need that freedom to do things the way we want."

When Sophia was born, the nurses kept wheeling her away for tests and tried to bottle feed her, despite Thimmes’ requests not to do so.

"That takes away the chance for bonding," she said. "That’s not happening this time."

According to a Jan. 13 article in the Tahlequah (Okla.) Daily Press, there have been 50 studies in the last twenty years on the safety of home birth. The studies concluded that home birth is as safe, if not safer, than hospital birth.
Barbara Lybarger will attest to that.

"They started cutting me and I started screaming," she said. "I could feel everything."

Lybarger now lives in Logan, but two years ago she was at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, giving birth to her first child.

"They continued cutting and I continued screaming," Lybarger said.

Lybarger was dilated to 10 cm and ready to deliver her daughter Ilana when doctors told her not to push yet, that they would be right back. An hour and a half later the doctor returned and ordered an emergency C-section since she had been fully dilated for so long. But as she went under the knife, the epideral had temporarily worn off, or reached what is called an epideral window. Lybarger could feel everything.

"Everyone was just yelling at each other," she said. "I wanted out of the hospital so bad."

As the doctors panicked, they hastily chose to sedate her.
"It’s hard to describe what it’s like to see your wife being cut open and my unborn child being torn out," said Mike Lybarger.

For her own safety, they had strapped her to the operating table. As she woke up with her baby gone and not knowing where she was, Lybarger tried to break free from her restraints. But as she struggled to get free, a team of nurses barged in to hold her down. In their rush to restrain her, one of the nurses punched Lybarger in the eye. Her left eye lid now permanently droops. The muscles aren’t strong enough to keep it fully open.

"I’m horrified of doctors now," she said. "I’m scared to death of them, so I decided to become a midwife."

Lybarger wants to make the birth experience better for others. This fall she will be enrolling in the Utah College of Midwifery in Orem. Though most of her work will be done through correspondence, Lybarger can’t stay in Cache Valley. To graduate from the program, students must attend 50 births, half of which have to be home births.

Home birth in Logan is a vicious circle of desolation from trained midwives. Without a solid Cache Valley base for home births, Lybarger’s staying here would be almost impossible.

Cost is one factor in people choosing a midwife over a hospital. The cost of a hospital bed, doctors, nurses and medications can easily drive the price over the $8,000 mark. Add a C-section to that and you’re looking at close to $14,000. That could pay for four years of college tuition.

Midwives often charge no more than $1,000, which usually includes pre-natal and post-natal care. Plus, midwives are often covered by insurance.

Are they practicing medicine without a license? Utah is not really sure. But as trends have moved towards hospital birth in the past decades, midwifery is fighting to make a comeback and be heard in a state where home birth was once the norm.

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