A long list of Bloomington residents is calling on IU Health to create a certified midwifery program at its Bloomington hospital. The group is called Bloomington Consumers For Birth Choices and gathered more than 1,000 signatures in support of the effort.
And IU Health says it's listening.
High Demand For Midwives In Bloomington
Mary Helen Ayres is at the home of one of her clients, checking in on a newborn baby and two new parents.
There's the standard weights and measurements, making sure baby and mom are doing well physically.
But Ayres spends just as much time checking up on how the new mom is feeling emotionally. She works as a midwife in Bloomington and offers her services in a home setting.
If choices at the hospital were consumer-driven, then we would have certified nurse midwives at the hospital.
"Midwifery, especially midwifery in settings where the time and need women want can be taken, midwifery is a very intimate service," Ayres says. "Woman to woman."
It's a service in high demand throughout the country for women who want minimally invasive healthcare and pregnancies without medical interventions.
Ayres specializes in home births, but says they're not for everyone. Women with riskier pregnancies may need the support that comes along with delivering in a hospital.
But those giving birth at IU Health Bloomington don't have the option of using a midwife right now.
"It's not surprising because if choices at the hospital were consumer-driven, then we would have certified nurse midwives at the hospital," Ayres says.
A group of Bloomington residents is trying to change that. It's a movement that started on Facebook when Julia Valliant learned there's no longer a practicing midwife at IU Health Bloomington. The news surprised and disappointed her because she relies on a midwife for all of her medical care.
"It's a wonderful, effective model of care and it's the standard of care in other places for midwives and physicians to work in collaborative practice for people who want that form of care," Valliant says.
No Midwifery Program At IU Health Bloomington
According to the American College of Nurse-Midwives, more than 94 percent of midwife-attended births occurred in hospitals. That option was available at IU Health Bloomington until 2014.
The Vice President of Marketing for the hospital says while IU Health didn't employ a midwife directly, a doctor on staff did.
Valliant says the families petitioning for change at the hospital want more than that.
"Specifically we'd like the hospital to have a group of midwives so they can support one another, back one another up and share the responsibilities of being on call for their clients and have a meaningful, reasonable quality of life for one another," she says.
Emily Wickersham is a new mother who chose to use a nurse midwife when she got pregnant. Her daughter was one of the last babies born at IU Health Bloomington with the help of a midwife.
I have a good friend that gave birth three weeks ago, she went to Indianapolis to have the midwife practice there deliver her baby.
"I have a good friend that gave birth three weeks ago, she went to Indianapolis to have the midwife practice there deliver her baby because it was so important to her to have a midwife," Wickersham says.
Former IU Health CFO Daniel Evans Jr. recently wrote a letter responding to the petition, saying IU Health Bloomington would eventually like to create such a program, but there are some obstacles.
In his letter, Evans says the hospital is grappling with a shortage of obstetricians because of retirements. It's trying to address the issue through recruitment.
Until that happens, Bloomington women wanting midwifery care in a hospital setting will have to look elsewhere.
Midwives currently work at at least two other IU health locations.
