So I am pleasantly surprised at the number of new comments that have rolled in over the weekend. It seems that Paula has contacted her clients and asked them to come put positive comments on the blog. Great- that is fantastic that she has some clients who are willing to come forward. However, I challenge Paula to contact those families who have been disrupted by her care and ask them to come forward in truth. If she is willing to try and build up a case for herself, as if what I am putting in the blog is not true, then I challenge her to come forward and say so. If she thinks that the three cases that are being investigated are untrue or false, then bring those families out! Do they agree with you? Or would they be upset and angry over how you cared for them? yes its easy to get those families who has easy, normal births to come forward with their experience. But how about the ones who had shoulder dystocias or breech or traumatic transfers? The ones who cry when they think about their experience. The ones who vow to never have a home birth again, much less have another child.
If Paula is really interested in the truth, then why doesn't she tell the truth? If you tell your client you live in Napa but really you live in Anguin, that is a 30-45 minutes difference in driving time. If someone expects you to arrive half hour after they call and you don't show up until 5 minutes before the birth, is that properly supporting someone? If you rely on your assistants to set everything up for you and you don't conveniently show up for the birth until the moment of birth, is that properly supporting that family when you could have been there earlier?
If you tell someone that you are a trained midwife and can resusitate a newborn who isn't breathing, you should be able to do it right? That family is relying on your expertise in an emergency. So, is not having your oxygen tank set up correctly truly supporting this family? If the equipment is not set up right and the correct mask is not on the equipment, is that going to properly resusitate the newborn? No, it isnt. And it sure won't bring that baby back around either. So instead, you have to fiddle around with the equipment at the last minute, waiting for the EMTs to arrive who then actually admisinter proper resusitation maneuvers and get the baby breathing. Did they have equipment that she did not have access to? No. what they did have was knowledge and were properly prepared. That is the difference. Proper education and proper preparation.
Does Paula truly have both of those things? My answer is no.
17 comments:
I agree. We need to hear both sides. I keep trying to tell my sister's side. She had a "traumatic transfer". She cried when she thought about what happened to her. She would have another homebirth if she could, but her uterus is too scarred. So, she'll be having a planned cesarean next time. But she knows Paula and her staff did everything they could.
Where are the facts and faces to back up your claims that she is incompetent? You talk about her equipment not being ready. Is it hearsay? Or did you witness it? Where can we go to thoroughly research what has happened?
Also, Paula did not call in her clients to do this. A friend said she saw this blog, I found it and then called another friend. Paula does not know we are doing this. And I am keeping an open mind. If we have more children, we would have another homebirth. Of course, I want to have full knowledge of who my provider is and what their limitations are. I guess I'm just not seeing the gross negligence you are. I'm just trying to post what my experience with Paula has been.
Just so you know, Paula has made absolutely zero mention of this blog to myself or my other friends who have used her as a midwife. I found this on my own accord.
In hindsight, I honestly wish that I had not found this site and feel now that my comments are simply fueling the fire of anger and slander against a truely wonderful woman. I realize that the mediator of this site has complete control of what info is seen and used.
While I am truly sorry that there have been a few people who have had a poor experience with her - God, I couldn't imagine the pain, anger and heartache if something had gone wrong at one of my births with Paula (or any midwife) - I'm sure I'd be looking to point fingers, place blame, and get revenge. But, the truth is, there have been hundreds of beautiful, wonderful babies born at Paula's hands and there are hundreds of women whose lives have been changed by her loving and skilled care. I couldn't imagine my life without her her right now.
So, with that said, I will from now on choose to avoid the negativity of this site and refrain from visiting again. There is no need to publically slander her. If there are, in fact, investigations going on that may lead to disciplinary measures, fine. I would not want to stop it from happening because I firmly believe that midwives should be held to a high standard of responsibility.
But, from my personal experience, and the experiences of many friends - including those who had transfers, our feelings remain consistant that she has always been honest and has maintained the highest level of honesty and professionalism.
I have personal experience with a shoulder dystocia during labor with Paula as my attending midwife. She handled and evaluated the situation with quick, skillful thinking and was able to position me in appropriate positions outside of the birth tub, and guide the labor and birth in order to successfully free the shoulder and my baby was born perfectly fine and healthy. And, at each of my births with her, all equipment was set up and ready to be used in case of emergency.
Because the comments are left anonymously, I am assuming that these have been left by the same 'voice'? Thank you for your opinions and for being honest. Again, I am glad that she has managed a few births well and had some good outcomes. I am also glad that your sister is alive and healthy, although unable to birth again naturally. I do not wish to anger anyone or slander anyone. I only wish to make light of the voices of families who have sat back and thought about their births and wondered if Paula was doing everything she could? Or if she could have done more? Maybe some families who, after researching and asking questions, figured out that what they were told was not true and that things 'might' have gone differently. Its not for me to say. They have to bring their own voice to the table on their terms. This site is just an outlet for those women/families who want to be heard.
I have been hodling off on making any comments on this site - and, this will be my only one.
If there truely have been situations of negligence that warrent investigation and disciplinary action, I certinaly think that those things should keep moving forward and be addressed. Just like anyone who holds a regulated license in any profession. I certainly hope that all OBGYNs, nurses, and hospitals are held accountable for the mistakes and moments of poor judgement that are made on a regular basis (but unfortunately so often overlooked).
I am a big proponent of home birth and truely believe that we need to work together to promote the safety of homebirth with a trained and skilled midwife.
I am very sorry to hear that there have been cases where woman believe they have been hurt by Paula.
But, until it can be proved and evaluated by the appropriate people that she has shown any incompetence, I will maintain my belief that she is very competent and skilled. I will use her as my midwife again, without hesitation, as she has already delivered two of my children with beautiful skill.
One more thing.........
This blog, in nature, suggests that the hundreds of woman who've already chosen Paula as their midwife, have made poor decisions. I am personally upset and offended by this as I carefully interviewed several area midwives and thoroughly researched homebirth before chosing Paula. I did my homework and think I made a great choice by choing Paula.
PAULA HAS NOT MENTIONED THIS SITE TO MYSELF OR ANY OF HER CLIENTS. SHE HAS NO PART IN OUR COMMENTS HERE, AND IF ANYTHING, WOULD MOST LIKELY PREFER THAT WE 'LET IT BE' AND NOT GET INVOLVED.
No we are not the same "voice".
"But, the truth is, there have been hundreds of beautiful, wonderful babies born at Paula's hands and there are hundreds of women whose lives have been changed by her loving and skilled care. I couldn't imagine my life without her her right now."
I couldn't say it better myself. I, too, will also refrain from visiting this blog. The truth is, we will never agree and we will never change the opposing opinion. I'm truly sorry for those who feel they were mistreated by Paula.
wow. I have a really hard time believing that you don't want to slander or attack her when you suggest in your earlier blog that she is a "charlaton" and a "quack". Also, saying false things like, "I'm glad that she has managed a FEW births well and that SOME have had good outomes", doesn't do much for cause since it's simply not true. Rather, it would be way more honest to say that" she (Paula) has managed HUNDREDS of births well and has had HUNDREDS of good outcomes".
I'm a realistic person and I will be honest and say that I'm not surprised that she has had some unhappy clients. That's life. You can't please everyone. People make mistakes. Stuff happens. AND IT REALLY REALLY STINKS WHEN THOSE THINGS HAPPEN AT A BIRTH - WHETHER AT HOME OR IN A HOSPITAL - it's super personal and devastating for the whole family. My heart breaks and aches for those who've had emergency situations during a birth - I think it's my worst nightmare, actually. I'm sure that I too would be looking to "right" the situation by trying to get answers and bring light to any possible malpractice.
I am sorry that you feel that way and I don't think anything I could say would change that. I am a realistic person who knows that people will believe and think what they want to. That is okay with me. My desire is only to expose the truth. If your family had a bad outcome at your birth and was told "one thing" by the provider of the 'why' that happened, yet when you research and look into it, you find out that it isn't true and that it was preventable and avoidable with proper care, it sure would make you angry. it is those families that are realizing now that what they were told or made to believe wasn't true, those are the ones who have more right than anyone else to be angry.
So, again, I'm glad you had a good experience and came out of it with the optimal outcome: a healthy mom and baby. I will not say that those who chose to birth with Paula made wrong choices, because that isn't true either (and I never said that- for the record). What happened is that they were made to believe things that were not true and made decisions based on what they knew. At the time, they believed what they were told and didn't have any reason to think otherwise. Now, after the fact, they are questioning things and finding out that things aren't the way they were led to believe. It is their stories and experiences that may help others to sit back and say, "Hey, lets look more thoroughly. Lets ask more questions." And I'm glad. It just might save someone's life.
To the other person I want to say, yes it does stink a lot when those things happen. And yes, they can happen at home or in hospital. BUT when some things are preventable by having proper education, preparation, knowledge and experience, the incidence of bad outcomes is low. Most midwives will deal with a bad outcome or a fetal death once or twice in their whole career. But when you have numerous bad outcomes and/or more than two fetal deaths in just the first 2-3 years of practicing, then I would suggest that 'something' is lacking. Is it experience? Is it preparation? Is it knowledge? I can't be sure- maybe a combo of all things. But what I do know is that I don't want any more families to have a bad outcome that could have been prevented by using a more competent and knowledgeable midwife.
"I'm a realistic person and I will be honest and say that I'm not surprised that she has had some unhappy clients. That's life. You can't please everyone. People make mistakes. Stuff happens."
I disagree wholeheartedly. Stuff does happen - but sometimes it should NOT have happened! A friend of mine was in a car accident. She was not wearing her seatbelt and was killed. The police said she would be alive today if she had been wearing her seatbelt.
Stuff does happen - but it is the midwife's responsibility to be fully educated, skilled and experienced **if that is how she presents herself**. The parents have a right to know if there is a seatbelt...or not.
Most of the time, birth works! Healthy moms and babies don't usually have complications. There is even a movement of "freebirthers" - those who have unattended births at home - who are having healthy babies.
If you are willing to accept that element of risk, that is your choice.
But if you are hiring a midwife to attend you, and she is not truthful about her experience, skills, knowledge....or even about WHEN she will arrive at your birth - that is wrong. That is giving you a risk you have not knowingly accepted.
And THEN...when things go wrong for that rare, healthy mom/baby - and the midwife can NOT properly handle the situation....it's NOT "stuff happens". It's a tragedy.
So if there is question as to any midwife's abilities and track record, we best not sweep it under the rug. The complaints that have gone to the medical board WILL eventually be public if there is any truth to them. The wheels turn slowly.
Thank you- well said.
I don't see how her pointing clients to this blog is any different than this blog's author sending area doulas such as myself, and childbirth educators a link directing us here. That is how I found about it.
I am very glad I found out about this site last summer. I had been considering Paula and finding this site made me steer clear. I still had a home birth with another midwife. It was a long labor and my baby needed to be resuscitated.( A horrible experience I would not wish on any new parent!) If my midwife did NOT have the equipment ready, or know how to do infant cpr, you'd better believe I would want to warn others in the hopes of preventing possible tragedies. I'm sorry you had to go through such a trauma and I thank you for your efforts.
My post is very long, so it will be a multiple part read. Do you work at Kaiser Santa Rosa, by chance? It would seem that some particular individual who works there has a beef with the woman who did an awesome job doing everything professionally and competently throughout our entire pre-natal counseling, pregnancy, labor, birth, emergency care, transfer, hospital care, post-partum and still checks in with us between healthy mom and baby checkups. I do know that someone at Kaiser got my wife all shook up and doubtful about what had been until now a perfectly wonderful experience. Now it feels to us like someone telling you that your loving parent who raised you was abusing and neglecting you the whole time.
Our birth experience went as planned, using Paula as our midwife. She did everything right. Had we had a hospital birth , the results and timing would have been no better and potentially could have been worse due to the preferred methods of hospital medicine vs the wishes of an intelligent and highly educated mother and her comparable husband (She's the better half!) We armed ourselves with knowledge long before we even consulted Paula. From what we learned and from my own emergency medical training, Paula made the right call at the right time, having used her knowledge, training, experience, training, medical equipment and monitors(BP, etc.) and directing her two assistants throughout birth and through the arrival of the paramedics, who were directed to drive us from our home not across the freeway to the closest hospital, not down to San Rafael, but all the way up to Santa Rosa.
The paramedics who arrived at Paula's request assessed the situation, called it in, and the hospital decided where to have us sent based on what the paramedics observed and measured. Paula followed us north and stayed on as our advocate in the hospital, even assisting with the stitches. She provided all of the answers to the doctors' questions, and I, a cynic and generally distrustful person, I think, detected nothing to make me think anyone in the hospital room had any problem with the situation. Only after our arrival up North did anyone say anything about waiting too long to make the call to transfer care. I didn't and still don't think that we waited too long. So why did we need to transfer care after such a perfect birth? She tore, as expected. Well, she tore more than expected. Never knew my baby would be so big. I'm not. Her mother certainly isn't a big woman. Ultrasounds from our tandem Kaiser visits showed she'd be large, but what a head! My poor wife. Paula wanted to make sure that the stitches that were put in were the best available. In my opinion, a person who stitches people up all day every day is probably a better surgeon than a person who delivers babies all day every day. A hospital would have done the same care transfer, except they would have used a crash cart instead of a Ford van with blinkies. We didn't even use them, now that I think of it. No sirens. No lights. No Staph infection contracted from an emergency c-section or episiotomy in the hospital. Ooops, sorry, low jab. Well, It's no wonder I feel that way after reading all of the emotional drivel you post versus the mentally well constructed posts offered up by everyone in support of Paula here on this blog site. Enough politics. The lack of facts or supporting evidence throughout your own posts and the overly emotionally constructed Paula-slam posts lack logical soundness, are not cogent, and are weak. Granted, I did state an emotional state-of-mind of our own, but it is only to demonstrate the poor bedside manner of our hospital visit of late, not to base an argument on.
Arguments are best left to facts, not feelings. Consider the success rate of hospitals vs home birth. Stuff happens in both locations. Hospitals aren't magical, or on hallowed ground (like before when medicine was an act of the Church, not for profit by a corporation). The same complications can arise regardless of geography (unless we're talking apoxia from altitude or some other tidbit you might try to throw at my argument to render it unsound). If a mom gets in trouble, deep trouble, lets hope she saw fit to set to set up a contingency plan that will honor her wishes (see Staph, c-section, prolapsed uterus, mean doctors whose opinion differs radically and are unkind in delivery of opinion or ultimatum). While you're at it, check the success rate of the US hospital birth success vs the rate of success in a Nordic country where the practice home birth as a rule and use their (social medicine) hospitals as backup, such as we chose to. Such as every home birther does. Grab a logic textbook and learn how to construct an argument and then present it here. I'll check back later to see if there's actually anything of content to truly consider or if it's still this waste of time you call a blog. Meanwhile I'll keep trying to find that one website that grumpy old man alluded to describing disciplanary actions versus licensed healthcare providers. It's got to exist. Why would an old man lie to us? Ooops, again with the politics... It's unfair, I think sometimes, that our freedom of speech extends past stating the truth, and that the spoken, unsubstantiated feelings of one individual or group could be allowed to slander another. I never knew growing up that our country is one where an unsubstantiated opinion could be presented as fact without a preamble like Orson Wells did when he presented his radio broadcast of War of The Worlds, which still scared lots of people who were too busy being scared to hear Mr Wells clearly and intermittently state throughout the program that it was an entertainment broadcast and not an actual newscast (see Rush Limbaugh for a modern equivalent, minus a preamble). But I digress. We have a wonderful baby girl. We will use Paula again for our next kid, I'm sure. Too soon yet! Too busy hugging my new little one to think about our next one. Get me some facts for me, eh? Might make for some interesting reading. I'll tell you who I am if you tell me who you are.
I would like to add that I was at a birth where a newborn needed to be resuscitated, and Paula did a great job. I was impressed, as it was the first birth I had been at. There were some logistical and bedside manner things that upset my friend who was in labor, but when it came down to it, Paula did a fantastic job like any md, nurse, midwife etc.
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