Yvonda and others,
I too paid my money and successfully passed the teacher certification of the
AHA/AAP NRP back in 1995 at the MANA conference (so did a New Mexico
licensed midwife). We were REFUSED because we were not nurses in a hospital
(I was a licensed EMT and homebirth midwife). After many letters of support
(from physicians) on my behalf were received by the AAP, they sent me forms
that they claimed would provide me with a way to be teacher certified.
These forms required a physician to attest to the fact that I would be
present in a delivery room on, at least, a weekly basis in a hospital. BTW,
I never even got a provider card!!
A friend who is a nursery nurse and rarely, if ever, is present as part of
an actual delivery in the hospital, readily got her teacher certification a
year later!
I wrote the the AHA/AAP and asked them to consider coming up with a
home-based program--but they aren't interested. The Red Cross wasn't either
and sent me back to AHA/AAP and suggested that what I needed was PALS or
ALSO.
After a lot of thought, and getting kicked around at national midwifery
committee meetings as a kook, I've been assembling other home-based
practitioners who understand the need. We need our own newborn
resuscitation program based on our practices. The NARM board and MANA are
aware of my plans. Hopefully NARM/MANA will agree to permit some additional
data to be collected in the STATS 2000 project.
Many of the routine procedures used with the AHA/AAP NRP are done "just
because" -- like routine bulbing, separation of mother and baby so baby can
go to the radient heater. I'm not sure research would conclude that these
methods are in every mother and baby's best interests.
Along with this thread is the APGAR scale which was devised for hospital
birth. Many home-based practitioners grade differently. Lots of perfectly
healthy newborns do not scream their heads off--I call them mello babies.
They lie pink in their mothers arms looking blissful with a little smile.
Should they lose a point for not crying vigorously?
I'd love to hear from anyone about these issues.
Yvonne
_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|