Have an Ethics Presentation at Your Midwifery Conference

The authors of Professional Ethics in Midwifery Practice are available to present at your next midwifery conference. Illysa Foster and Jon Lasser are dynamic and experienced presenters who can engage your conference attendees in a thoughtful and meaningful exploration of ethical issues in midwifery practice. Foster and Lasser bring ethics alive and dispel the myth that it's a dry subject.

To learn more or arrange a presentation, contact drlasser at gmail.com.

Interview with Illysa Foster

Author Illysa Foster was interviewed by the Central Texas Birth Network. You can read the interview here.

Also, be sure to check out the December issue of Midwifery Today, as it will feature an article by co-author Jon Lasser.

Ethics Presentation at Conference in Canada

Attending the North American Midwifery Conference 2011? Be sure to check out this presentation on November 11th:

Brynne Potter, CPM; Illysa Foster, CPM, Med: Informed Consent and the New Health Care Laws

It's all relative?

One of the biggest challenges in ethics is the subject of moral relativism. Without getting too deep into the philosophy here, we'll just take a shortcut by saying that relativism argues that what's right for one group of people may be wrong for another. For example, polygamy is not universally accepted, but in some groups it is the norm.

For the practice of midwifery, particularly when we serve mothers and families who come from cultural backgrounds that are different than our own, relativism can pose challenges to our decision-making processes. This concern may be magnified even great for midwives who travel to other countries to practice.

Have you encountered the issue of relativism in your practice? We welcome your stories (please comment here). We also provide some case examples in our book.

Squat Birth Journal and ACNM Quickening Reviews

The Summer 2011 issues of both Squat Birth Journal and ACNM's newsletter, Quickening, both published positive reviews of Professional Ethics in Midwifery Practice. The Squat reviewer wrote, "I admit that Professional Ethics in Midwifery Practice is one of only a couple of books on the NARM reading list I had not read as of a month ago. I did not purchase it originally because of it's textbook price tag, however after reading it I believe it to be worth every penny."

Fortunately, the book price is now lower on Amazon.com , so it's still worth every penny, but now not so many pennies.

Online Article About Midwifery Liability Generates Hundreds of Comments

Slate.com posted an article on May 9, 2011 titled, "When a Home Birth Ends in Tragedy, Can the Midwife Go to Jail?" At this time of this blog post, over 400 readers voiced their comments. Though the article is certainly intriguing, it has been overshadowed by the readers' responses. Clearly struck a nerve, but also gives us a snapshot of the polarization around contemporary midwifery. Why are doctors and midwives, who are presumably collaborators in providing health care options, so often perceived to be diametrically opposed to one another?

Chapter 8 of Professional Ethics in Midwifery Practice, Working With Other Professionals, focuses on the ethical responsibilities we have not only to clients/patients, but also to other health care providers. We wish we could post the whole chapter as a comment to the Slate article!

Into These Hands

We'd like to take a moment to recommend Into These Hands, edited by Gera Simkins. Essays from twenty-five midwives. Available on Amazon.