Legal Question in Health Care Law in Missouri

Legality of Homebirth

I am looking to have a homebirth and I

live in Missouri. I have heard various

issues of felonies related to

homebirths. I have a Certified Nurse

Midwife whose care I have been under

for my entire pregnancy and she is

supported by an OBGYN. Is it legal for

her to deliver my baby in my home

and is it legal for me to deliver my

baby in my home? I do have the

option of going to a home in Kansas

and am in KC, close to the state line,

as I believe it is legal there. Thank

you!


Asked on 6/30/06, 7:03 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Anthony DeWitt Bartimus, Frickleton Robertson & Gorny, PC

Re: Legality of Homebirth

Under current Missouri law it is unlawful for a midwife to assist you. That issue was put before the Missouri General Assembly this year, and I do not know if it passed or not. I do know that if it did, the law won't change until August 28.

Home birth is also dangerous. Among the things that go wrong in terrific hospitals are meconium aspiration, placenta previa, abruptio placenta, nuchal cord strangulation, breech presentation, and a lot of medical issues. If there is a problem with the child's airway, you won't have neonatologists and pediatricians in your living room waiting to assist you.

Your child deserves the best start in life it can have. That means having the birth in a place where if anything does go wrong, someone can be there to assist with it. You don't want to wait for an ambulance ride.

Before I became a lawyer, I was a respiratory therapist who assisted at a number of high risk deliveries. Many of those were standard deliveries that went wrong. We saved a lot of those kids. In each of those instances, the child would not have survived an ambulance ride. Home birth may be trendy, but its like juggilng butcher knives: if you're not good at it, you cause yourself a lot of pain.

Good luck.

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Answered on 6/30/06, 10:59 pm


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