The Midwife Court System

Each state of midwives have developed a grievance board which is a midwife court system. If you have a complaint about a specific midwife you have to move forward on a written complaint. The board consist of CPM's of the state (most of the time the midwife in charge is whoever NARM appoints to run the state). Each state consist of a Midwife Association and every midwife from the state reports to the MMA when there is an issue or a complaint in process. Because NARM can not physically be in all states at one time they run their organization this way.

When a family has a complaint it doesn't matter what the complaint is you have to PUT IT IN WRITING. First you will have to email the midwife association and advise them that you have a complaint against a midwife. They will then send you documents in the mail. In the documents will be a letter stating what the grievance board is and what their role is. The association will provide you with a complaint form and advise you to file the complaint in a timely manner.

In the stack of documents you will have to name the midwives that the complaint is about. You must also advise the midwife association of the compliance, codes, and ethics that the midwife has broken during prenatal care.

After the complaint is filed the President of the grievance board will contact you. "This is not a quick process a complaint will take a  minimum of a year to file. See the midwives take their time when their are charges brought up on midwives in the association. They stall. They will play a nasty game in every way possible to slow up the process. They will pretend that they did not receive documents. Send nothing by email and only send things certified mail that they must sign for. It will cost you but it will indeed save you a little time. DON'T GIVE UP!

Midwives get scared when a complaint has been filed or if your midwife is anything like Joann Falcon she will run to a midwife attorney. In my case I  had a lawyer but when they find out that midwives don't have to carry malpractice insurance they realized there was no money that they could get out of the deal they decided they don't want to represent my husband and I (it was a pure waste of time for them).

I also would like to say your midwife has copies of your medical files, documents, and forms that were signed during care (you are entitled to see these before the grievance meeting). Reviewing what went on during the prenatal is vital for you and your family especially before telling a complaint in person.

The midwife association will do all their contact with you via phone, email, and regular mail. This technique is very sad but its the way that they get all  medical documents and authorization. You can imagine it taking about a good year to even file a complaint but when you file a complaint who is receiving all of this information.

NARM (NORTH AMERICAN REGISTRY OF MIDWIVES).

I know you were probably thinking maybe some type of government official or even the city of which you live. NO NO NO. See that is where the problem stands. The midwives are in control of everything. They have their own lawyers and the midwife associations and no one is governing them. They don't have to release death records. The only way that women know about the deaths of home birth is if women like me decide to tell their story. Believe me not every woman deciding to go with a home birth is going to research home birth disasters at the beginning of their pregnancies or anytime during their pregnancy at that.

Scary

The grievance process is their court system. Once all the appropriate information has been filed with the Midwife Association of your state they will give you a date. On this day you will discuss the written complaint in person. The midwives involved are there, NARM on conference call, and a room full of midwife peers.

Basically this is how it works:
1. Show up at a location
2. Introduce yourself
3. Speak your complaint to the midwives in the room
4. They ask you questions
5. You leave
6. The midwives come in tell their side of the story
7. The president ask question
8. The midwives leave
9. The midwife peers discuss everything at the meeting that day
10.NARM and the Midwife Association discuss midwife and actions and determine if they midwife should lose her license, get more training, or work along side a more qualified CPM. Either way you will have to wait on the decision and be happy with whatever the outcome is.

WELCOME TO THE BOGUS COURT SYSTEM OF THE MIDWIVES. I HOPE YOU HOME BIRTHING MOMS KNOW WHAT YOUR GETTING YOURSELF INTO.

This is a dangerous game with no Oversight.