HR0431 LRB094 12324 DRJ 46272 r

1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The Constitution of the State of Illinois provides
3 for "the health, safety and welfare of the people" and the
4 "opportunity for the fullest development of the individual";
5 and
 
6     WHEREAS, Four thriving Illinois nurse-midwifery homebirth
7 practices have closed or discontinued homebirth services in the
8 past ten years; and
 
9     WHEREAS, One of these practices, Alivio Medical Center in
10 Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, combined the services of
11 nurse-midwives and direct-entry midwives to provide innovative
12 and culturally-sensitive homebirth services for an
13 under-served, low-income, low-literacy, Mexican-American and
14 immigrant community (93 percent Medicaid patients) and was
15 recognized by the American College of Nurse Midwives' Kitty
16 Ernst Award in 1998, and won the Unicef Safe Motherhood
17 Initiative-USA Model Awards in 1999 and 2000; and
 
18     WHEREAS, Seventeen Illinois direct-entry midwifery
19 homebirth practices have closed following the issuance of cease
20 and desist orders in 1997; and
 
21     WHEREAS, While the above-mentioned closing of the
22 midwifery practices occurred for a variety of reasons,
23 including the malpractice crisis and the issuance of cease and
24 desist orders, the overall impact on families is a detrimental
25 reduction of maternity care options; and
 
26     WHEREAS, Legally recognized homebirth practices
27 (nurse-midwifery and/or physician practices) are found in only
28 5 of 102 Illinois Counties (Cook, Bureau, DuPage, Lake, and
29 Winnebago counties), and all of these practices are located in
30 the northern half of the State; and
 

 

 

HR0431 - 2 - LRB094 12324 DRJ 46272 r

1     WHEREAS, According to a survey of Illinois birth
2 certificates, in 2003, 738 Illinois births occurred without a
3 trained birth attendant (neither a medical person nor a
4 midwife); and
 
5     WHEREAS, Unattended birth is less safe than birth attended
6 by trained providers; and
 
7     WHEREAS, All well-designed homebirth studies show that for
8 women with low-risk pregnancies, planned homebirth attended by
9 a trained maternity care provider is as safe as hospital birth;
10 and
 
11     WHEREAS, Oprah Winfrey, J. D. Salinger, Roseanne Barr,
12 Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Duke Ellington, Mother Theresa,
13 Albert Einstein, Andy Warhol, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, and
14 Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford,
15 Richard Nixon, and John F. Kennedy were all born at home; and
 
16     WHEREAS, Cindy Crawford, Rikki Lake, Demi Moore, Lucy
17 Lawless, Meryl Streep, Lisa Bonet, Carol King, Pamela Anderson,
18 Jade Jagger, and Kelly Preston have all given birth at home;
19 therefore, be it
 
20     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
21 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
22 the House of Representatives finds it unacceptable that many
23 Illinois mothers are without adequate maternity care
24 providers; and be it further
 
25     RESOLVED, That it is in the State's best interest to ensure
26 access to all safe maternity care options; and be it further
 
27     RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives recognizes
28 that home births are a healthy method of delivering babies; and

 

 

HR0431 - 3 - LRB094 12324 DRJ 46272 r

1 be it further
 
2     RESOLVED, That Illinois families, in order to best meet
3 personal needs and desires, should be free to choose among all
4 safe, nationally recognized maternity care options, including
5 free-standing birth centers and home birth; and be it further
 
6     RESOLVED, That as the General Assembly grapples with
7 solving the crisis in OB/GYN service, the roles of midwives be
8 included in the discussion.