Strength in numbers

This week I had a really cool opportunity to stand up for something I believe in. Most of you know that natural childbirth is very important to me. In Utah there is currently one free standing birth center (where women give birth in a bed and breakfast type setting with a certified nurse midwife who is pretty much a doctor the only difference is she can't perform surgery) and it is under attack. The hospitals are trying to monopolize the birthing industry. They are trying to make the laws for midwives so strict that it would be impossible for a birthing center to open or stay in business. The fact that more and more people are drawn to natural childbirth and midwives is starting to affect hospital's bottom line. It is sad that it all comes down to money. Anyways, almost 150 people showed up to the Utah health facilities committee meeting. There were so many people who showed up to show their support for the birth center that they had to move the meeting to a different room and use microphones. The proposed changes (hospital and birth center's) didn't pass so the laws will stay the same. For the time being a woman in Utah still has the choice of where and how she will give birth to her baby. Even though the changes that would allow even more birth centers to open in Utah didn't pass the fact that so many people stood up for the freedoms they would like to protect really got the attention of the committee. They see that people want the right to choose and they felt like at that time they didn't have enough information to change the laws they also encouraged the midwives to keep fighting for the changes. Even though it didn't end up as I hoped it would it was really inspiring. Here is a link to the KSL news story: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5960679