Thursday, April 21, 2011

56

A man shot to death "on the 14th floor of the Hanover Square building, a high-rise housing complex for seniors and the disabled, reports Liz F. Kay"

The Ink has last week's four murders

What to think of this story: Karen Carr, Baltimore midwife is being charged with involuntary manslaughter in VA after a baby she delivered died. Carr was not licensed to practice in VA, and her patient was 43, premiparous with a breech baby.

Bodies found yesterday near Conowingo Dam

MD makes strides towards transparency.. kind of

Oh puleeeze! Ruxton residents freak out what Sheppard Pratt proposes putting a halfway house in the hood. Because only poor people should have to live near one of those. And Federal Hill residents are challenging some liquor licenses.

5 comments:

ppatin said...

Oh god, I can only imagine what the "debate" about the Karen Carr story is going to be like. I've found that some members of the home birthing community can have an almost religious zeal, and there are doctors who're just as bad in their fanatical opposition to those who think that childbirth has become overly medicalized. I predict lots of hysteria and very little sensible discussion.

Maurice Bradbury said...

I thought the Post story was pretty well balanced. I definitely support birth choices, but ... a 1st-time 43-year-old mom with a breech baby? I wonder what the backstory is, why that mom was so insistent on a home birth in spite of the risk, to the baby and herself, too, and why the midwife would opt to do it.

Cham said...

Considering the circumstances surrounding this VA pregnancy and that Karen Carr was NOT licensed to practice in Virginia, I'd say the involuntary manslaughter charge would be appropriate. She had no business trying to deliver that baby. I can see homebirth when things are going well, but the mother was already told it was going to be problematic.

On to other and better subjects. What is the water temperature of the harbor? I see the floaters are showing up over at the Conanwingo, frankly we should be due for a few any minute now. March 2011 was uncharacteristically cool. Remember our banner year 2009 when we had 3 pop-ups in March alone and 6 in 90 days?

ppatin said...

From what I understand there are two types of midwives with very different training. CNMs go through the same level of education as a Nurse Practitioner, and are perfectly qualified to deal with most deliveries. Not all midwives are CNMs though (I can't remember the acronym for the other type) and for those who aren't I'm not sure what kind of licensing/registration exists.

Maurice Bradbury said...

CNMS are licensed as nurses and have Master's degrees and are certified by the American College of Nurse-Midwives, a CPM (certified professional midwife) is not an RN but is certified by North American Registry of Midwives. About 24 states license CPMs & I don't know if VA is one. And a "direct entry" or "lay" midwife has no specific training or certification. The Post story doesn't say which one Karen Carr is, but I assume the latter.