Imagine having a great birth, enjoying your new baby, and relaxing after your baby's birth. Everything looks great, except your midwife sees that you had a tear that needs to be repaired. You have three choices in Virginia. You can either transfer to the hospital for suturing, stay home (or at the birth center) and be sutured without anesthetic, or skip the repair altogether. Which would you do? Here is a story of a student midwife who faced this situation at a birth she attended.
I am a student midwife and not long ago I attended the birth of a first time mom. Everything went well, but the baby was born with a nuchal hand resulting in a second degree tear. Though the edges approximated well, the tear was lengthy. Suturing this tear is well within a midwife’s skill set, but in Virginia CPMs do not have access to injectable lidocaine. Suturing a mother’s torn perineum without adequate numbing is simply cruel. This mother had to pack up her brand new baby and herself and ride to the hospital just for sutures when she should have been home recovering and resting. This was a waste of resources for the parents who had already paid their midwife and will now have to also pay a hospital bill. It also unnecessarily occupied hospital resources. Allowing Virginia CPMs the right to obtain, possess and administer medications such as lidocaine would reduce strain on hospitals and lead to better outcomes for mothers.
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