Midwife Autonomy Endangered by MANA President Sarita Bennett

Pamela Holland: Midwives are, and should be, autonomous care providers. No officer of MANA should undermine MANA’s stance on the subject, and should be removed for doing so.

Paige Hesen: Student Midwife - CPM hopeful

Paige Dickinson: Omg, what is going on? This is insane. The board or our organization needs to have an emergency board meeting and remove. Dr. Bennett.

Oksana Jones: People will be having more unissisted homebirths as a result if this person is not immediately removed from her position. We need to protect the God-given medical freedom we have less of each day.

Nicole Picard: This is a gross misuse of power and position. The current president of MANA shows a complete lack of integrity for the office she holds and has betrayed those she is meant to protect. We call for her immediate resignation !

Nicole Morales: What is happening when the president of MANA is advocating for over site? Autonomy is not a bargaining chip. Physicians don’t know normal. Physicians can supervise physicians.

Nicole DeNuccio: Bennet out now! You represent patriarchy and white supremacy not midwives and the will of the people.

Mumtahana Alamin: She must go!!

Birth freedom and medical freedom for all.

morgan conway-oneill: Please remove MANA's president immediately! Her position is in direct opposition to the advancement of midwifery care and physiological birth.

Mishell whitacre: I totally oppose dr saritas stance on midwifery. She was not there when MANA came into being or know how hard the early midwives fought for it. Most doctors do not want to oversee Cpm’s and that would close down women’s choices if that was a model we needed. Good communication with obs yes, being overseen by obs. No for CNMs and Cpms.

Michelle Jones: As a advanced practice student who will be graduating soon, and over 20 years supporting natural and medicalized birth I strongly oppose the continued presidency of the current MANA office. This is atrocious. Please rethink this position before we set back the progress of birth and birth autonomy. Women are the ultimate decision makers of whom they want to support their birthing process. We can’t take this away.

Michele James-Parham: ALL midwives should be autonomous care providers for the gestating people that seek out their care and assistance.

Meredith Silver: As we push forward under the ICM global gold standards that midwifery should remain an autonomous practice, we cannot support nor justify leadership who clearly does not have the practice of midwifery at the heart of their intentions and actions.

Meredith Klein: I do not support a MANA president who aims to directly undermine midwife autonomy!

Melissa Edens: I have had 8 babies. Three born in hospitals with midwives attending (no OBGYN), one born at a birthing center, one born with an attending OB (no midwife - the hospital did not listen to me when I told them to call him so in fact he was not present and my mother called him as the nurses were also out of the room), and three with a home birth midwife. I will NEVER go back to standard medical practice birthing in the US. Midwives are a safe option and, in my experience, better equipped to work with the mother to meet her needs for a healthy birth as they continue to do all over the world. There is NO reason midwives should be forced back under oversight of standard medical doctors for giving women who have INTENTIONALLY DECIDED to walk away from that system the care they are seeking. My hospital births were better or worse, depending on the midwife in question but none of them were as easy and problem free as the at-home, non-invasive births of my last 3 at my “advanced maternal age” of 36, 38, and 41.

Melissa Carman: I am appalled and absolutely feel that Sarita must resign or immediately be removed from her position . If she continues in this role I will no longer look to MANA as an organization that supports CPMs.

Mary Mattocks: Remove Sarita Bennett immediately. She is trying to curry favor with her medical colleagues and does not have the interest of midwives at heart. How did a Doctor of Osteopathy get to this position in the first place? Her very training is contradictory to the Midwifery model of care!

Mary Leo: This is very concerning to me and why would I want someone who is president of a group that is supposed to be to advocating for me, stating that they will not and are not. Please! This is unacceptable!

Mary Barnett: Whenever physician supervision of midwives is mandated the ultimate result is fewer midwives, not from quality control but because physicians in general do not want to assume liability for midwives. Nor should physicians have to supervise midwives. Over sight of any professional should be from their own profession’s board that is charged with the duty to protect the citizenry. From 1996- 2002 I was part of a midwifery group at a large Austin hospital. The hospital required midwives to be supervised by physicians. The physicians ultimately pulled their super ion and ended our high quality practice because they did not make enough in “supervisory” fees. The way to get rid of midwifery and midwives is to require physician supervision. Besides physicians in general know nothing of out of hospital birth and natural childbirth.