Press
The Washington Post
Covid-19 exposes the need for midwives
May 5 is the International Day of the Midwife, and the World Health Organization designated 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. With the coronavirus pandemic, midwives have never been more essential as many pregnant women are reconsidering whether they need to be in a hospital to give birth. Midwives trained in home and birth-center delivery, according to one recent New York Times article, are experiencing a “surge in demand.”
Midwifery Today
About Hermine Hayes-Klein
Hermine Hayes-Klein is a lawyer and international advocate for women’s rights in childbirth, including their right to choose where and with whom to give birth. Hermine represents midwives and doulas in a wide variety of legal matters, and also represents women who have experienced obstetric violence or informed consent violations in maternity care. Hermine lives in Portland, Oregon, and consults on cases across the United States and around the world.
Pathways for Wellness
Who Is Hermine
Mother and human-rights lawyer Hermine Hayes-Klein is the director of Human Rights in Childbirth, a consumer-generated, grassroots organization dedicated to making human rights in childbirth a meaningful reality for women all over the world. Hayes-Klein has been a law professor at The Hague and director of the Bynkershoek Research Center for Reproductive Rights (RCRR) at the Bynkershoek Institute in The Hague.
Midwifery Today
An Update on the Netherlands
From 1980 to 2009, the Dutch maintained a homebirth rate of 30–35%. Between 2009 and 2012, that rate fell to 23% (and the Dutch cesarean rate rose from 12% to 16%). While this homebirth rate remains remarkably high compared to other developed nations, the steep and recent decline is nevertheless a troubling development.