THE PLOWBOY INTERVIEW

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In fact, I can give you a single clear-cut example — out of the many I know about — of harassment. Rosalie Tarpening, a midwife and registered physical therapist in California, was put on trial for the murder of a baby delivered at home. After paying thousands of dollars in legal fees, she was finally acquitted when testimony proved that the treatment given at the hospital — to which she took the baby for emergency care — had caused the child's death. Even so, Rosalie was put on probation for two years and told not to deliver babies during that time. And that's not all. Now, the members of the medical establishment are after her again . . . they're going to examine her physical therapist's license!

As another example, just look at the difficulties my own doctor, Gregory White, has faced.

PLOWBOY: But Dr. White is widely known as the author of Emergency Childbirth, and as an expert in the home birth field. How did he get in trouble?

TOMPSON: Without any warning, he received a letter from Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park — the week before last Christmas — that said, "You're suspended. You can't practice obstetrics in our hospital anymore." And the same thing happened to his son. The two men weren't even told what charges were being made against them.

Dr. White eventually had to demand a hearing. He found out that he and his son were accused of such things as discharging maternity patients within 48 hours after delivery, leaving orders that newborns not have the creamlike vernix coating they're born with washed off, and telling nurses not to give glucose water or formula to breastfed babies. Ironically, such practices are recommended in the medical literature. The board was finally forced to restore both men's hospital privileges on grounds of neglecting to use due process.

PLOWBOY: But aren't there cases on record where home birth practitioners actually have been negligent or incompetent?

TOMPSON: Of course. The trouble right now, though, is that a double standard is being applied. It's being made to look as if all — and only — the people attending home deliveries are doing incompetent, negligent things. The fact of the matter is that hospitals sometimes do far worse . . . but nobody hears about it. Look at the case of midwife Rosalie Tarpening. The doctors who actually caused the baby's death — which she stood trial for — have never had any charges brought against them or (as far as we know) even been reprimanded by their hospital.

You should also consider that hospital-based physicians often don't understand home obstetrics, so they shouldn't even be asked to judge whether a home birth doctor is doing a good job or not. That's almost like asking a podiatrist to determine whether or not an opthalmologist is competent. Let me give an example. The rule in most hospitals is that, because of the possibility of infection, a mother must deliver her baby — by caesarean, if need be — within 24 hours of the time her bag of waters breaks. A good home birth practitioner, though, knows that an expectant mother can frequently go days after her waters break without infection . . . if she stays at home where she won't be exposed to the often wide variety of hospital germs.

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