Unprofessional and Unethical…read more
I'll preface this review with my daughter had a healthy, safe delivery after getting her to the hospital. However, I give no credit to her midwife, Sarah Boswell or her assistant, Holly. I found them both unprofessional and unethical. While some of the examples of unprofessionalism and lack of ethics are from my first meeting with Boswell, it was the labor and delivery experience that I found most troubling as both midwives employed manipulative and bully tactics to deter any change to the birthing plan.
I met Boswell several months before the delivery at the invitation of my daughter. One of the first things she said to me, upon learning I had epidurals and delivered all three of my children in a hospital was "Let me tell you, when a woman chooses to not use pain medication, she can own her birthing experience."
At that same visit, Boswell told us how Britain had a much higher live birth rate and were encouraging more home births. She denounced hospitals as being too quick to do Cesarean sections in order to get more money. This was an easy enough stat to investigate and I found numerous studies in reputable journals that all credited Britain's higher live birth rate to the fact that they almost exclusively use C-sections to deliver. This was more than misunderstanding the data, it was a calculated fabrication meant to mislead her client.
Toward the end of this meeting, Boswell, learning that we own a farm and I like senior animals, commented that she had a horse who was about 30 years of age and required soft food. She then said "I've thought about slipping our vet a hundred dollars to tell my daughter the horse needs to be put down." Maybe she was joking, but it was very unprofessional to say.
During the early stages of labor, Boswell gave my daughter some exercises to do to help with labor and the position of the baby. This was called the mile circuit. One of those exercises, the inversion, required her to place her knees on the edge of the couch and lean down to the floor, putting stress on her respiratory system. She wanted my daughter to hold that pose for 10 minutes. This, at best seemed useless and at worst, physically stressful.
After being in labor for 36 hours, my son-in-law made the decision that the delivery needed to happen in the hospital. My daughter was delirious from pain and exhaustion. Her water had been broken for a while and the risk of infection was increasing, while there was no progress on delivery.
Boswell was evasive about how much progress was being made during delivery. After two hours of hard pushing, she said that she could feel the baby's head and using her finger to demonstrate, said the baby was "this far" from coming out. She used the first two digits of her middle finger as a visual, indicating about two inches. About two hours later, when my daughter asked for an update, all Boswell would say was "she's getting close." I, using my middle finger as a visual to indicate about two inches, said "You said before she was this close, is she any closer?" Boswell gave me a dirty look then said "no."
When Boswell and Holly realized the hospital was a real possibility, they began using scare tactics and fear-mongering to get my daughter to change her mind. With me in the room, Boswell repeatedly said she probably wouldn't have time for an epidural.
Holly actually told my daughter she might end up being given fentanyl instead of an epidural. Knowing how potent fentanyl is, for her to bring this up was nothing short of trying to terrify my daughter. I asked the hospital nurses if fentanyl was ever an option and they looked shocked but said in very, very rare instances it might be used for severe pain.
Boswell repeatedly told my daughter that she was so close to having the baby, she should continue to try. At this point, my daughter had no strength left and couldn't even grip my hand when she "pushed." She hadn't had the strength for more than an hour to push. Boswell and Holly said she'd only been pushing for an hour, but the reality was my daughter had been pushing for at least four hours and was exhausted. Neither of them noticed that my daughter hadn't been pushing at all. I knew she hadn't been pushing because I was holding her legs and her hand. There was no pressure from either of those.
By contrast, once we got her to the hospital, she was given an epidural and told to rest. About an hour after this, active labor began and when she pushed, I held her legs and could actually feel how hard she was pushing.
Their lack of ethics and adherence to best practices make them a liability.
