Charlotte resident Salina Beasley was sewing black-and-white bedding for her daughter’s room when her first contraction hit. It was 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 4. She was home with her 1-year-old son, Salem, and her mother, who’d traveled from Orlando to help manage once the new baby arrived. Her husband, Clark, was due back in a few hours from out of town.
Salina continued sewing. She mentioned to her mother that her granddaughter may be on the way. The expectant mom then called her husband and next her midwife — it was an action that, in Charlotte, has often been done in hushed tones. Salina, however, had no worries.
The Beasley family had relocated to the area from Atlanta a couple of months earlier. And because the stay-at-home mom and singer was already more than 30 weeks pregnant at the time of the move, finding medical care quickly was imperative. She’d delivered Salem naturally in a hospital without the use of drugs, and she wanted to do the same with her daughter; however, she learned upon arriving in Charlotte that to utilize her insurance for labor and delivery, she’d have to travel back to Atlanta.
That was not acceptable. She began exploring other options.
“I knew I didn’t have the nerve to have a home birth, but I also knew I didn’t want to go through the assembly-line-strapped-to-the-bed experience at the hospital,” says Salina. “I wanted the comfort of knowing that medical interventions were close if I needed them, but otherwise, I wanted to be in a place where I felt my birth was being celebrated as a natural process and not treated like an illness.”
By the time Salina finished up her sewing, Clark was home. It was time to head out for her checkup. The couple jumped into their gold Honda Odyssey and trekked down I-77 South to Exit 88 — which is located in Fort Mill just a couple of miles inside the South Carolina state line. Within a few minutes, they pulled into the parking lot of the Carolina Community Maternity Center.
The heat outside was sweltering. Salina’s contractions were getting stronger. But inside the maternity center, Salina felt like she’d walked into a bed and breakfast. Subtle and inviting, the mahogany-colored furniture, giant birth tubs, decorated birth seats, soothing pastel-hued walls and hardwood floors made her feel at home. Leigh Fransen, her midwife, greeted them warmly. The two women had met only eight weeks earlier, but they were as familiar as old friends.
“I ended up having a very difficult last trimester with a lot of rare pregnancy things popping up,” recalled Salina. “Leigh and I spoke almost every day. She was available by cell, Facebook and e-mail. It was totally different from having to call a 1-800 number and getting the automated.
“I don’t even remember the name of the doctor who delivered my son,” she continued. “They got me in and out. But with Leigh, I was never with her for less than 45 minutes. She took time to get to know me.”
As Fransen was checking the baby’s heartbeat, Salina had a contraction.
“That was pretty strong,” Fransen commented.
“Yeah, and they’re getting to be pretty regular. Like eight minutes apart,” said Salina.
“OK. Well, you’ll know when it’s time to come in,” said Fransen. “Call me when you get to the point that you can’t talk through them.”
Back out in the car, Salina and Clark decided that it was time to help nature along. The couple hopped over to Carolina Place Mall to walk. After spending a couple of hours there, they headed home. The contractions were getting stronger, but they were bearable. Her main concern was not to wait as long as she had with Salem to head to the hospital. When delivering him, she’d had to ride in the back seat of their vehicle on her knees because the contractions were too strong to allow her to sit down.
For her daughter’s birth, however, she was looking forward to laboring because that type of stress was eliminated and because the maternity center facilities are so nice. So, between contractions she sat and watched Ricki Lake’s documentary, The Business of Being Born, which uncovers truths about the maternity care system in America. It boosted her confidence for the hours that lay ahead.
Once it was over, she and Clark tried to get some sleep. At 2:30 a.m., she called Fransen. The midwife answered the phone and told her to meet her at the maternity center in 20 minutes.
Since opening its doors for business last year, the midwives at the Carolina Community Maternity Center have delivered nearly 90 babies: 44 percent of the newborns were to first-time moms; 75 percent of their mothers traveled from North Carolina; and 48 percent of those moms came from Charlotte.
Fransen went to Windsor Park Elementary School and Eastway Junior Senior High in Charlotte before her Air Force family moved away. She attended the International School of Midwifery in Miami. It was while she was training at the Miami Maternity Center that the idea for the maternity center was planted.
“Many of the moms I worked with in Miami were just ordinary women who would’ve never had a natural birth if the birth center wasn’t there,” Fransen said. “They weren’t moms who would’ve had a home birth, and they weren’t really moms who would’ve thought they could have a great residential birth in the hospital. It was not a fringe group of women who were going to fight to have a natural birth experience.”
But the experience is one that Fransen believes is worth fighting for. She set out to replicate the Miami model in an area that didn’t have a birth center as an option. After scouting the country, she decided that Charlotte, or just outside of Charlotte to be exact, was the perfect spot.
“I recognized that this was a very unique situation,” explained Fransen. “Midwifery [without supervision of a physician] is illegal in North Carolina. In South Carolina, however, it’s legal, licensed and regulated, and North Carolina’s largest metropolitan area is sitting on the border.”
After identifying the need, she started making calls. She said the first call she made was to the organization Midwives of South Carolina. She asked why there wasn’t a birth center in Fort Mill. She also asked if anyone was working on building one and if there was a reason not to. When she got the replies back that it was a good idea but nobody was doing it, she knew what she had to do. She and her family moved from Miami in late 2008, and she began networking with other local midwives.
One of the first midwives she connected with was Damaris Pittman. A midwife with 17 years of experience, Pittman was open to the idea of a birth center, but initially had no intention of stopping her practice as a home-based midwife.
“When Leigh approached me with the idea, my plan was to help her make some of the connections she would need to get started,” said Pittman. “But one day in March of 2009, three of us were brainstorming at my kitchen table and the idea of making it a nonprofit came up. That’s when we all got excited. We realized that was the way we could make it work. “
At the table that day with Fransen and Pittman was Christine Strothers. In the days following, they invited midwife Lisa Johnson to join them, and the four women began taking steps to make the Carolina Community Maternity Center a reality. Over the next few months, they established a board, found a location, did fundraising and began doing prenatal visits with expectant moms at Johnson’s house in Fort Mill.
On Oct. 22, the Department of Health and Environmental Control did the final inspection of their facility and handed them their license to do business. The four midwives took themselves to lunch to celebrate their accomplishment. They’d been shooting to open on Labor Day, which would’ve been six months since the kitchen-table conversation, but a month beyond that was fine with them. On the way to the restaurant, Pittman called one of her moms who was a few days beyond her due date to tell her the news. The mom called her back 10 minutes later saying her water had just broken. Later that night, the Carolina Community Maternity Center welcomed its first bundle of joy.
It was just before 3 a.m. on Aug. 5 when Salina and Clark pulled back into the maternity center. By this time, the contractions were coming hard and fast. It took Salina five minutes to get to the door because she doubled over twice.
Inside the center, Fransen and her apprentice were quietly filling the bathtub and setting out their essentials. The back birthing suite decorated with different shades of green was dimly lit and ready. Salina moved to the oversized tub and slipped off her gray nursing gown before sliding into the warm water.
By 7 a.m., she was exhausted and getting frustrated. The contractions kept coming, but nothing else was happening. She told Clark to take the clock off the wall; it was in her direct line of vision, and she was getting discouraged. Fransen suggested a change in strategy. They helped Salina climb out.
At one of Salina’s prenatal visits, Fransen had offered her fresh figs from a tree in her yard. Salina loved them. She’d requested that Fransen bring in some for her birth. Once out the tub and walking around, Salina began munching on figs and Powerbars to keep up her energy. At this point, she was dilated 10 centimeters, but had no urge to push.
“I know that if I had been in a hospital, things would’ve gone very, very differently intervention-wise,” said Salina.
Founding midwife Strothers, who is a former labor and delivery registered nurse, agreed: “In a hospital, there’s really not support for having a drug-free birth. It’s kinda laughed at. It’s like, ‘Oh that person’s a hippy. She’s not gonna do it and wait until she starts having real labor.’
“I heard that all the time, and a lot of times the nurses didn’t know how to handle it,” she continued. “I can remember being asked to stay and work overtime because the nurses that were coming on had never worked with someone who hadn’t had an epidural, even though they had worked in the hospital for years.”
In Salina’s case, intervention did go differently but in a natural way. The actively laboring mother walked, squatted, leaned against the wall and put one foot on a stool. She and her husband moved around the birth room quite a bit in an effort to encourage their daughter to drop into the birth canal. Salina says she kept eyeing Fransen to see if she was in danger, but she recalls that the midwife was not at all alarmed. That gave her comfort, and she and her husband kept up their breathing exercises and movement. Labor continued.
Just after 11:30 a.m., more than 25 hours into labor, Fransen suggested a reprieve.
“Salina, why don’t you just lay down and try to get some sleep, if you can. Your body is completely exhausted.”
Salina looked at the midwife quizzically but obeyed. She walked over to the bed and climbed in with her husband. By now, she was contracting every three to four minutes. But, within minutes of lying down, her water broke. Fifteen minutes later, standing in the birthing tub, Salina caught 9-pound, 4-ounce baby Amelia as she said hello for the very first time to the world.
“It was the greatest feeling of relief and reward,” said Salina. “Just that moment made it worth it.”
To learn more about the Carolina Community Maternity Center visit www.carolinabirth.org. And to connect with Salina, check out her blog that celebrates marriage, motherhood and the arts at www.ladylullabuy.wordpress.com.
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2010.
While this article is a nice review for the CC Maternity Center, it fails to mention that midwifery is currently illegal in NC, which means practicing midwives in NC either have a license from another state or none at all. It also fails to mention the limitations of a midwife, which could possibly endanger the life of mom and baby. “The Business of Being Born” is well-known in the alternative birthing community for being completely against hospitals & does a nice job of scaring the shit out of any wary mother. While we are fortunate to have choice in where & how we give birth in this country, we should also be fortunate for our modernized health care, and for our educated nurses and doctors. I went to Carolinas Medical to birth my daughter and I was allowed freedom in how I labored and choice in whether or not I took medication. I had no risk factors and I suffered from uterine atony and almost died. My doctor saved my life. My nurses came and checked on me even when their shift was over. Had I chosen a midwife and not gone to the hospital I would – without any doubt – have DIED as there would not have been time to transfer me or get an MD to help me. In Africa, 150,000 women die each year from uterine atony and thousands more die from other complications simply because they do not have hospitals staffed with experienced nurses, doctors, and rooms with equipment and meds. So while midwifery may be the best decision for some – relish in the fact you have choice and a hospital with a MD is right down the road. Not all doctors, nurses or hospitals treat people impersonally or “like a hippie”. In fact, three of my closest friends gave birth this year – drug free – and in a hospital no less.
Above poster, How was your uterine atony diagnosed? Have you asked a midwife how they would’ve diagnosed it? Midwives are trained to know if/when people need to be transfered for medical care.
Oh geez. Here we go. The whole “I almost DIED but for the doctor and hospital — and I definitely would have DIED if I’d been seeing a midwife, so therefore anyone seeing a midwife is PUTTING HER LIFE AND HER BABY’S LIFE AT RISK. (And the hospitals/doctors/nurses are AWESOME; anyone suggesting otherwise is full of anti-medical propaganda!)” The midwives at the CCMC are trained to handle common birth-related complications — including uterine atony. Furthermore, although the article did not mention it, the midwives at the Birth Center have medication to assist with such complications, and are all trained in CPR, Neonatal resuscitation, and the like. They do not hesitate to transport a client to the hospital, either during labor or afterwards, if she is experiencing a problem beyond the midwife’s scope — or if she just wants to go to the hospital! Thank goodness for the Carolina Community Maternity Center for giving women a choice beyond just CMC or Presby.
I am amazed in 2010 that there are people who still think that midwives who work in a birth center or in a home birth setting walk in in their peasant skirt with a towel and a prayer and hope to God all goes well. Midwifery is NOT illegal in NC. Certified Nurse Midwives practice here legally. Certified Professional Midwives, like those at CCMC, are not recognized in NC for licensure, but they are educated and have passed the North American Registry of Midwives certification exam(recognized by all of our neighboring states such as Virginia, Georgia, SC, and Tennessee) and have been through an extensive review process that requires them to demonstrate ALL skills related to birth INCLUDING dealing with emergencies and complications and knowing when to transport. Uterine atony is rare in a birth center or homebirth setting because there is no medical augmentation of labor(Pitocin) which is one of the famous causes of uterine atony (see http://www.obfocus.com/high-risk/bleeding/hemorrhagepa.htm). Midwives carry medications and are trained in the methods listed in the article to treat this situation, the same as an ob would. You cannot compare NC birthing circumstances to Africa. Most American women have access to better nutrition, prenatal care to foresee complications and sanitary living conditions so that is comparing apples to a loaf of bread in essence.
I hear the near death argument frequently, but one must answer the question. If it is SO dangerous, and if so many women would surely die if midwives were allowed to practice in NC, then why isn’t it happening in other states(OVER 35 OF THEM) where they do practice legally? Why are their maternal and infant mortality numbers improving while ours here in NC remain dismal????? Why is it that my NC midwife has delivered over 1200 babies and has never had a mother to die when very few doctors can claim the same statistic?
I can answer the question about why NC is afraid of midwives very easily. The NC Medical Society is a strong presence here and has much political influence. Why do they care? One word….MONEY. It has nothing to do, honestly, with their desire to see women birth safely. They know that the studies and numbers for the safety of PLANNED out of hospital birth with a TRAINED attendant speak for themselves and are undeniable, regardless of how many stories are told. It has been proven to be equally safe numerous times. NC doctors just do not want to give up the small percentage of patients who would choose this option as it would make a dent in their income.
And The Business of Being Born is not anti-hospital as the producer herself has a cesarean in the end for a breech baby(transported in by her trained midwife). The information in that movie about hospitals was filmed LIVE in the hospital. So any negative conotation was based on the facts. One doctor in the movie even makes a statement that it shouldn’t matter to a woman whether or not her birth turns out the way she desired it to as long as her baby is healthy. You can’t skew such statements to be negative…..they just are what they are.
I am thankful for hospitals when they are needed….and there are times when they are. Midwives know when they are needed and use them accordingly. It’s not voodoo. It’s just seeing birth as normal and not intervening unless it is necessary.
Well other than being in complete agreement with Melih’s comment…
I recently had a birth at the birth center and I previously had a successful natural birth at presby with my first child.
The experience at the birth center was AMAZING compared to the hospital birth. It was focused around MY needs and what I needed to do rather then hospital protocol and procedure.
I never felt as though my midwife or the birth center couldn’t handle the situation or that they would hesitate to transfer me if they saw fit.
My appts at the birth center rarely lasted less than an hour compared to OB visits with my first that lasted 5-10 minutes.
All that being said, my recovery was much quicker and the baby seemed to have a much smoother transition and I strongly believe that was because of my birth experience at CCMC.
I think the ladies of the US are devastatingly under educated. SO many women experience these overly traumatic births in hospitals and spend the rest of their lives spreading fear to their daughters and other woman about birth.
I have had three children, one in the hospital, where I did almost die (thanks to the medical professionals, though they will NEVER admit this) one at home in the water and the third at home beside my bed and she was breech.
I felt safe and calm in those two home births in their entirety as opposed to the hospital where I was terrified the whole time. I went in excited and ready to bring my baby into the world naturally but the nurses and doctors had me in a state of fear and panic the whole time.
My wish for any woman reading this is to PLEASE PLEASE educate yourself from both sides. Don’t take your doctors word. Get your own research and do what feels RIGHT to you. Don’t compromise when it comes to your health and the health of your child, you could regret it for the rest of your life.
I’m glad others chimed in 🙂
Excellent, family oriented maternity care is available both in birth centers and in hospitals, with midwives, nurse midwives and physicians. The unfortunate problem is that it is not the mainstream norm, and women/families must go through a tremendous amount of work and effort to find them. It’s important to avoid over-simplifying by making broad generalizations about hospitals, midwives or physicians.
I am a nurse midwife, and I encourage friends, family and patients who ask to seek a care provider who “takes you seriously, and listens to your priorities. This does not always mean agreeing with you, but you and your care provider should be able to establish a trust you are comfortable with. If not, change if you can.”
I’m a local area doula and have met most of the midwives at the birth center and think they are amazing. It is such a nice option to have for mothers and i’m so grateful that they opened and look forward to witnessing more births there. Ladies, thank you for what you do.
So glad to see this article – thanks for publishing it! I hope midwifery becomes more accessible to families in North Carolina in the near future.
Actually, I was wondering why CL is afraid of Content? The focus on CCMC is a GREAT start, but what is this article really about? 2/3 of the article is about one woman’s personal birth story, 1/3 of the article tells the facts of how CCMC was started (mentioning nothing about the motives or philosophy of Leigh or the other midwifes practicing there), and approximately ONE sentence (mentioning that midwifery is illegal in NC) refers to why this birthing center is located across the state line. However, this article completely fails to mention any of the ramifications of having to cross a state line if you want to give birth somewhere other than a hospital (ramifications such as, insurance policies that are good in NC, but void in SC). Being able to afford the health care we want (or any health care at all) as Americans is becoming increasingly difficult on a regular basis and it’s a shame CL doesn’t broach this topic when given the opportunity. The article lead-in on the cover of CL (“Why is N.C. afraid of midwives”) is just provocative false advertising for a fluff story.
A couple comments just for clarification. Midwifery, including homebirth midwifery IS legal in North Carolina. The requirement are that the midwife be a Certified Nurse Midwife and have a supervising physician. I know this because I supervise several homebirth midwives in the area. Certified Professional Midwives are not however recognized by the state, and we are working to have that legislation changed. The Senate Health Care Committee, under Sen Bill Purcell, has essentially said that if the Medical Society approves of the change, then they will consider it. This is the current roadblock.
If more constituents were to address the issue of a need for expanded birthing options with their legislators, then things might change, but at present it is mostly the midwives themselves and a small group of supporters, and that is just not enough to make a policy change.
(On a different note, the maternal mortality rate in NC is in the realm of 1/10,000, so most physicians will have far fewer than 1 death/1200 births, in contrast to what one poster alleged. )
Henry Dorn MD
High Point NC
Third North Carolina Homebirth Death This Year!!!
http://skepticalob.blogspot.com/2011/08/third-north-carolina-homebirth-death-so.html
About four weeks ago I made the choice to switch from a hospital birth at CMC Pineville to a more relaxed setting here, at Carolina’s Community Maternity Center. I was already planning on a completely natural birth using Bradley and Hypnobirthing techniques at CMC, but at 31 weeks pregnant I thought the experience would be more intimate at the birth center. My midwife was Lisa, the founder of the company, and It all went downhill from there.. My husband and I met her for a consultation. I was a good candidate being in great health, exactly the correct weight and no complications. Despite being a late transfer, I felt confident in my decision. However, this is when the first red flag flew. Lisa is not what I envisioned a midwife to be… she seemed nervous and uptight, and had the demeanor of a rich business woman. No big deal though, until she described the incident of the infant death a year ago. She complained more about the effect on her business then the horrible tragedy that occurred, using the hospital as a scapegoat despite the fact that yes, if this woman were at the hospital, this child would not have died. I believed her though, and ignored my intuition, because I so dearly wanted to have that experience I longed for.
So, after paying $4500 in cash (yes, even if you come in late, they charge you the whole amount) I had my first appointment. This is when things went wrong. To start, she didn’t have my correct email and thus I never received my intro forms. After complaining that she now had to fill them out, I went to get a urine sample and perform my own test, because in her words, “they don’t want to handle urine all day”. Fair enough. It is only a strip after all. When the results came back, I showed high levels of leukocytes or white blood cells. This is indicative of infection, but Lisa, probably not wanting to raise any concerns and lose my business, blew it off and said it was normal. I told her I did have some irritation down below but I thought it was just from intimate time with my husband. Still she was not concerned. Then, another red flag- I asked her if there was a way to determine whether my pelvis is large enough. I’m a first time mom, so it was just a silly concern but one I had nonetheless. Her answer? “I don’t like to do internal exams. You look alright to me”. What?! You are a midwife who is going to deliver my child, and you don’t like to do internal exams? I left that appointment feeling unheard and slightly embarrassed, not a feeling you should have with the women assisting you in birth.
That next week on Wednesday I felt great and decided to join my mom and stepdad on a road trip to NY to visit family. About four hours in, I developed a backache. I dealt with it for an hour but it progressively got worse. I also developed nausea and fatigue. I called Lisa, told her my symptoms, and what’d she do? Blew it off. Worse, she made me feel silly for even calling, pointing out that I was in the car, so maybe it’s just car sickness? Maybe I’m just sitting wrong? All in a condescending tone. I hung up and suffered through another hour until we were in MD, at which point my mom said we had to stop for the night so I could rest. We got a hotel. I was there thirty minutes before I knew something was terribly wrong. They took me to the nearest ER. Long story short, I had severe pyelonephritis, a kidney infection, from an untreated UTI. Go figure, I guess Lisa should have paid more attention to that abnormal urine sample. I was admitted for two miserable days… fighting pain, fever and nausea. My poor baby had to be monitored due to high heart rates. It was a dangerous situation, but thankfully after IV antibiotics and fluids around the clock, I was discharged. Due to her negligence and financial motivations, myself and my child were put in a life threatening position. I had a blockage in my one of my kidneys due to the severity of the infection and it was by far one of the worst medical experiences of my life. We quickly switched back to my regular OB (but not after losing $500 of the $4500 we paid). After all this, I simply ask you proceed with great caution. You may be lucky and nothing goes wrong, but God forbid it does. After the fact my husband confronted Lisa and all she could do was blame the situation on me while repeating “we are a financial establishment”. Indeed, they are a business and their motivations are profit. Don’t let the “community” “midwife” “natural” marketing fool you. I really wanted this to be what I thought it was, and was devastated when I realized the truth. For now, I’m going to make the best of the hospital experience and be thankful that if anything goes wrong, I will have people who care and can do something to fix it. Birth centers are great, but without a doctor in staff and midwives who take medical concerns seriously, you are putting yourself and your child at great risk.
Maybe this answers the question in the headline: June 4 2015: YORK
The death of a newborn baby at a Fort Mill birthing center in January was a homicide, a York County jury ruled Thursday in a coroner’s inquest.
Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/article23131752.html#storylink=cpy
I wish there was still a place like this open and available. 🙁 No options left besides the hospital :/ and they never listen.