Can you check out the link for the comment? It was just redirecting to the main page.

While I do feel sorry for them, they were an educated couple, and they should have known that after a certain time in labor, medical help might be needed. Three days of labor would indicate to me that a doctor should be called.

Choices like this get romantsized when all goes well, which is a large percentage of the time.

But your best birth choice is to be in a place that can handle any emergency for either the mom or the baby immediately.

They did not make the wisest choice. Should they be sued?

Weird. The link is correct. I reentered it and it works now.

Thanks, suebe. It worked for me now.

I am floored that the couple, scratch that, the WOMAN who was in labor for 3 whole days and didn't call 911 or a doctor or anybody for help! The hell? I'm just going to echo what was already said above me: they were smart people who should have used some common sense and extra discretion (this being their firstborn and all) and dragged her the block and a half to the hospital.

Suing won't bring their child back from the grave, but perhaps it serves as a reminder to this midwife to get her sh!t together - she already settled for nearly a million dollars for another screw up in the past, maybe she needs to make some adjustments and have a better support team/network of professionals, I don't know.

But seriously, did this family research her past records at all or did they just go with her because they saw her in a movie? It's not like they were picking a chef to cater their party, they're trusting someone to bring their child into the world. Both parties are to blame here if you ask me...

I was in labor from Friday morning until almost midnight Sunday, 3 days.
And I was in the hospital. That in itself doesn't mean there will be issue, I didn't have any.

But a trained midwife should have known if something was wrong or not.

But to say she is to blame? I dunno, her credentials might say so.

To be in labor for 3 days in a hospital would scare me enough to not risk my or possibly my babies life by winging it at home. Even with a whole team of nurses and doctors in a hospital, sometimes things can go awry or unexpected complications happen. Why these people chose to rough it out at home despite knowing all this is still beyond me.

Great, talk it up. Get help. don't fuck around.

ZOMG - so people, instead of doing actual research, listened to the TV and their plan backfired?? And now they want to sue??

What a crock of sh!t !!!!

Forgive me for being much less than sympathetic - but if the madam in question lived mere minutes from a hospital, why did phoning said institution seem to evade the thoughts of all persons present? Surely, any individual or set of individuals planning on contradicting their physician's advice would at least make sure emergency plans are in place? Oh, I guess that's just me. N/m, sue away for ignorance, eh

That's what I thought, too...but then I remembered the New York magazine article the midwife was discussed in. She seemed to have a rather forceful personality, and be really set on homebirths... one woman in the article *bragged* about her long-timed labor and how she continued doing chores. In that article, the midwife was adamant that birth takes time, etc, births shouldn't be induced, yada yada.
My only thought that would justify the lawsuit would be if the midwife really pressured the family not to call.. the other article really made it sound like that was the case. One other family switched from the midwife to a hospital, and the midwife was not particularly kind in discussing their leaving; she made it sound like a moral failing for using modern medicine.