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Judges Back Midwife

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 June 2008, 15:00 CDT

By Larry Alexander

Popular Lancaster County midwife Diane Goslin is free to go back to doing the work she loves: birthing babies.

A decision by all seven Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judges meeting as a body overturned an $11,000 fine and lifted a cease-and- desist order filed against Goslin in September by the state Board of Medicine.

The board said Goslin was putting women and babies at risk through home birth and ordered her to stop.

The Commonwealth Court judges ruled that the Board of Medicine erred in part because it incorrectly concluded that Goslin was practicing medicine and surgery as part of her services.

The 5-2 ruling by the judges, handed down Friday, means Goslin can go back to work.

Goslin, 50, of New Providence, called the ruling a real day of victory for women and families throughout the commonwealth.

I think the court has demonstrated wisdom and sensibility in upholding a woman's right to birth her child with the caretaker of her choice, Goslin said Friday.

Goslin, who has delivered more than 5,000 babies during the past 28 years - 21 of those years in Lancaster County, mostly among the Amish - said the ordeal has been very trying.

These women and these families that I served for 21 years here in Lancaster County, they are like family to me, she said. Then to be told I could no longer serve them.

In some families, Goslin has delivered as many as 15 children.

Goslin's most recent problems began in 2005 when an infant died the day after she aided in its birth at an Amish home. Goslin said the death was not related to her services and that in 5,000 births she has had just three nongenetic deaths, usually involving problems with the umbilical cord.

None of those would have been preventable, even in a hospital, she said.

Indeed, the state did not call her competency into question, but rather accused her of practicing without a license.

Goslin, whose own children were delivered at home, said she underwent an intensive licensing program through the North American Registry of Midwives and is a certified professional midwife.

We have to keep current, Goslin said. Every three years we have to show continuing education.

While 25 states recognize midwives certified by NARM, however, Pennsylvania does not.

There are more than 20 CPMs in Pennsylvania, including about a half-dozen in Lancaster County, but Goslin said she has been made the test case because she has delivered more babies than any other midwife in the state.

The state recognizes nurse midwives, but Goslin, who is not a nurse, said the nurse-midwife concept doesn't work in Lancaster County because nurse midwives work mostly in doctors' offices and hospitals while most Plain families prefer to have their babies at home.

They want to be in the safe and familiar environment of their own home, she said.

The grueling ordeal has cost Goslin most of her practice, she said, as well as more than $100,000 in legal expenses - and even more, if lost income is factored in. She said she's not worried, because her business was built by word of mouth, and she expects that will happen again.

Rather, she considers herself as having carried the torch for the next generation of midwives and families to have the right to choose where they birth their children and who they want present to help.

This marks the third time the Board of Medicine has gone after Goslin.

Other attempts were made in 1990 and 1996. Both times the cases were dropped.

After this latest defeat, Goslin said the Board of Medicine is mad and she does not expect them to roll over. She expects the board to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court.

Until then, Goslin said she will go back to helping young mothers bring new life into the world.

I've been at this 27 years, she said. I feel it is a calling and a gift.

E-mail: lalexander@lnpnews.com

(c) 2008 Intelligencer Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Source: Intelligencer Journal

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