Unskilled Midwifery And The Unnecessary Death Of Baby Gavin Michael

What happened here? Dr Amy Tuteur is an OBGYN who has been writing against homebirth for years on her blog, the Skeptical OB. Having followed the case from the time Tritten solicited medical advice on the internet, she obtained the following information from a source:

“The parents and midwife had gone for a biophysical profile on Wed 2/19 in the morning. The amniotic fluid was 0, supposedly everything else was normal. The midwife then did a NST with a hand held doppler and told the parents baby sounded good and to go home and drink lots of fluid and take a bath. They repeated the BPP later that afternoon. There was still no amniotic fluid and an NST with hand held doppler was again “good”.

A biophysical profile was repeated the following day, Thursday 2/20. There was still no amniotic fluid, and listening with hand held doppler revealed a heart rate in the 90′s.

The midwife called Dr. X (he provides backup for many homebirth midwives their city) and told him the biophysical profile was normal, but heart tones were “variable.” He told her to immediately come in. She didn’t share with Dr. X that they were at at an ultrasound office attached to Hospital Y. They left that hospital and the midwife got in the car with the clients, put oxygen on the mother and drove 30 minutes to Hospital Z where Dr. X was located. They were immediately taken for a cesarean. They worked on baby for 47 minutes before they stopped.”

So, what does Jan Tritten have to say about all this? Exactly nothing. Those who inquired about what happened had their Facebook comments deleted, but Tuteur didn't let that stop her. Further online evidence eventually led her to identify Christy Collins CPM as the primary midwife.

Collins gave herself away by addressing the incident on Facebook, and though she denied having been the primary midwife in this case, she was also found to have written the following:

“I wish I could go back in time, and have said stronger words – enough to make you hate me, and fell you had no choice but to go into the hospital the day before. I could’ve lived with you hating me, over this feeling of devastation.

I know we say that we don’t know if it would’ve been any different; maybe he would’ve been very sick, but alive. I don’t know. But I wish I wouldn’t pushed much hard and said the things that we never want to hear the ‘experts’ say…

I blame me. I would rather have you hate me for pushing you harder into a bad birth experience … so you could hold a live baby instead.”

See Also: SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Collins lives in Nevada, a state without oversight of midwives. She will not be held legally accountable for the preventable death of a baby, but that doesn't mean there is nothing we can do.