Some of you who have been reading this blog might remember our incredible natural childbirth story from last June after Ephrata Hospital and Aetna failed us miserably. The midwife who (literally) saved the day for us went on to suffer at the hands of the PA Board Of Medicine in court for months, as they tried to "make an example" out of her so as to put a damper on the growing homebirth movement in Pennsylvania. Our family attended a rally held for Diane in December of last year. Well, I'm extremely happy to report that Diane Goslin of Lancaster County has won a complete reversal of the "charges" against her in Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court! Here's the press release, courtesy of Pennsylvania Families For Safe Birth:
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In a stinging blow to both the Pennsylvania Medical Board and the Pennsylvania Medical Society, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court reversed all three rulings the PA Board of Medicine had issued against Diane Goslin:
- The Cease and Desist Order;
- the $10,000 fine for the unlicensed practice of medicine; and
- the $1,000 fine for the unlicensed practice of midwifery.
Pennsylvania midwife Diane Goslin may now legally attend births.
PA Commonwealth Court Justice Friedman opined that "practicing midwifery cannot be construed to be the same as practicing medicine..." Therefore, the court reversed the egregious and erroneous PA Board of Medicine ruling.
Additionally, the Court found that the PA medical"Board deprived [Diane Goslin] of due process" rights as required by Pennsylvania law.
The Court further pointed out that the 1985 PA Nurse-Midwifery Act, "...authorizes the Board to impose penalties only upon persons who practice as a nurse-midwife without a nurse-midwife license." Goslin practices as a Certified Professional Midwife.
PA Commonwealth Ruling
News Releases
Harrisburg News
Philadelphia News
York Daily Record
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You can read more about homebirth and the grassroots movement at the Save HomeBirth web site
All Susan and I can say is "woohoo" for Diane!
Oh, and by the way Carys is doing wonderfully & is getting her first tooth at 11 months...
Jeff- Congrats to Diane! I am so happy for her. The charges were so typical of the controlling and misguided medical boards who are against natural anything! Well, gee, I wonder why, Big Pharma pays their bills! I am so glad that she won. Now we have to be proactive in fighting for our parental rights. The International Treaty would trump any state law in regards to parental rights, so if some x@#$% in the government decided it was not in the best interest of your child to be birthed at home the child could be taken away from you and no due process would be required. I just finished a workshop on this. I will let you know when I post about the amendment we will need to get passed.
Jeff, congratulations to Diane! I'm glad her ordeal is over. It seems like the PA Board of Medicine acted like a union in this case, trying to protect its members from competition.
Jeff,
So glad you posted on this...much more well put than I could do it. So I linked a few times to your 'incredible natural childbirth story' as well as to this post. My blog is mostly homeschool stuff but I wanted to take the good news about Diane and use it to get the word out about midwifery and homebirth. This is great news and I am soooo thankful! I will never forget how the Lord used her in your lives!
Check out www.heritageacademyblog.com for my short post on the matter!
Andrea C.
Thanks all! It was very gratifying to see the decision.