In light of the recent situation with Dr. Wonderful, this is the perfect time to share this story of how one community rallied around a group of CNMs in North Carolina who were similarly abruptly and unceremoniously dismissed, leaving near-term mothers without care. Take heart, San Diegans! They persevered. And eventually prevailed.
A key that a woman named Candice mentions, starting at about 4:50. KEEPING PISSED. I do believe that this is crucial. I often see people, and women in particular, shying away from expressing anger. I feel in my heart of hearts that in many cases this is a mistake. There's a difference between destructive, unhealthy, misguided anger and healthy, focused, centered, grounded and yes, constructive anger. I think Candice is absolutely, positively, 100% right, and I think that this was an essential part of the eventual success of this grassroots action.
Stay pissed, San Diego. Don't get sad and wistful about this. Stay pissed. We're with you.
Most importantly: The big rally is going to be on Friday, May 14th. Important as the Mother's Day rally was, it was a thrown together quickly in order to make an immediate show of support. The Friday rally will be the real shebang. Click here and here for more info.
Finally:ALL of the following is from the organizers of the Facebook page, including more info, details on Friday's rally, and even more things you can do from afar:
Dr. Robert Biter is a unique physician in the San Diego community. He embraces the concept of a woman's right to choose a natural birth. He literally embodies the entire gamut of birthing options that an informed health care provider can offer to a woman and her family in a society that increasingly demands baby-friendly and healthy/organic birthing solutions. In supporting his patients' natural birthing decisions, he also offers the best possible medical and surgical expertise should emergency medical intervention become necessary in the birth process. The patients choose their births, Dr. Biter makes those choices possible as long as the choices are safe, and the patients love him. They call him Dr. Wonderful.
Dr. Biter has held staff privileges at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas in Encinitas, California for the last 8 years. During his time at Scripps, he has held the title of Department Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as having headed up the hospital's ethics committee. He has won Best Doctor in San Diego two years in a row by Ranch and Coast Magazine.
With no warning on Friday May 7, 2010, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas suspended Dr. Biter's obstetrical privileges effective immediately.
Scripps decision to suspend Dr. Biter's privileges has left both Dr. Biter and Dr. Biter's expecting patients reeling and confused. At the most critical time in their pregnancy, Scripps has made it impossible for these women to have the doctor of their choosing deliver their babies; and the likelihood of finding another physician who understands and supports natural birthing is slim to none. The majority of these women would follow Dr. Biter wherever he practices; but for him to establish staff privileges elsewhere is a time intensive endeavor. To make Scripps' actions even more unclear, there have been no claims of obstetrical malpractice filed against Dr. Biter...EVER.
On Mother's Day, May 9, 2010, the local community rallied around Dr. Biter and the message that families want the option to choose natural births in a hospital setting. The result was a Mother's Day rally in support of Dr. Biter held with less than 24-hours notice at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas in Encinitas, California. Approximately 150 people attended.
Scripps Encinitas Hospital has consistently touted themselves as a very holistic, mother-baby friendly hospital. How can they be so mother-baby friendly if they have suspended THE most mother-baby friendly obstetrician in town?
We know that the last couple whose birth he attended had no unforeseen complications that would indicate a need for suspension. The baby had meconium aspiration, which was found only at the time of the c-section. Mother & baby are doing fine. The baby is in the NICU but is breathing & eating on her own. The parents are thrilled with the way that Dr. Biter assisted them during the birth of their daughter & in no way made any complaints against him to bring about the suspension. The father attended the Mother's Day rally even though he had a newborn in the NICU. His wife recuperated in her hospital room while holding a sign that read, "We support Dr. Biter".
Dr. Biter needs to be reinstated immediately so that he can provide continuity of care to his patients that are expected to go into labor at any moment. He is such a dedicated person that he has come up with a backup plan of being an unpaid doula to all his patients that are in labor at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital. Anyone who wants to labor at Scripps Encinitas can change doctors or show up & birth with whoever is on call at the moment, but we believe that most, if not all, his patients will want to stay with him to continue to receive the wonderful care he has provided to them.
Here are the latest things you can do to help:
Please send all letters demanding Dr. Biter's reinstatement to: Dr. Ronald MacCormick, Chief of Staff Scripps Encinitas Hospital 354 Santa Fe Dr Encinitas, CA 92024 His phone number is 760-633-7686 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 760-633-7686end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Ask to leave a voicemail for Dr. MacCormick. Please CC Chris Van Gorder, CEO at: 4275 Campus Point Ct, San Diego, CA 92121.
Please contact your local & state politicians to bring light to this situation: Assemblyman, Martin Garrick Assemblyman, Nathan Fletcher Susan Davis Francine Busby Barbara Boxer Diane Feinstein
Write letters to the editor to the local news media & newspapers highlighting Dr. Biter's suspension & the travesty of it. Call them to alert them of the upcoming rally this Friday (details below).
Write on your car windows with window paint: Bring Dr. Biter Back! The more people that know about this issue, the better! Sheri Menelli will have window crayons at the morning daily vigils in front of Scripps from 9-11 am so stop by & get your windows decorated.
Go show your support at a daily vigil in front of Scripps Encinitas hospital every day until he is reinstated. The vigils will be held from 9-11 am everyday until he is reinstated.
Come to the Bring Dr. Biter Back Rally this Friday, May 14th from 1:30-3:30 pm in front of Scripps Encinitas hospital. We need a lot of people so bring friends, family & neighbors. Kids & babies welcome! Wear green in significance of peace, nature & eco-consciousness, which are all thing Dr. Biter supports. RSVP at the I love Dr. Biter fan page EVENT page. Ricki Lake, author, actress & filmmaker will be there along with Anna Getty, author, actress, great-granddaughter of John Paul Getty III and creator or Pregnancy Awareness Month. There may be other celebrity supporters there as well.
We have a blog (www.bringbiterback.blogspot.com) or the I love Dr. Biter Facebook fan page that will keep you updated with the latest information.
Time is of the essence. He must get reinstated within the next 9 days or his case will go in front of the Medical Board, therefore, delaying any chance of him getting reinstated in the near future.
Dr. Robert Biter was given the name Dr. Wonderful by the well-known and loved blogger Navelgazing Midwife. We birth bloggers often make disclaimers (either preemptively or when directly accused of being 'anti-doctor') when criticizing common obstetric practices and attitudes, stating variations upon the theme of "We know there are exceptions, we know there are good, caring, incredible doctors out there who honor birth and babies and understand the pitfalls of intervention." This man IS the exception. He embodies it. Let me give you a taste, from the aforementioned blog. The text and beautiful photography are all hers. Her homebirth-planning client needed to change to a hospital setting, and lucky for everyone, Dr. Biter was there:
The (wonderful, amazing) nurse (we had) did a vaginal exam and found mom to be 3 cm. The nurse and I began preparing mom for a cesarean - physically and emotionally. I explained the cesarean procedure, the epidural... and the nurse said the anesthesiologist would do a spinal because the spinal would be faster... and I explained things to dad, tried to get his garb for him to put on, but we were busy getting consents signed and all. Waiting for the doctor seemed endless. Fetal heart tones were dipping into the 90's and not getting any higher than 110 with accelerations. I kept calm, but was clear and sharp with the information.
My dear doctor was on the phone at the nurse's station when I went out to go ask his ETA and our nurse said, "Do you want to talk to him?" and I emphatically said, "YES!" before the other nurse hung up and said he was on his way in.
Dr. Wonderful floated into the room like a silk scarf on perfumed air, filled with more confidence and hope than I carried - more like a midwife than I was at that moment. He did a vaginal exam and immediately, the baby's heart rate jumped to 148! She loved his touch on her head. Oh, and how I did, too. Mom had also progressed to 6 cm. in the last 30 minutes. Amazing!
Tears fell from my eyes as I watched the baby's heart rate settle back down into the low 100's (90's/100's) and the doctor suggested taking a whiff of oxygen every few minutes when she felt like it instead of keeping it on all the time like she had been. He also told her she didn't have to lie on her left side... to move wherever she wanted to - oh, how she wanted to be on her hands and knees! He said the baby was just low, having a vagal response and there was no need for a cesarean at all.
And me, thinking he needed a scalpel. How precipitous I would have been as a surgeon! Thank the goddess it wasn't me making that decision.
Interjection from me: How moving is that shot? Believe it or not, there's an OB in that picture: Dr. Wonderful is on the left. Yes, really. Sitting patiently on the bed with her, calmly being the essence of watchful waiting. Lights lowered, mom upright and naked and doing her own thing, as support simply stands by without being intrusive. This photograph is equally revealing:
As Navelgazing Midwife writes of her shot:
I love, Love, LOVE this photo. It speaks of the beauty a hospital birth can actually attain when given a chance with the right doctors, nurses and hospital. And supportive midwife as doula. Because we thought she would need a cesarean, we had mom take off her gorgeous Hawaiian dress and mom was then naked. The great nurse handed mom a hospital gown once mom knew she was going to stay laboring in that room and she promptly took the gown, put it in front of her and puked all over it. I thought I was going to pee in my pants from laughing so hard. No one ever offered her another gown.
The birth unfolds further (you really must read the whole thing; I'm cutting it up for length and space), with more description and wonderful photography, and then this:
Dad wasn't sure about catching, was going to help me catch when we were having a homebirth, but wasn't so sure about it at the hospital. Once there, though, I'd talked him into helping the doc and even had him practice washing his hands with the fancy foot soap and water thingie at the sink. Once the doctor was there, though, he was more nervous, but as things got closer, I put my midwife voice on and said, "You will only birth this child ONE TIME, so I HIGHLY suggest..." and that was as far as I needed to go before he jumped up and washed his hands and got ready to help the doc catch his baby.
Do you see the doctor in this picture? He's the one not in scrubs. The one in the yellow shirt.
In 24 years and 8 months of assisting women in birth in the hospital, I have never seen a woman birth on hands and knees. I've never seen an OB or a CNM allow a woman to birth in the hands and knees position. I have never seen an OB do a vaginal exam on a woman in any position except on her back until this birth when this doctor did a vaginal exam with mom on her hands and knees. I actually wondered if he could even find her vagina with her on her hands and knees! He didn't have any problems at all. Shocking. I think I've seen a CNM do a vaginal exam on a woman in an "alternative" position maybe 20 times in all these years, so even that is a sad commentary. I tell women I can find their vagina or fetal heart tones if they are hanging from chandeliers! How did I get so good at it? PRACTICE!
Anyway, so here my client has her baby on her hands and knees... her husband helps the doc catch and it is amazingly wonderful, but now mom needs to see her new daughter. How does that happen?
In most hospital worlds (as if any of the above would have happened in the first place), the cord would be cut, mom would be flipped over, the bed would be broken, mom would have her feet placed in the stirrups so she could have her vagina checked and she'd get her baby that way. Instead, Dr. Wonderful, who's not wearing scrubs and only a pair of surgical gloves, doesn't cut the cord and knows how important it is to just give mom her kidlet says, "Okay, mom... here comes your daughter... ready?" And then passes her between her legs.
I love, Love, LOVE that I have this picture! There won't be many times in my life that I will have a photo such as this. This is a DOCTOR (I know, I shouldn't be shocked anymore, should I? But I am. I am mostly shocked that I am blessed to be in the same room and photographing such an awe-inspiring event that brings hope to hospital birth everywhere).
I end the series with a tender surprise photo I took of Dr. Wonderful with my client. He embraced her, then she him. He with tears in his eyes and both of them whispering thanks to each other.
Utterly incredible, right? The way hospital birth should be all the time, whenever possible, right?
So why am I going on and on about this right now? I mean, the post and story and photography are all sublime and could be marveled at anytime, so why the urgency?
Well, I'm sorry to report that Dr. Wonderful has just lost his privileges at Scripps hospital in San Diego, leaving expectant mothers without care (though other care providers are stepping up to fill the formidable void, including the Navelgazing Midwife herself, who has a long history with Dr. Biter) and, equally important, taking one of the most progressive OB's in existence out of the picture, for reasons that have everything to do with his willingness to support mothers, for being "too slow on the decision-to-incision".
This is an absolute TRAVESTY. THIS is one of the good guys. THIS is one of the doctors who has the guts to stand up for women in the face of our largely atrocious maternity care system. THIS is one of the few OB's to whom I would ever entrust my or my child's well-being - and that's saying a lot. He stood with mothers and gave them and their babies time and care and choices. So of course this was inevitable. The timing of this, by the way, comes on the heels of the recent closing of St. Vincent's in New York, the hospital to which many home birth midwives could transfer. The battle claims another casualty.
His supporters in San Diego and surrounding areas have pulled together a rally for tomorrow, on Mother's Day. If you are in the area, GO! If you know anyone in the area who cares about birth SEND THEM! I wish I were in San Diego to fight the good fight with and for him. We cannot take this lying down. Literally or figuratively.
INFO:
Come and show your support for Dr. Biter tomorrow (MOTHER'S Day) by attending a protest in front of Scripps Encinitas: Scripps Encinitas: 354 Santa Fe Drive, Encinitas, CA 92024 11AM-1:30PM Wear Green! Bring Signs! (and a lunch, snacks, water, etc.) Babies and kids welcome.
Dr. Biter, if by any odd chance you read this, PLEASE do not give up caring for women in exactly the way you have been. Please take heart and know that there are women across the country who know what you do and how vitally important it is. We need you, and others like you. And our babies need you.
*****
Edited to add:
More news. Here's how awesome he is, as if you needed more evidence: For the time being, he "is now offering to attend his patients as an unpaid doula at Sharp Mary Birch so that he can offer his patients the support they need, until this gets resolved."
AS AN UNPAID DOULA. How many doctors do you think would ever even THINK of doing such a humble, gracious thing? That says everything there is to say about this man's intentions and character.
Edited yet again to add:
Here's what we non-locals can do to help from a distance:
Write a letter to the CEO of Scripps Encinitas: Chris Van Gorder--President & CEO of Scripps 4275 Campus Point Court San Diego, CA 92121
Please send copies to awelllivedlife[at]hotmail.com
