Full Text of SR0189 94th General Assembly
SR0189 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The Constitution of the State of Illinois provides | 3 |
| for "the health, safety and welfare of the people" and the | 4 |
| "opportunity for the fullest development of the individual"; | 5 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, Four thriving Illinois nurse-midwifery homebirth | 7 |
| practices have closed or discontinued homebirth services in the | 8 |
| past ten years; and | 9 |
| WHEREAS, One of these practices, Alivio Medical Center in | 10 |
| Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, combined the services of | 11 |
| nurse-midwives and direct-entry midwives to provide innovative | 12 |
| and culturally-sensitive homebirth services for an | 13 |
| under-served, low-income, low-literacy, Mexican-American and | 14 |
| immigrant community (93 percent Medicaid patients) and was | 15 |
| recognized by the American College of Nurse Midwives' Kitty | 16 |
| Ernst Award in 1998, and won the Unicef Safe Motherhood | 17 |
| Initiative-USA Model Awards in 1999 and 2000; and | 18 |
| WHEREAS, Seventeen Illinois direct-entry midwifery | 19 |
| homebirth practices have closed following the issuance of cease | 20 |
| and desist orders in 1997; and | 21 |
| WHEREAS, While the above-mentioned closing of the | 22 |
| midwifery practices occurred for a variety of reasons, | 23 |
| including the malpractice crisis and the issuance of cease and | 24 |
| desist orders, the overall impact on families is a detrimental | 25 |
| reduction of maternity care options; and | 26 |
| WHEREAS, Legally recognized homebirth practices | 27 |
| (nurse-midwifery and/or physician practices) are found in only | 28 |
| 5 of 102 Illinois Counties (Cook, Bureau, DuPage, Lake, and | 29 |
| Winnebago counties), and all of these practices are located in | 30 |
| the northern half of the State; and |
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| WHEREAS, According to a survey of Illinois birth | 2 |
| certificates, in 2003, 738 Illinois births occurred without a | 3 |
| trained birth attendant (neither a medical person nor a | 4 |
| midwife); and | 5 |
| WHEREAS, Unattended birth is less safe than birth attended | 6 |
| by trained providers; and | 7 |
| WHEREAS, All well-designed homebirth studies show that for | 8 |
| women with low-risk pregnancies, planned homebirth attended by | 9 |
| a trained maternity care provider is as safe as hospital birth; | 10 |
| and | 11 |
| WHEREAS, Oprah Winfrey, J. D. Salinger, Roseanne Barr, | 12 |
| Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Duke Ellington, Mother Theresa, | 13 |
| Albert Einstein, Andy Warhol, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, and | 14 |
| Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, | 15 |
| Richard Nixon, and John F. Kennedy were all born at home; and | 16 |
| WHEREAS, Cindy Crawford, Rikki Lake, Demi Moore, Lucy | 17 |
| Lawless, Meryl Streep, Lisa Bonet, Carol King, Pamela Anderson, | 18 |
| Jade Jagger, and Kelly Preston have all given birth at home; | 19 |
| therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL | 21 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that the Senate finds it | 22 |
| unacceptable that many Illinois mothers are without adequate | 23 |
| maternity care providers; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That it is in the State's best interest to ensure | 25 |
| access to all safe maternity care options; and be it further | 26 |
| RESOLVED, That the Senate recognizes that home births are a | 27 |
| healthy method of delivering babies; and be it further |
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| RESOLVED, That Illinois families, in order to best meet | 2 |
| personal needs and desires, should be free to choose among all | 3 |
| safe, nationally recognized maternity care options, including | 4 |
| free-standing birth centers and home birth; and be it further | 5 |
| RESOLVED, That as the General Assembly grapples with | 6 |
| solving the crisis
in OB/GYN service, the roles of midwives be | 7 |
| included in the discussion.
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