Miami-Dade College, the largest institute of higher learning in the U.S., closes its midwifery program, citing economic distress. The students and community protest, citing Governor Crist’s Black Infant Health Initiative (BIHI).
MIAMI, FL. (August 20, 2008) — The prevailing economic climate is forcing colleges like Miami-Dade College in Miami, Florida, to eliminate programs. On August 1, the midwifery program received the ax, leaving prospective students destitute.
Those students organized a rally, on August 8, to protest the closing of the program at a meeting the College scheduled as “informational.” The College officials vowed to return their money and directed the students to pursue vocational options within the Medical Center Campus.
Abandoned and enraged students contacted their officials, ranging from the College Board of Trustees and President Eduardo Padron, to Florida legislators Sen. Frederica Wilson and Sen. Larcenia Bullard and members of the Healthcare Council. The ultimate goal was to gather the voices of citizens concerned with the rising infant mortality among African-Americans.
According to the Florida Department of Health, Black infants in Miami-Dade County are more than twice as likely to die as those born to White mothers. This ratio is evident across socioeconomic factors and is not limited to that county. The problem is so widespread that Governor Crist signed House Bill 1269, the Black Infant Health Initiative (BIHI), to alleviate the disparities.
Medicaid pays for half of all births in Florida at a time when there are less obstetric providers due to rising malpractice insurance. Maternal care provided by midwives cost half of the care provided by hospital physicians. These midwives are better able to reach the communities affected by the disparities because they represent those same populations.
This may be the same old story. America has a history of disenfranchising black women in the teaching and direct healthcare professions, reaching an acme amidst the Civil Rights Era. Strangely enough, Miami-Dade College was a model serving as the first integrated college in Florida during that era.
Miami-Dade College is not the only institution in the South that has cut its midwifery program. The Medical University of South Carolina and the University of Miami just closed theirs. And the University of South Florida closed their program in 2003, leaving only the University of Florida in Gainesville, and Emory University in Atlanta.
Although the prospective Miami-Dade College midwifery students may be feeling demoralized, they move forward in the fight to keep their program and to save the lives of babies in Florida. The students continue to organize and prepare for what may be a repeat of the lunch counter sit-in at Woolworth–a movement revisited.
For more information, visit http://mdcmidwives.blogspot.com.
It saddens me to see formal education programs for midwives failing to thrive, but it doesn’t surprise me.
Like natural birth and breastfeeding promotion, there is so little financial incentive for midwifery to flourish – no industry driving the demand. Unless we find ourselves with a national health system, where the incentive goes to better health of all citizens, rather than higher profit for the system. This is in contrast to our current sick-care system, which is very good and quite profitable.
Except in the long-term and in “health capital,” no one makes much money (except the individual families and their extensions) when a woman breastfeeds her infant. Similarly, no industry makes a lot of money when a woman quietly births her baby, safely at home.