Two articles in the same paper having to do with moms, babies and hospitals named St. Joe:
Story # 1
Sister Margaret McBride was a senior administrator of St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix. Last year a 27 year old mother of four was admitted. She was 11 weeks pregnant and very ill. Lifesaving treatment required terminating the pregnancy. Along with Sister McBride a team consisting of the patient, her family, her doctors and the Ethics committee made the decision to save the mother's life.
Sister McBride was excommunicated.
The bishop's office said, "The mother's life cannot be preferred over the child's."
Story # 2
As we all know, there are way too many C-sections in the country. St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul has the lowest C-section rate in the country. Just one in 10 babies is delivered surgically. This wasn't always the case.
St. Joe's executives attribute the low use of C-sections to - women turning back to midwives.
"Midwives are trained to see labor as (a natural process)."
"We OBs are trained to see labor as a disaster waiting to happen."
Both of the stories above have to do with Catholic Church/Hospitals. To me, the difference in the decision making has to do with who made them.
Moms decided to take charge of their bodies and go back to midwives and natural birth when possible.
The decision to excommunicate the nun was made by old men who've chosen to separate themselves from real life.
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