Troubled Arkansas midwife practicing still in Oklahoma
A midwife with an open warrant for practicing without a license in Arkansas is delivering babies in Oklahoma, a state with no oversight of non-nurse midwives.
Certified professional midwife Debra Disch's troubled past came to light on Aug. 17 after an Oklahoma mother who had hired Disch shared her traumatic out-ofhospital birth experience on Facebook.
Suzie Bigler's post went viral, garnering more than 1,900 likes, 660 comments and 2,100 shares in less than a week. Her story also was picked up by at least one TV station.
Bigler didn't know about her midwife's outstanding warrant or previous problems until after her delivery.
“I can't believe I didn't look ,” said Big l er ,27, of Spiro. “I was very trusting.”
Big le rh ad labored for nearly three days before Disch del i vered her baby at an unlicensed birthing home in Roland, on May 27, them other said. The
boy emerged lifeless and required resuscitation. Bigler also hemorrhaged so much that her blood count was nearly half the normal amount, she said.
Both mother and baby were rushed to a hospital. They are now doing well, though the baby spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit and t he mother underwent surgery as a result of the birth trauma, Bigler said.
Disch had been delivering babies unlawfully in Arkansas for years when the Arkansas Board of Health became aware of her in 2014. Although Disch is certified by the North American Registry of Midwives, she never got licensed by the state of Arkansas, which is required for practice.
Two years later, in January 2016, the Scott County District Court issued Disc ha warrant for practicing midwifery without a license. Around the same time, t he Arkansas Board of Health fined and effectively barred Disch from obtaining a midwifery license, saying she demonstrated “a lack of regard for the clinical safety and disregard for Arkansas law governing the practice of midwifery.”
The board also determined Disch had delivered twins and helped women birth vaginally at home after previous Cesarean sections. The state bans both practices even for licensed midwives.
Di sch isn' t the first midwife to relocate to Oklahoma and continue practicing after facing discipline elsewhere.
Non-nurse mid wife Venessa Giron moved her practice to Oklahoma after her license was revoked in Arkansas in January 2016, a recent GateHouse Media investigation found. And Dawn Karl in, who lost her Oklahoma nurse midwife license last year after two fatal attempted home births, continues to practice in the state as a non-nurse midwife.
Oklahoma does not license or regulate nonnurse mid wives, so anyone can adopt the title of midwife and practice as one. And they can do so with few repercussions for substandard care. There is no state agency for families to turn to when things go wrong, and there are few ways for mothers to vet their midwives.
“That just shows it' s too easy in Oklahoma, if anybody can do it,” said Oklahoma state Rep. Lundy Kiger, R-Poteau, who represents Bigler's district. “It puts the child at risk.”
Tattoo artists are regulated, he said. “Childbirth can be a little more dangerous than getting a tattoo.”
Di sch lives in Fort Smith, Arkansas, but she told GateHouse Media she no longer practices in the state and serves clients only in Oklahoma. Disch's website, by contrast, says she serves the “Fort Smith River Valley of Arkansas” in addition to eastern Oklahoma.
Text messages obtained by GateHouse Media also show Disch telling Bigler she could birth at Disch's Fort Smith cottage — evidence the midwife might still be practicing unlawfully in her home state.
The Arkansas Department of Health declined to comment.
Law enforcement will travel only 50 miles within the state for misdemeanor warrants, the county sheriff's office said. Fort Smith is 55 miles from Scott County.
Gate House Media obtained a copy of t he warrant, but Disch disputed its existence, saying she had a “very reputable source in the judicial system” who checked into it for her.
“I was a midwife long before the licensing thing came out,” said Disch. “At that time and still now, t he Arkansas protocols take away the parents' choices.”
Arkansas began licensing non-nurse midwives in 1987.
Disch said she never hid the fact that she was unlicensed in Arkansas from clients.
“They had to know ,” Disch said of her clients. “That was the only way I could do that.”
In an affidavit submitted for the warrant, one of her former clients said she believed Disch was a licensed midwife when she hired her in 1999 and again for four subsequent births.
In 2015, the mother said she planned on using Disch for a birth but discovered through her local health department that she was unlicensed.
“If people ask about my past, I' m happy to talk about,” Disch said. “I'm not trying to hide that part of my life.”
But because Big l er didn't ask, she said she didn't know about Disch's past. The first-time mother said she would not have hired her otherwise.
“Everything was perfect, until it wasn' t ,” Bigler said. “It's just that when things got bad, they got bad really quickly.”
Bigler was more than a week over due when she started having contractions. After laboring at home for 32 hours, Bigler said, she went to the birthing home and labored an additional 37 hours. Several times, she said, Disch attempted to hasten delivery by pressing on Bigler's abdomen.
In a text message, Disch later apologized to Bigler for pushing on her belly. The midwife also admitted she should have transferred Bigler to the hospital earlier.
“I should have transferred you when you couldn' t push hard enough on your own ,” Disch wrote in one text message.
Instead of transferring, Disch let Bigler continue to labor. After hours of continuing to labor, Bigler said, Disch realized the baby was malpositioned. She eventually decided to perform anep is iotomy to get the baby out, even though she said she had never done it before, Bigler said.
When baby Spencer was born, he emerged lifeless.
“I remember thinking over and over, `He should be crying,'” Bigler said, through tears. So she started talking to him. “I was just pleading and pleading with him to talk to me.”
While attempting to resuscitate Spencer, the midwife dr o pped hi m, Bigler said. The boy eventually began breathing.
Around the same time, Big le rs aid, she began hemorrhaging. Only then were Bigler and her baby transferred to the hospital. By the time Bigler arrived, her blood count was nearly half the normal amount, the mother said.
Bigler underwent surgery to remove blood clots and repair her episiotomy. And Spencer was found to have a hematoma — localized bleeding — due to the injury.
Bigler and Spencer both were stabilized and left the hospital several days later without any major issues, though Spencer's hematoma is still visible and Bigler is still taking iron to supplement her blood supply.
“I don' t know that I could live with myself if the outcome would have been different ,” Bigl er said.
Disch did not comment on the specific soft he birth, citing the federal law restricting release of medical information, HIPAA.
“I' m sorry she' s unhappy ,” Di sch said. “There are two sides to every story, and my hands are pretty tied.”
Since Bigler shared her story publicly, she said, several mothers and local medical providers have reached out to her privately, sharing their own troubling experiences with Disch.
“I felt an obligation to the women in our community to get it out there,” Bigler said. “It was so horrific, I would never want anyone else to experience that.”