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Daily Egyptian THURSDAY
COLUMN, PAGE 5: Gus Bode says to get out and explore southern Illinois
AUGUST 27, 2009
VOLUME 95, NO. 4
16 PAGES
Childbirth choices lacking in Carbondale
JULIA RENDLEMAN | D AILY E GYPTIAN Alexis Brown plays with her daughter Ella Jane, 1, at her home in Pamona. Brown delivered Ella in the water with certified nurse midwife Joy Wayman. Brown’s other children, age 3 and 5, were delivered with a physician at Memorial Hospital in Carbondale. “Joy encouraged me to listen to my body and trust the process of birth,” Brown said. Although Brown had a “great physician and relationship with him,” she said the midwife experience left her feeling “empowered and proud of myself.”
Area women left Joy-less Julia Rendleman Diana Soliwon Rebekah Teel was in her third trimester when she found out Shawnee Women’s Health had abruptly fired her midwife. Teel’s original birth plan was with Joy Wayman, the last local certified nurse midwife in the MurphysboroCarbondale area before she was fired
May 15. Teel said she was forced to find someone else she felt comfortable with in a very short period of time. She said she decided to travel more than 300 miles to a midwife who delivered her other four children. “The day that Joy told me she could no longer deliver babies at Carbondale Hospital was devastating,”Teel said. Against a national backdrop of ris-
Last local midwife fired ing Cesarean rates and the need for affordable health care, Carbondale is lacking one of the most cost-effective birthing options available in Illinois. Midwifery is the practice of providing low-intervention care during the prenatal, birth and postnatal stages of pregnancy. See JOY | 6
Julia Rendleman Diana Soliwon Certified nurse midwife Joy Wayman delivered more than 1,000 babies in southern Illinois before she lost her privilege to do so. A particular delivery situation that arose in April left Wayman at odds with physicians in her practice at Shawnee Women’s Health.
A week later, Wayman was told by Patsy Jensen, CEO of SWH, that she had lost her privilege to deliver babies. Administrators told her the negative backlash from community members and patients was too great to handle, Wayman said. She was fired May 15. See MIDWIFE | 7
Greek Row to receive new housing Christina Spakousky DAILY EGYPTIAN XTINA25@SIU.EDU
The future of Greek Row is no longer completely uncertain. The existing structures will be torn down by May 2012 to make way for new housing, said Julie
Payne Kirchmeier, director of university housing. In 2004, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the Fire Sprinkler Dormitory Act, which requires dormitories at all colleges and universities in Illinois to have fire sprinkler systems installed by
Jan. 1, 2013. Kirchmeier said it would be too expensive to install new sprinklers in the Greek facilities and the university is now opting to completely replace the old buildings. Greek Row housing was built during the 1950s and has a history of water damage and molding
because of storms. “We’re listening to them, and we know the current facilities are not meeting their needs,” Kirchmeier said. Kirchmeier said the university has some legal decisions in place for private partnerships and is planning
small, group housing to be built in the same area. The group housing will serve as a new Greek Row as well as multi-functional facilities with varying price levels that a wide range of incomes could afford. See GREEK | 8