The Miami Maternity Center is responding to the situation, and saying that there are many false allegations in the original press release.

This statement from Shari Daniels was passed on to me, so I wanted to post it here:

“…I would like to thank all my friends in midwifery who have called, stopped by and/or emailed their support.
I would like to clarify:

1. A Midwife in the area has been charged with Medicaid fraud. I hope she is not guilty, and pray for her daily.

2. We are being ‘looked at’ for our policy of placenta dehydration. Many of us offer our mothers HER placenta dehydrated. We do NOT know or care if she puts it in her garden, in the ocean, or in her tummy. It is popular- I’ts been reported that even Tom Cruise and his wife dined on theirs (personally being a kosher Jew, I’m planting my grandchildrens’ & serving chicken…).

3. We support the ACHA, DEA, FDA, DOE, IRS, CIA and all the other Initials; we know they only want the BEST for all of us.

4. I do know that gossip only HURTS. My personal recommendation? Stop talking so much, support one another, join Friends of Florida Midwives and don’t believe what you HEAR. A famous Jewish ideal is ‘To gossip about someone is the same as to kill them.’ We should all thus be careful of our words.

5. A News team came by the clinic New Year’s Eve and was told we were closed. Meaning, closed for New Year’s Eve… I was actually out back in the center, doing 3 deliveries…thus ‘closed’ hit the media as ’shut down’. Remember, the media always wants sensationalism.

Again, Happy New Year to the many friends out there. May G-d bless and keep you, your Mommies and their babies.”
- Shari

The Miami Herald printed a story as well.

Daniels said Friday that the allegations were utterly wrong. ”This is big brother at its worst.” She said that the center saves dried parts of the placentas of women who give birth at the center and puts them in bags to give the patients, who can do with them what they want. “They’re always clearly marked as to the mother is.”

She said the placentas were not made into pills, as the DOH unit alleged.

”The organs would be ground up all together inside of a coffee grinder and placed into gelatin capsules by MMC staff members,” the release said.

“The ULA investigation also disclosed that as many as 10 to 15 placentas at a time were being placed in layers inside of the MMC dehydration machine creating a cross-contamination hazard.”

Daniels said she had seen the press release. “We’ve denied all the allegations. You can look at our website. Women want their own placentas. Some chose to plant it in a plant. If women don’t want them, we dispose of them as medical waste. These allegations that we cook up 10 or 12 at a time — we don’t have that many births in a day. But a mother has a right to her own body.”
Read full article…

So the issues here seem to be that
a) The quantity of placentas being dehydrated, and
b) The fact that they were put into capsule form.

I agree, a woman absolutely has the right to her own body, and her own baby’s placenta. Placentas should not just be discarded, especially against the wishes of the mother. I believe *that* should be criminal behavior!

I am going to keep a close eye on this story as it develops. The ramifications of this case can, and will, affect everyone involved in this field.