The Birth Survey - reviews are out!

The Birth Survey Now Offers Access to Reviews of Local Maternity Care Providers and Facilities!

Click here to read reviews in your area.

Sign a petition to support all midwives

With the legislative season coming in the United States defining who should be recognized as a midwife is also heating up. Have a read and please sign the petition to support all midwives as care providers. Women need a range of birth options and midwives!

Dear Friends-

A recently revised Position Statement from the American College of Nurse
Midwives (ACNM) seeks to limit recognition of midwifery providers to those who
have received their training through government accredited programs. The North
American Registry of Midwives (NARM) oversees the credentialing of midwives who
have received their training through time honored and evidenced based systems
that emphasize clinical competency over all other criteria (Certified
Professional Midwives-CPMs).

NARM has posted an online petition in an effort to organize our voices and
convince the ACNM to reconsider its position on apprentice trained midwives.
This letter seeks to unite US Midwifery under the common goal of providing women
with access to the provider and setting of their choice for birth.

There are many great opportunities mounting to move midwifery forward on both
the state and national level. We must stand together as a community of midwives
if we are going to have a real voice for change in maternity care. Whether you
are a CPM, CNM, a midwifery consumer, advocate, or none of the above, please go
to :
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/support-evidenced-based-midwifery-education to
read more details about this issue and sign the petition to make your voice
heard.

Respectfully,

The NARM Board of Directors

Superpower BS

I just read on the Momsrising website that:

The U.S is one of only 4 countries that doesn't offer paid leave to new mothers -- the others are Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and Lesotho.

Oh my, I knew things were bad but this is pathetic. Shameful, really. And the stories Momsrising posts from mothers is just heartbreaking to read.

And we call ourselves a Superpower?

Flu Pandemics and Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs)

Something to definitely think about given the numbers with Swine Flu rising.

But, honestly, training more CPM's just makes sense on many more levels (for low risk women it's super mother-friendly and it's ALOT cheaper!!!).

Read below!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Flu Cases Raise Concern About Shortage of Midwives With Expertise in Out-of-Hospital Birth

Advocates Call on State and Federal Policy Makers to Prioritize Maternal and Infant Safety



WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 28, 2009)—Maternal and infant health advocates are calling on policy makers to take action to ensure that there are enough Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), who are trained as experts in out-of-hospital delivery, to meet the needs of pregnant women in the event that a flu pandemic makes hospitals unsafe settings for the provision of maternity care.



“Hospitals filled to capacity with flu patients are unsafe and inaccessible places for healthy women to deliver their babies,” said Colette Bernhard, Vice President of Illinois Families for Midwifery. “Fewer than 3 percent of nurse-midwives have undergone the additional training needed to establish out-of-hospital practices, while legal and reimbursement barriers at the state and federal level prevent far too many Certified Professional Midwives, who already have the necessary training and equipment, to utilize their services to the fullest. Given the very real possibility of a flu pandemic, the need to fully incorporate CPMs into our health care system could not be more urgent.”



Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs), who are trained to practice in hospital settings, are legally authorized by all 50 states and are federally mandated Medicaid providers. CPMs are the only professional midwives in the United States whose educational and credentialing process requires them to develop the specialized skills necessary to safely deliver babies in private homes and in freestanding birth centers. However, CPMs are legally authorized to practice in just over half the states and are eligible for Medicaid reimbursement in fewer than a dozen states.



Recognizing the need for more midwives with expertise in out-of-hospital maternity care and risk assessment, as well as the ability to safely triage laboring women during a disaster, advocates called on state and federal policy makers to take immediate steps to safeguard maternal and infant health in preparation for a possible flu pandemic.



“First, all states need to get on board and license CPMs to practice legally,” said Russ Fawcett of The National Birth Policy Coalition. “But it is every bit as critical that our federal policy makers require Homeland Security to include CPMs—who function as mobile primary care facilities for pregnant women—in disaster planning at local, regional, and national levels and as eligible providers for the National Health Service Corps.”



In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, members of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood formed the National Working Group for Women and Infant Needs in Emergencies in the United States, and the group’s April 2007 report includes CPMs among those who can educate and train home-based delivery skills to institution-based birth providers.



The Big Push for Midwives is the first initiative of the National Birth Policy Coalition (NBPC), whose mission is to promote the autonomous practice of Certified Professional Midwives and Certified Nurse-Midwives and to ensure the availability of safe, evidence-based care during pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum. The Big Push is a nationally coordinated campaign to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association Scope of Practice Partnership to deny American families access to legal midwifery care.



Through its work with state-level advocates, the Big Push is helping to build a new model of U.S. maternity care built on expanding access to out-of-hospital maternity care and CPMs, who provide affordable, quality, community-based care that is proven to reduce costly and preventable interventions as well as the rate of low-birth weight and premature births. Media inquiries: Steff Hedenkamp (816) 506-4630, steff@thebigpushformidwives.org.

###

New BOLD T-shirts!

Support BOLD and raise awareness about healthcare reform with BOLD's new "Obama Needs a BOLD Birth Plan" t-shirts!

In addition to these new shirts we also have lots of BOLD notecards with dramatic images from BOLD performances for sale!

Click HERE to view BOLD merchandise.

Activity May Decrease Length of Labor

It's almost a no brainer, but nice to see the New York Times is reporting on it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/health/research/21baby.html?_r=1&em

Nominate a Women's Health Hero!

Time is running out to nominate a "Women's Health Hero" in the Our Bodies Ourselves contest. Deadline is May 1.

There are so many women's health champions out there and many of you reading this blog know them! Nominate them now! Click here.

bed commercial in Barcelona - a must-see!

Well,I've never seen a commercial like this before! It's a commercial for a company that sells beds in Barcelona.

I'd love to know who thought up this ad!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrDfPHJ28dE&feature=related

Little Rock photos

Here are some photos with the cast, and after the play at a reception with all four women (three midwives and their apprentice) who were at the births of my 2 boys!, and out to dinner later that night with three midwives, two doulas, a Labor and Delivery nurse, a friend and a brave husband!

Little Rock ROCKS!

Little Rock ROCKS!!!! My new one-act version of the play debuted at the Arkansas Literary Festival on the 19th, with a jam-packed audience and a crowd whose laughter and tears just kept flowing.

Thank you Little Rock!

So many incredible people made it all happen – too many to mention by name – but I do want to give a shout-out to Ida Darragh (whose home I stayed at and who founded the Arkansas Childbirth Institute that sponsored my trip to Little Rock), Verda Davenport Booher(who produced a fabulous event AND acted in the play!), and Stacy Pendergraft (who directed the play, acted in it and really got what I want the play to convey).

And a shout-out to Mary Alexander because of all the birth goodness in Little Rock that grows out of her that she’s too modest to talk about. (I love you, Mary!)

As you can imagine I see the play a lot, but as I told the crowd of people after the play this time seeing the play was different. This time it felt like I was coming home, surrounded by so many good friends cheering me and the play on.

And the actors were just fabulous - and so was the dynamic talkback. I was deeply moved when a 10 year old girl asked me a question (the first question after the play from a young girl!). She asked:

“Do any women really shout ‘My Body Rocks!’ when they are giving birth?”

They sure do! This girl was amazed to hear that the character Amanda in the play, who chanted “My body rocks!” in the play, really did say those words in real life at her birth. And that while every woman may not chant those exact words there are women who shout out “My body rocks” using different words and in different languages. MY BODY ROCKS language is out there! And we need it to spread.

I’m so pleased this young girl of ten now knows this is possible.

What a weekend.
(If you live anywhere near Little Rock go to their May 21 and 22 performances!!!)

My Little Rock midwives

This weekend in Little Rock I've been doing alot of reflecting on my 2 birth experiences with my midwives here - now nearly 10 years ago.

There's a line in the play when Jillian attends a beautiful home birth and afterwards she comments:

I want what SHE got!

Well, this weekend I keep thinking:

I want all women to have what I got.

Mary Alexander, Ida Darragh and Stacey Blackburn provided me with all the juice, passion, and trust for me to have the birth I wanted. Their recipe was simple: lots of talking and getting to know who I was, a calm, laid-back belief that birth is normal and that I could do it, and always being available for neurotic moments before and after the birth!

I was recently interviewed by a radio show host who had her baby in the hospital and she commented quite extensively on how after she had her baby she was sent home and her postpartum period was horrible, filled with breastfeeding challenges and very lonely. This got me thinking about the women who birth with midwives, and especially at home. Postpartum IS part of the midwife's scope of practice. In home births there are always visits made to the woman's home, sometimes - like me - up to 6 weeks postpartum!

On Friday night my midwife Mary (really,my surrogate mother here in Little Rock) reminded me after my second birth she slept over my house (for nothing!) to help me with our second baby. Midwife heroes like this exist all over the world. So why do so many people still not take midwifery seriously? Would you rather be sent home alone after your baby or visited by a qualified maternity care provider? To me it's a no brainer.

Well, I"m off to the first performance in Little Rock of my play this afternoon and I can't wait! Finally, I'm back home.

To learn more about my Little Rock midwives check out their website here. And be sure to click on the slide shows of some incredible home births (you'll see Mary too!). They're just beautiful!

Little Rock, the play, and Dr. Baldwin

I'm in Little Rock for the play this weekend at the Arkansas Literary Festival... and what a fun evening I had last night! Went out with a crew of BOLD women putting the production together here in Little Rock including my 2 midwives, the director and producer.

And what did we talk about? Birth of course! Not just the play, but like most people who are passionate about childbirth we told just a few birth stories! And I was updated on the birthing scene here. Midwives have actually been legal and liscesed since 1983 so midwifery is out in the open, but it's still a struggle to get the local community to take home birth seriously. There are no hospital based midwives in Little Rock, or birthcenters, so if you want a midwife it has to be at home.

I found out a frightening statistic that one of their local hospitals has an (unpublished) 60% cesarean rate!

Deep breath...

But I also heard a few gems, like a local obstetrician who has backed up the home birth midwives for years but due to a change in his insurance (that makes him sign off that he is not in anyway assisting home births!) he can no longer back up the midwives (and in Arkansas midwives can only take women who have an official back up OB). BUT...this BOLD obstetrician told the midwives he so wants to support what they do that they can call him on his cell if they have to transport and he will meet them at the hospital. I love hearing about these heroic acts to help birthing women!

But politics of chidbirth aside, last night something even more special happened after our meal as we were leaving. Sitting at a corner table at the restaurant was Dr. Baldwin, the BOLD obstetrician who backed up my home births in Little Rock nearly 10 years ago. Dr. Baldwin is a hero if ever there was one. I even used a line he said to me in my play. He's the OB in the play who says:

I've learned more about childbirth from birthing women then from medical school.

I remember how profoundly that affected me when I was first pregnant. For an OB to say he trusted me, he knew my body knows how to give birth and as long as I followed my intuition in most low risk cases all will go well...that had a huge impact on me!

Last night, as I serentipidously bumped into Dr. Baldwin, I thought how life always gives us what we need. I was lucky and got his pearls of wisdom before I gave birth, but we all are given these pearls in different manifestation. The challenge is for us to be listening, paying attention, to them.

Visit the Little Rock production's website! http://birthinlittlerock.webs.com/#

weighing in on the new home birth study - where's the United States?

The Daily Telegraph in the UK also covered the new home birth study:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5153546/Boost-home-births-call-as-research-shows-they-are-safe.html

Why are the US papers not weighing in on this? Hmmm...

Home birth safe? Yes!

The BBC - not a major US paper - reports today on a new major study from The Netherlands that shows home birth with a midwife is safe.

Come on, United States, the evidence is in front of our faces! Let's use the evidence to reform maternity care and save money. Forget the interests of our Obstetric "trade union" - the American College of Obstetricians and Gyns - and insurance companies. Home birth just makes sense.


Here's the BBC piece:

Home births 'as safe as hospital'

The largest study of its kind has found that for low-risk women, giving birth at home is as safe as doing so in hospital with a midwife.

Research from the Netherlands - which has a high rate of home births - found no difference in death rates of either mothers or babies in 530,000 births.

Home births have long been debated amid concerns about their safety.

UK obstetricians welcomed the study - published in the journal BJOG - but said it may not apply universally.

The number of mothers giving birth at home in the UK has been rising since it dipped to a low in 1988. Of all births in England and Wales in 2006, 2.7% took place at home, the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.

The research was carried out in the Netherlands after figures showed the country had one of the highest rates in Europe of babies dying during or just after birth.

It was suggested that home births could be a factor, as Dutch women are able and encouraged to choose this option. One third do so.

But a comparison of "low-risk" women who planned to give birth at home with those who planned to give birth in hospital with a midwife found no difference in death or serious illness among either baby or mother.

"We found that for low-risk mothers at the start of their labour it is just as safe to deliver at home with a midwife as it is in hospital with a midwife," said Professor Simone Buitendijk of the TNO Institute for Applied Scientific Research.

"These results should strengthen policies that encourage low-risk women at the onset of labour to choose their own place of birth."

Hospital transfer

Low-risk women in the study were those who had no known complications - such as a baby in breech or one with a congenital abnormality, or a previous caesarean section.

Nearly a third of women who planned and started their labours at home ended up being transferred as complications arose - including for instance an abnormal fetal heart rate, or if the mother required more effective pain relief in the form of an epidural.
“ The NHS is simply not set up to meet the potential demand for home births ”
Louise Silverton Royal College of Midwives

But even when she needed to be transferred to the care of a doctor in a hospital, the risk to her or her baby was no higher than if she had started out her labour under the care of a midwife in hospital.

The researchers noted the importance of both highly-trained midwives who knew when to refer a home birth to hospital as well as rapid transportation.

While stressing the study was the most comprehensive yet into the safety of home births, they also acknowledged some caveats.

The group who chose to give birth in hospital rather than at home were more likely to be first-time mothers or of an ethnic minority background - the risk of complications is higher in both these groups.

The study did not compare the relative safety of home births against low-risk women who opted for doctor rather than midwife-led care. This is to be the subject of a future investigation.

Home option

But Professor Buitendijk said the study did have relevance for other countries like the UK with a highly developed health infrastructure and well-trained midwives.
“ Women need to be counselled on the unexpected emergencies which can arise during labour and can only be managed in a maternity hospital ”
RCOG

In the UK, the government has pledged to give all women the option of a home birth by the end of this year. At present just 2.7% of births in England and Wales take place at home, but there are considerable regional variations.

Louise Silverton, deputy general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, said, the study was "a major step forward in showing that home is as safe as hospital, for low risk women giving birth when support services are in place.

"However, to begin providing more home births there has to be a seismic shift in the way maternity services are organised. The NHS is simply not set up to meet the potential demand for home births, because we are still in a culture where the vast majority of births are in hospital.

"There also has to be a major increase in the number of midwives because they are the people who will be in the homes delivering the babies."

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) said it supported home births "in cases of low-risk pregnancies provided the appropriate infrastructures and resources are present to support such a system.

But it added: "Women need to be counselled on the unexpected emergencies - such as cord prolapse, fetal heart rate abnormalities, undiagnosed breech, prolonged labour and postpartum haemorrhage - which can arise during labour and can only be managed in a maternity hospital.

"Such emergencies would always require the transfer of women by ambulance to the hospital as extra medical support is only present in hospital settings and would not be available to them when they deliver at home."

The Department of Health said that giving more mothers-to-be the opportunity to choose to give birth at home was one of its priority targets for 2009/10.

A spokesman said: "All Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) have set out plans for implementing Maternity Matters to provide high-quality, safe maternity care for women and their babies."

Playwright conceived Birth, hearing ‘voices of the mothers’

Here's the piece about me, BOLD and the play in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette today.

Not surprisingly, he got a few things wrong, like that one of BOLD's major tenets is to just support low risk pregnancies doing homebirths with midwives. No, I said, we support low-risk women going to midwives who practice the midwifery model of care - whether that be in the home, hospital, or a birth center.

I also spent alot of time talking to him about how if Obama really wants to save money and reform health care he MUST consider training and using more midwifery care for low risk pregnancies. But I don't see that mentioned in the article!

Anyhow...it's nice to be back in Arkansas - it was a fabulous place to live.


Playwright conceived Birth, hearing ‘voices of the mothers’
BY ERIC E. HARRISON ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Karen Brody gave birth to two sons while living in Little Rock just before and just after the turn of the century.

Her experience helped her to eventually also give birth to a play.

Brody’s play, Birth, has drawn comparisons to The Vagina Monologues for its portrayal of women’s birth stories in their own voices and for the grass-roots movement that is moving the message from community to community one performance at a time.

A local cast of actresses will put on a staged reading of the play (in a slightly abridged 45-minute version) at 3 p.m. Sunday in the third-floor meeting room of the Cox Building, 120 Commerce St., next to the Central Arkansas Library System’s Main Library in Little Rock.

The cast includes Angie Gilbert, Monica Clark-Robinson, Paige Renolds, Stephanie Ong, Verda Davenport-Booher and director Stacy Pendergraft.

The reading is part of the Arkansas Literary Festival, in conjunction with the Arkansas Childbirth Institute. The play includes adult language.

Brody will speak and sign copies of the play after the reading.

A fully staged version is on tap for May 21-22 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
HOME DELIVERIES

Brody found out she was pregnant shortly after moving to Arkansas in 1998 when her husband, Tim Ogborn, who works in international development, got a job with Heifer International.

She had her first son, Jacob, in 1999 and her second, Aden, in 2001. Both deliveries were at home with the help of midwives from Birth Works, a home-birth service.

“I didn’t expect to fi nd groovy home-birth midwives in Little Rock,” Brody says. “I felt instinctively that I didn’t want to have my babies in a hospital.”

Hospitals are where sick people go, sometimes to die (“My father passed away in a hospital and I was there,” she says) and Brody is a firm - one might even say fervent- believer that pregnancy is not an illness.

Brody, a freelance author, is the founder of Birth on Labor Day (BOLD), a global arts-based, theater-for-social-change movement that inspires communities around the world to create childbirth choices that work for mothers. Brody notes that neither Birth nor BOLD necessarily promotes any particular option, but that women should be able to choose how they want to deliver their children.

One of the movement’s tenets is that in most low-risk pregnancies, babies can be delivered safely at home with a certified professional midwife.

Complicating Brody’s second pregnancy was a case of amebic dysentery. “We thought it was morning sickness for six months,” she recalls. “It was a pretty rare amoeba. I thought it might risk me out of home birth.”
SECOND BIRTH

Once she had been diagnosed and partially treated for the condition, however, “my second birth was actually easier than my first.”

Her home births led her to consider writing about women’s birth experiences. There are plenty of books and plenty of statistics, but “I was interested in bringing women’s voices out,” she says. “I didn’t see any voices of the mothers.”

Just before she moved from Little Rock to Washington in 2003, she started interviewing women about their experiences. “I spent a good year doing that,” she says. After gathering more than 100 stories, “I realized, ‘Now I have to do something with this.’”

She decided it would speak better if she put it into play form.

“I realized that if I wrote what I was hearing as a book, no one would read it.”

She says she has always loved theater - as a child in New York, her mother took her to plays - but had never written a play before, and was surprised to discover she had a talent for writing dialogue.

The play features the stories of eight women who discuss their birth experiences, ranging from positive to frightening. A positive case is “Amanda,” who delivers a son in a hospital but without drugs with her husband and doula (from the ancient Greek, meaning “a woman who serves,” a doula provides physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth) nearby. A less positive story is told by “Lisa,” who ended up having a Caesarean section without her full consent.

Brody worked on the script with a Washington-area playwriting group, and was surprised to discover that her colleagues didn’t believe the stories were true.
WHERE’S THE DOCTOR?

For example, “Most women don’t realize that the doctor doesn’t show up until the pushing starts.

“It stirred me to finish it once I saw the impact.”

A first staged reading in 2004 drew 75 people into a black-box space at George Washington University that had only 40 seats. “They all felt the energy and the passion,” the playwright recalls with a touch of pride.

The play had its official premiere in 2005. An early 2006 performance caught the attention of Dr. Christiane Northrup, a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who made the first comparison to Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues. Northrup also wrote the foreword to the book version of the play, which AuthorHouse published in paperback in 2008.

The play sparked the founding of BOLD - Labor Day 2006 was the kickoff - with the goal of raising childbirth awareness and providing education to as many as 10,000 people a year. On and around Labor Day 2008, the play had more than 100 performances around the United States.

For more information about Birth and BOLD, visit the Web site,
www.boldaction.org

Little Rock, here I come....

I'm off to the Arkansas Literary Festival this weekend in Little Rock, the place where I gave birth to my two sons. I can't wait to see so many special friends...and the midwives who rocked my births. My weekend is jam-packed!

A piece came out about me and the play in today's Arkansas Democrat Gazette. ("Playwright conceived Birth, hearing ‘voices of the mothers’")

I'll be speaking after a 45-minute version of the play this weekend, but the play will be performed in its entirety in May. Click here to check out their website for details!

Make a documentary about childbirth!

Time is running out to enter an Birth Matters Virginia's exciting short film contest! Below is more details:


Birth Documentary Contest: $1,000 First Prize

Birth Matters Virginia is soliciting 4-7 minute educational videos about birth in the hopes of reducing the incidence of medically unnecessary c-sections, infant and maternal morbidity, and skyrocketing health care costs. The first-place winner will receive a prize of $1,000. Second place $500 and an "honorable mention" prize of $100 will also be awarded. The deadline for entering the contest is Mother's Day, May 10, 2009.

Guest judges include: Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, acclaimed producers of the Business of Being Born and Sarah J. Buckley., MD, international birth expert and author of Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering. Ricki, Abby, and Sarah will join a consumer-based panel of judges who will be evaluating the tone, educational content, creativity and more. You don't have to be a professional to enter and you don't have to be from Virginia. We'd love to get videos from mothers, fathers, filmmakers, film students, birth advocates, and anyone else who is interested in birth or film or wants to win $1000.

Birth Matters Virginia advocates "evidence-based" maternity care, which simply means using the best available research on the safety and effectiveness of specific practices to help guide maternity care decisions and to facilitate optimal outcomes in mothers and newborns. There are a lot of ways to approach that topic and lots of opinions on what that means, and we're looking forward to the variety of entries.

For rules, how to enter, or to sign up for updates, please visit http://www.birthmattersva.org/videocontest.html
You can also join our Facebook group to get updates about the contest and exchange ideas with other participants at
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=73753459808
And if you have questions, email Sarah at Richmond@birthmattersva.org

URGENT: Contact Washington to PUSH for Midwives

From: The Big Push for Midwives

Urgent Request for Action!

WASHINGTON Must Hear Direct From Grassroots America

Folks, I have some urgent news to report. PushScouts who have attended White House town-hall health care meetings across the country with policy wonks and DC insiders have all returned with the same message:

Federal health care reform is moving fast and *the window of opportunity for including Certified Professional Midwives is rapidly closing.* Bills are being drafted now and any providers who aren't on "the list" by September
will be left behind.

The time to act is now.

*We need each and every Pusher* to schedule an in-district meeting with their member of Congress and two Senators today. Both chambers are in recess, and members are in their home districts until April 19th. This is a
*golden opportunity* to begin educating our federal representatives about CPMs and to make sure all of us are doing everything we can to *make sure that CPMs are included in the final reform package*.

Scheduling a meeting is easy, but many other groups are competing for face-time and the available *slots are filling up fast.* So please follow the instructions below and *call* your federal delegation today!

*Midwives, please forward this important information to your clients,* past and present, and ask them to schedule a visit with their federal representatives. Also, it's important that CPMs represent their profession at the federal level, so please *pick one or two clients you would like to accompany you to a visit* and ask them to join you.

Attached you will find a two-page FAQ that includes each of the messages your representatives need to hear. You can also download it from the PushSite at
http://www.thebigpushformidwives.org/attachments/pages/WASHINGTON+-+Health+Reform+Must+Include+Access+to+CPMs+4-8-09.pdf

All you need to do in the next week is *1)* pick one or two of your favorite points to talk briefly about, *2)* record any questions they may have that you are unable to answer to pass along for follow-up, *3) *leave the FAQ
sheet with their staff and *4)* report back to other Pushers about your meeting!

Because there is strength in numbers, we ask you to recruit one or two supportive allies to go to the meeting with you: community leaders, local clergy, physicians, nurses or other providers, a neighbor or member of your
family. It is important that our members of the Senate and Congress understand that *access to CPMs is important to Americans from all walks of life,* not just to those of us who choose this model of care or are CPMs ourselves.

*SCHEDULING AN IN-DISTRICT MEETING IS AS EASY AS A-B-C: *

All you need to do is identify your U.S. representative and two U.S. senators and contact them!

A. Use this link to determine your full zip code, which is your ZIP+four code: http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp

B. Use this link and type in your ZIP+four code to determine your U.S. representative: http://www.house.gov/zip/ZIP2Rep.html

C. Use this link to determine your two U.S. senators:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state%26Sort=ASC

Please make the call today! *We have 10 days* until their April recess is over.

Below is a list of tips and pointers to help you plan a smooth and easy visit with your federal representatives. Remember, they work *for you*!

*Tips for Visiting Your Members of Congress in Their District Offices*

§ When you call to make the appointment, be sure to *mention that you are a constituent*, where you live and that you would like to briefly discuss the importance of including Certified Professional Midwives, who are specialists in out-of-hospital birth, in federal health reform.

It may take more than one call to get an appointment. Don't be shy about calling more than once!

§ Meeting with the staff person in charge of health care is every bit as effective as meeting with your member of Congress. Don't be discouraged if your representative can't meet with you—convincing staff that your issue is worthwhile is *a huge step forward* in getting your representative to support you.

§ Take a look at your representatives' web pages and get some background on their issues of interest or any legislation they support that you do, too.

§ *Recruit at least one other person in your community to join you*, but appoint one lead spokesperson for the meeting.

§ Be sure to wear business-casual clothes—no jeans or t-shirts, please!

§ Be considerate of their time. Make sure you keep track of your time and articulate your position without running over your allotted time.

§ After you have briefly made one or two points about the importance of including CPMs in federal health care reform, *ask if they have any questions*.

§ If you don't know the answer to a question, tell them you will pass it along to *The Big Push for Midwives Steering Committee
* for follow up.

§ After you've answered any questions, *ask them if they have a position on CPMs and out-of-hospital birth.* Offer to provide them with more information if they haven't yet taken a position.

§ Even if they are non-committal, *ask them for advice about what you can do to get CPMs included in federal health care reform.* Legislators and staff appreciate being asked to share their expertise and insight about
the legislative process with constituents.

§ It is appropriate to take notes about any questions they may want follow up or about advice they are offering. Save notes on the rest of the discussion for after your meeting.

§ Be sure to leave staff with your contact information and make sure you have theirs.

And of course, please don't forget to thank everyone for their time!

*The Final Push*

After you leave, sit down and conduct a brief review with others at the meeting. Assign someone to take notes and write down any key information or questions such as the legislator/staff's position, questions they have, objections they raised and any advice they offered.

Write legislators and staff after the visit to thank them for their time. Remind them of anything they may have agreed to do and send any additional information they may have requested.

*Report back to The Push Team*!* *Please forward notes and questions to Steff at Steff@TheBigPushForMidwives.org and share your experience, thoughts and tips with others at The Big Push for Midwives Facebook Discussion board http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=25544608578&ref=ts

Don't be shy about staying in touch with legislators and staff with alerts or other relevant news or information about CPMs. Effective advocacy at the legislative level is all about relationships—it's important to start building them now with your federal representatives and their staff.

DC Birth Center

I visited the DC Birth Center last week...located in one of the poorest areas of Washington, DC (northeast, wards 5 and 6). Wow...what a vision that's been realized by Ruth Lubik, an octogenarian who founded the center.

Actually, the birthing area is just one part of an integrated model of care for women and babies in the community that includes everything from pregnancy, birth and postpartum (and I'm not talking about postpartum care as in the first 2-3 weeks...the center really addresses daycare issues for mothers and gets the toddlers involved with planting gardens to connect to teaching about eating healthy foods).

Another thing I loved about the center is that the community has a large say in how it is run. This is such a strong model for community development and recognizes how important it is for women to have ownership of their care.

Before I left several of the midwives said they may be interested in organizing a BOLD Red Tent. I will definitely be involved if this happens!

I also think Michelle Obama needs to get herself over there!

The gliding chair above is one of the very cool ways the birth center offers women to give birth (the bottom comes out and the woman can birth the baby right there!).

DC Birth Center...you ROCK!

Review of BIRTH

Just spotted this review of the book version of my play in the award-winning book review website: myshelf.com.

It comes in waves it seems, every twenty years or so, a period of revolt followed by a period of acquiescence. But it seems in the area of natural birthing a little of the gain is retained each time. Still, over the past twenty years or so, natural birthing has been increasingly suppressed by the medical community. Somehow normal childbirth became risky, requiring medical intervention. Obstetricians pushed Caesarean sections to the point that today more than one-third of all births are C-sections.

Now, in the 21st century, Karen Brody’s play, Birth, has fomented another revolt; one that recognizes and honors the intrinsic wisdom of women’s bodies throughout the birth process.

Birth is not a statistical review of studies conducted by scientific researchers. Rather, the play was drawn from numerous interviews Brody held with birth mothers. It is a play of experiences, eight women relating their birth stories. "There are too many... mothers who are injured from their birth experiences," Brody says. "While I never set out to write a play that was against the medical community, my one commitment when I wrote the play was to tell the truth. It became difficult to tell the truth... and not find at the end a negative picture was being painted of the medical establishment."

Birth is not merely a play; it is a phenomenon with the force to change business-as-usual within the medical community. The point clearly made is: Birthing should be woman-centered; normal birth is a joyful experience to be embraced. This powerful, epiphany-inducing play is being performed all over the world to packed houses.

The well-crafted play is beautiful in its simplicity, itself a motif of the exquisite simplicity of natural birth. The play’s unobtrusive framework acts as a setting for the jewel-like experiences of the eight women characters. That this is Karen Brody’s first play is astonishing. That its message is so exceedingly welcome, less so. Brody’s insightful work is excruciatingly unbiased, a work of refreshing honesty and clarity. I urge you to read it; see it; embrace it.

A great day for midwives - and pregnant women - in Idaho

The Big Push for Midwives just issued the press release below. Waa-hoo!


Idaho Pushes Midwife Movement to the Tipping Point
Physician and Midwife Groups Forge Unprecedented Alliance as Idaho Becomes the 26th State to Pass Legislation to Legalizing Certified Professional Midwives

BOISE, ID (April 1, 2009)—Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter signed into law today a bill to license and regulate Certified Professional Midwives, making Idaho the 26th state to legally authorize them to provide out-of-hospital maternity care. In a notable reversal of longstanding anti-midwife policies, medical groups worked together with legislators, midwives, and advocates to reach consensus on a law that provides for independent practice, mutual collaboration, and the rights of parents to choose where and how their babies are born.

“This is a great day for midwives and home birth advocates all across the country,” said Kyndal May of Idahoans for Midwives. “We truly have reached the tipping point, breaking through the medical lobby’s longstanding opposition and developing a legislative consensus model that other states are looking to follow.”

Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs), who practice primarily in hospital settings, are legally authorized in all 50 states, while Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), who specialize in out-of-hospital birth, until today were legally authorized to practice in just half the states. Representatives from The Big Push for Midwives Campaign noted that Idaho typifies recent legislative trends across the country, as a growing number of states come closer to passing CPM legislation.

“We’re seeing unprecedented advances this legislative season,” said Katie Prown, Campaign Manager of The Big Push for Midwives. “For the first time, physician groups are coming to the table and negotiating in good faith, and bills that had long been stalled in previously antagonistic committees are suddenly starting to move.” States that have recently seen significant legislative advances include South Dakota, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina, and Alabama. Idaho joins Missouri and Maine as among the most recent states to legally authorize CPMs to provide maternity care.

“It’s clear that organized medicine has finally realized that, between current economic trends and the drive for healthcare reform, the demand for access to CPMs and out-of-hospital maternity care is only going to grow,” said Susan M. Jenkins, Legal Counsel for the Big Push. “It simply makes good sense to pass laws that provide for regulatory oversight, transparency, and accountability, all of which are necessary to ensure safe practice.”


Thousands of people from across the nation watched the Senate floor vote on live video from the Idaho statehouse last week, cheering on their fellow midwife advocates on Facebook, Twitter, and email groups. “It’s very exciting to be part of a growing national movement,” said Michelle Bartlett, CPM, Legislative Liaison for the Idaho Midwifery Council. “I’m humbled to hear from so many advocates in other states who are looking to us as a model for how to work with every stakeholder to craft CPM legislation that addresses the needs and concerns of all of us who care about the health and safety of mothers and babies.”


Idaho is a priority of The Big Push for Midwives Campaign, a nationally coordinated campaign to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association Scope of Practice Partnership to deny American families access to legal midwifery care. Through its work with state-level advocates, the Big Push is helping to forge a new model of U.S. maternity care built on expanding access to out-of-hospital maternity care and CPMs, who provide affordable, quality, community-based care that is proven to reduce costly and preventable interventions as well as the rate of low-birth weight and premature births.

Extreme Birth

Just finished reading a piece in New York Magazine about midwife Cara Muhlhahn (of "The Business of Being Born" fame). It was a frustrating piece to get through mostly because to take one midwife and scrutinize her pros and cons distorts the midwifery model of care and throws the label "scary midwife" on all midwives.

The reality is you can find "dirt" on almost every maternity care provider. Even my beloved midwives who were at my births in Arkansas had negative comments made about them by mothers who would never use them again. And just last week I googled my long-term gynecologist and found 2 people who thought she was a monster and 2 others who felt there was no better practitioner in the world. Go figure. But dirt seems to always be what matters to sell magazines and newspapers.

The unfortunate, senseless consequence of a piece like this will be that more low-risk women will be scared to do a home birth and run to give birth in hospitals with 30% c-section rates. That makes no sense.

Well, at least the title made sense: Extreme Birth. Yes, the birthing scenarios told in this piece were extreme. Remember that mothers!

April Fools

Received this today from Citizens for Midwifery, a consumer advocacy group promoting the midwives model of care. Oh how I wish it wasn't April Fools Day!

Citizens for Midwifery is pleased to report that, with an extra bit of effort, we have achieved all of our organization's stated aims over the course of the last two months. The following goals have been met:

--All women now have equal access to high-quality care that follows the Midwives Model of Care, and, due to recent federal legislation, all maternity care is fully subsidized and/or covered by insurance, and the government has launched a comprehensive effort to encourage lower-cost out-of-hospital and non-medicalized birth.

--All midwifery licensing is now federally recognized, and the government's recent reports on the vast benefits of midwifery care are encouraging more and more women to seek out midwifery services.

--Due to the above, new Cesarean rates are starting to come in, and the percentage is down to about 15% of all births.

--Also due to the above, new Epidural rates are starting to come in, and the percentage is down to about 20% of all births.

--All American hospitals have recently adopted the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative and have replaced standard L&D wards with 90%+ birthing rooms fully equipped with tubs, birthing stools, and free doula services.

--Due to the new across-the-board Baby-Friendly Hospital standards that have come out of the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative, 95% of all American women are now breastfeeding for at least a year.

--The World Health Organization is now promoting the American model of maternity and midwifery care, what with its excellent outcomes and evidence-based policies, as the gold standard in the world.

In light of all of this, Citizens for Midwifery has decided to disband its board, but only after we use our remaining funds for one last annual board meeting at an all-inclusive Caribbean resort.

Happy April 1st, everyone! May it one day not be such a joke!