Moving Forward

It’s been a busy week for midwifery in Iowa!

Thanks to you, our active members, and your outpouring of letters and emails to key representatives, we have made some very good progress this week.

On Thursday, the State Government committee voted 20-1 in favor of setting up a Scope of Practice Review (SOPR) Committee to make recommendations on our midwife licensure bill. SOPR establishes a review board made up of interested parties -- midwives, nurses, homebirth parents, doctors, FOIM members -- to discuss the bill and make recommendations.

We did not have enough votes to pass the licensure bill itself out of committee, but setting up a Scope of Practice Review means that our bill and our issue will be kept alive through regular meetings at the state house between now and January, and that we will be in good place to pass a law licensing direct-entry midwives in the next legislative session, beginning in January 2010. We see this as a great opportunity to educate a lot of legislators before the next session.

A bit of history: In the year 2000, the Iowa Midwives Association brought a similar licensure bill to the Iowa legislature. That bill was also assigned to a Scope of Practice Review committee, and after the review process, the committee did recommend licensure. However, although the activists and midwives at work at that time were a very dedicated group, Iowa did not have the statewide grassroots support network that we have now, and the bill was not re-introduced the following session.

Ten years ago, there were only a handful of legal states. Now there are 25 states with licensure and a lot of studies backing our position, so we have confidence that the Scope of Practice Review committee will support a model of care that has been proven to be both health-promoting and cost-effective in other states.

And because of our incredible momentum and ever-growing membership base, we know that this struggle will not be over until we have reached our goal: accessible home birth with legal midwives for Iowa families!

Please stay tuned for more upcoming information on events and actions that are in the planning stages. As always, please contact us if you'd like to be more involved by starting a local chapter, meeting with your legislators, or hosting an event or fundraiser. And as always, thank you for your dedication to expanding birth options in Iowa! Your participation makes this all possible!

Last but not least, please take a moment to thank the following members of the House State Government committee for their support:

Rep. Mary Mascher, Rep. Jeff Kauffman, and Rep. Nate Willems have been unwaveringly supportive, and are truly dedicated to our cause. They have gone above and beyond, spreading the word to other representatives about why Iowa needs midwives, and encouraging us in our efforts. Please send them an email, or better yet, a thank you card to express your gratitude!

The rest of the members of the State Government Committee also deserve thank you emails for voting in favor of scope of practice review for HSB 229 (with the exception of Rep. Wendt, who was the only vote against it.) You can find links to contact info for all the members of the State Government Committee here.

Thanks again for all you do!

Lobby Day @ Capitol WED MAR 11!!

Did you miss our first lobby day? Are you interested in talking to your legislators, but not sure how to do it?

In anticipation of a possible committee vote this Thursday, we are holding our second lobby day on Wed. March 11, from 9:30-2:30. Please join us in Des Moines!

We will be congregating near the state capitol cafeteria on the ground floor. Steering committee members will be present throughout the day, and will accompany you upstairs to help you find your representatives and talk with them about why Iowa needs licensed midwives!

You are welcome to come any time between 9:30-2:30. Please dress as nicely as possible. Business casual is fine, suits are great. No t-shirts or overtly political clothing, please. Babies in arms and well-behaved children are welcome.

RSVP to Sabbath Davies: SabbathD@gmail.com

Meeting with your representatives in person makes a powerful statement -- we hope to see you Wednesday!

Follow FOIM on twitter!!

http://twitter.com/iowamidwives

Subcommittee Update

Big things are happening in Iowa!!

SUBCOMMITTEE MEETINGS
We had our first subcommittee meeting yesterday (Monday). Representatives Mascher (our sponsor), Willems (Mt Vernon – a supporter) and Kaufmann (Wilton – a supporter) are on the subcommittee.

The meetings work like this: everyone interested in the bill sits around the table. The bill is introduced and then everyone with interest gets to make a statement/ask questions. The room was packed! We had members from Iowa City and Des Moines there to support midwifery licensure, including a nurse, midwives, and homebirth parents. While the medical lobby emphatically stated is opposition to our cause, they didn’t have much in the way of facts or data to back up their opinions. We did! Overall, the feedback of our performance at Monday’s meeting was that it went amazingly well and that FOIM has a very professional and convincing presence. THANK YOU TO THE FOIM MEMBERS WHO REPRESENTED US ON MONDAY!

Because so many people were there, a second meeting to continue the discussion has been scheduled for TOMORROW MORNING!

MEDICAL OPPOSITION
The IMS was spooked by our amazing performance and now has doctors flooding legislators with anti-midwifery phone calls and emails. We need to continue showering our reps with advocacy and information.

Although the Iowa Nurses Association initially declared they were against our bill, they have changed their position to Undecided. This is a huge victory for us! It shows that the medical community is not united in their opposition and gives hope that other medical groups will be open to if not supporting us, remaining neutral on our bill.

“SCOPE OF PRACTICE REVIEW”
Our sponsor is beginning to get strong pressure from the medical lobby to slow down the progress of our bill. This afternoon, she gave us the option of holding a Scope of Practice Review Committee instead of proceeding with the bill.

She is thinking that although things look positive with the subcommittee, she will probably not be able to get the bill out of committee by next week, with so little time to educate people on the committee, and with so much "poisoning" as she put it by the doctors. The committee would be made up of stakeholders (a doc, a cnm, someone from public health, a member of our group, etc.) and that they would be charged with studying the issue and making a recommendation to the entire legislature at the beginning of the next session.

This is what happened a decade ago, the first time a licensure bill went to the capitol. What happened last time is that the bill never got picked up again in the following session after the SOPR committee recommended that the IA legislature license CPMs.

Her perspective is that with a SOPR, we would be able to keep the issue alive and have info and education going on continuously throughout the interim time between now and January, and that we would be on a stronger footing come January to advance our bill all the way through. She's thinking that if it were to go to committee and then die, we'd have a harder time coming back to it in January.

However, there are significant drawbacks to SOPR. First, we couldn’t assure that midwifery advocacy would have equal representation on the board. It could likely be that the board would have all medical people and one lone midwifery advocate. We could be outnumbered and end up with a recommendation AGAINST licensure. Additionally, SOPR would take the wind out of our sails in terms of momentum. Right now we are making great progress and are very strong. This is clear from the reaction we are getting from the medical community. They’re scared. This would give them time to organize and advance a campaign against us. This would remove the sense of urgency felt by legislators having to focus their attention on lots of issues. Plus, we have shown how strong our grassroots support is: we won’t have any trouble keeping the issue “alive” if it doesn’t make it out of committee this session because our supporters are so great!

Therefore, this evening the Steering Committee agreed unanimously to reject SOPR and keep the bill going. We are attending the subcommittee meeting tomorrow morning so that our bill will be PASSED by the subcom. TOMORROW! (We hope!) Once it gets to committee (a much larger group with some undecided and opposing reps), we will see where we stand in terms of support. If we can get it passed out of committee, WE WILL!! If we can’t, we can let the bill simply lie dormant and then tackle it again next January. In the meantime, we can develop our membership and get our message out!

THE NEXT WEEK IS CRUCIAL. If we go to committee, we need to match and EXCEED the medical anti-midwifery lobby in terms of emails and phone calls to legislators. WE (the steering comm.) are COUNTING ON EVERYONE to make that happen! More specific information will come after the subcommittee meeting.

RALLY DAY UPDATE
We’re getting a lot of questions about a rally day at the capitol. We hope to hold one later in the session. The reason we can’t pin down a day is that (as you can see) these meetings are scheduled at a moment’s notice. We don’t yet know if or when our bill will be heard in committee. We may not know until the day before it happens. It’s tricky to coordinate a large event with such short notice. But be assured that this is a goal and we want to show legislators in person the enthusiasm of our group!! In the meantime, take that rally energy and call your legislators with it! They’re very easy to talk to and a phone call makes a huge impression.

OVERALL
We have a ton to celebrate!! This may be the busiest week of our year in terms of legislative activity, so the list will be extra active with updates on what’s happened and what you can do. Please consider each call to action. The only reason we are where we are is because members are getting legislators interested and informed. Let’s keep it up!!

QUESTIONS, ETC
Email Lauren (laurendoula@yahoo.com) or your chapter leaders with questions, concerns, ideas, etc.