House Study Bill 229!!!

Our bill officially has a number! HSB 229. Read it here.

CORRECTION:
Representative Mascher is our sponsor. AT THIS TIME WE HAVE NO OTHER SPONSORS. We are still working on getting a bill introduced in the senate.

We have our first subcommittee meeting scheduled at the capitol at 4:00 on Monday.

Our lobbying day at the capitol was an amazing success. Not only did we secure support from many legislators across the state, we:

- made contact with the Dept of Health, who will house our licensing board, to learn how we can work with them
- made contact with several supportive lobbyists in the areas of maternal and child health
- found out that the Iowa Hospital Association will NOT be blocking our bill (yay!)
- found out (unsurprisingly) that the Iowa Medical Associate will actively fight our bill (boo!)

As a first-timer to the capitol I was intimidated, but it was actually pretty easy. Legislators are eager to hear from constituents and want to learn more about our cause. The face-to-face time made a huge impact and gave all attendees a huge boost!

The #1 thing I learned is this: our legislators know NOTHING about midwifery. We are educating from the ground up. And even more significantly, the medical lobby has NOT YET started spreading misinformation against us. This is the ONLY TIME we will EVER have total control of our message. We MUST take advantage of this. WE NEED A FLOOD OF LETTERS TO THE CAPITOL to follow up this great event. ASK THEM TO SUPPORT HSB 229!!

Handwritten is best, snail mail is best!
Be sure to mention HSB 229.

You can always refer them to the FOIM website for more information.

We are planning another rally day in March (an all-hands, bring your kids type thing). We will get a date to you ASAP.

Questions or concerns? Email me! laurendoula@yahoo.com

Lauren

Red Envelope Parties & Consumer Report on Maternity Care

It's Red Envelope Party weekend!! So far there are parties in Urbandale, Iowa City, Marion, Altoona, and Bettendorf!

Consumer Reports just released a great summary of the Millbank Report (2008) that chides hospitals for the overuse of risky interventions and promotes the use of midwives for maternity care. Also check out this informative quiz on maternity care that debunks myths about maternity health care. A great little thing to forward to doubting friends, family, or legislators!

Op-ed supporting licensure runs in Press-Citizen

Here's an op-ed that ran this weekend in the Iowa City Press-Citizen advocating for licensure from the perspective of a homebirth mom. An excerpt:

Unfortunately, in this rather faceless age of technology and science, the medically trained are taught that birth is inherently dangerous. Life threatening at that. On the other hand, midwives view pregnancy not as a cause for alarm and concern, but as a normal, historical, organic, physiological event. A certified professional midwife's practice includes careful screening for any evidence of high risk factors and will only accept healthy pregnant women.

Occasionally non-emergent transports are called for. However, certified professional midwives have the skill and training to stabilize a woman until additional care is obtained. Additionally, they are professionally trained, like nurses, in skills such as neonatal resuscitation, treatment of excessive bleeding, etc.

Since certified professional midwives have only one focused specialty, the licensing of these professionals will provide an additional support for the medical establishment. A 21st century, mutually supportive, collaborative relationship with medical professionals will insure a much higher quality of safe birthing experiences merging science, the letter of the law, with spirit.

What a beautifully written argument for licensure!!