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!!

AP article on Big Push

The AP just published an article about the Big Push for Midwives, of which Iowa is a part! Read it here and forward everywhere! A key excerpt:

The states are now evenly split on legal recognition of certified professional midwives (CPMs) — those who lack nursing degrees and who account for most midwife-assisted home births.

Half the states have procedures allowing CPMs to practice legally — including five which have taken such steps since 2005. The other 25 states lack such procedures and CPMs are subject to prosecution for practicing medicine without a license.

Depending on legislative decisions, the balance could shift this year. Among the battlegrounds:

_In North Carolina, a House study committee recommended in December that the legislature develop licensing standards for CPMs. The committee said the current system doesn't meet the needs of women who chose non-hospital births because of the "extremely limited supply" of obstetricians and nurse-midwives offering to handle such births.

_In Idaho, advocates who failed previously to get a voluntary licensing bill through the legislature are back with a mandatory licensing bill. State Rep. Janice McGeachin, R-Idaho Falls, says the changes helped persuade the state boards of nursing and pharmacy to drop their opposition. The Idaho Medical Association, which fought the earlier version, has expressed respect for the changes in the bill and is deliberating on whether further changes might produce a version it could accept.

_In Illinois, advocates also are back with a new version of a licensing bill that failed in 2007. Rep. Julie Hamos, D-Evanston, says it toughens qualification standards for CPMs — changes that prompted the Illinois Nurses Association to drop its opposition. The Illinois State Medical Society remains opposed.

The challenges are real but the momentum is in our favor. Let's make Iowa the tipping state!

Midwifery an antidote to the lack of OBGYNs in Iowa

The Daily Iowan published a story in which Monica Brasile, a FOIM founder and steering committee member, argues that licensing homebirth midwives can provide much needed well-woman and pregnancy and childbirth care for women in rural counties lacking OBGYNs. Read the full article here.

UI women-studies graduate student Monica Brasile said that because of the lack of care in rural areas, Iowa should begin to license midwives to give women another recognized health-care option.

"A lot of women don't realize the other options for birth and prenatal care," said Brasile, who is part of the organization Friends of Iowa Midwives. "When you are in a rural area with no proximity to a hospital, midwifery is a good option to provide care for these women at home."

NYT article on homebirth, plus statement on Choices in Childbirth

Hello friends! The New York Times published a wonderful story about the recent increase in homebirth in the NYC area. Overall the article does a great job highlighting the reasons more and more women are making the choice to have their babies at home. Every woman deserves access to homebirth!

The Our Bodies, Ourselves blog recently announced the Statement on Choices in Childbirth, a statement endorsed by physicians, midwives, and women's health advocates who are "concerned about preserving safe choices in childbirth that respect the diversity of women’s needs." They specifically urge health care reformers to protect and ensure women's access to VBACs and access to hospital-based midwifery care, in addition to licensing CPMs across the country. Read the entire statement here. If you are a physician, midwife, or health care advocate interested in endorsing the statement, follow the link on the statement's main page to do so.

Despite ACOG and the AMA's attempts, it's clear that women are increasingly demanding access to midwifery and all its benefits. It's just a matter of time!