Beyond The Birth Room: Sustainability Through Relationship Building, Policy & Politics - A journey through Indigenous Midwifery Resistance Organizing and Systems Change

May 6, 2025

2 MEAC CEUs Applied for
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This webinar traces how Indigenous midwifery wisdom—holistic risk assessment, relational decision-making, and accountability to community—can catalyze systems change from the birth room into policy. Drawing on case studies like the Mni Wiconi Midwifery Field Clinic at Standing Rock and Changing Woman Initiative, we examine jurisdictional fragmentation, funding and workforce gaps, and sovereignty constraints that shape maternal health access. Participants will learn practical levers—relationship-centered program design, health policy analysis, human-rights advocacy, litigation, and legislative fellowships—and how to braid them for durable impact. The purpose is to equip practitioners and policymakers to translate community-led evidence into policy and budgeting that protect traditional birth options and advance self-determination.

Participants should be able to:

1. Explain the four arenas of policy-change levers (community practice evidence/CWI, UN human-rights mechanisms, litigation/judicial precedent, and legislative fellowships/convening.

2. Be able to list and define the five recurring legal/regulatory barriers to Indigenous midwifery access—jurisdictional fragmentation, underfunding of IHS/tribal systems, Medicaid complexity, sovereignty limitations, and federal law gaps.

3. Quantify workforce and system gaps using the presentation’s figures (e.g., provider representation and fragmented systems/data-sharing).

Nicolle L. Arthun, BSN, RN, MSN, CNM, FACNM