Normal, Healthy Childbirth for Women & Families: What You Need to Know

Normal, Healthy Childbirth for Women & Families: What You Need to Know

A woman’s guide to understanding normal, healthy birth and how it can improve the health of her baby and her health was released this summer by the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM), Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), and National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM). It includes critical information to help women make informed decisions and avoid possibly unnecessary and expensive medical interventions, such as cesarean sections. Click here for a pdf of the brochure.

Join the NACPM Pilot Chapters Project

Create a powerful unified voice for CPMs. Form a pilot chapter in your state and enhance CPMs’ national influence to improve the maternity care system in the U.S., promote, protect and defend the profession, and support increased access for all women to the high-quality, high-value care of CPMs. All Pilot Chapters will be invited to join the first quarterly Pilot Chapters webinar and conference call early in 2014.

Download the NACPM Chapter Pilot Description

Download the NACPM Chapter Pilot Policy

Report on Results of Fall 2013 NACPM Member Survey

Report on Results of Fall 2013 NACPM Member Survey

At the 2012 CPM Symposium, a number of priorities for the development of the CPM profession were identified by CPMs and multiple stakeholders. These priorities have informed the work of NACPM over the past year and a half, and the design of the Fall 2013 NACPM Member Survey.

 The Fall 2013 survey “checked in” with NACPM members to evaluate whether these priorities continue to be relevant to members today and to ensure that NACPM’s 2014 goals and initiatives align with the priorities of our members. We are very grateful to the 68 respondents who took the time to complete the survey. We received many thoughtful responses and comments, and are excited to share the results with you.

 Survey Question #1: Rating Priorities

 When asked to rate the importance of NACPM’s 2012 Symposium priorities (figure 1), 6 out of 7 were still “very important” to a majority of respondents. The two top priorities, each listed as “very important” by over 85%, were:

• Access for all women to midwifery care

• Licensure for CPMs in all 50 states

When calculating responses by combining “very important” and “moderately important”, all of the priorities were ranked as important by over 90% of respondents, with the exception of including consumer voices in the development of the profession, with 67% of respondents ranking this priority as either very or moderately important.

 Q1 – In 2012, the following priorities were identified by NACPM members as important to them.  Please rate their current importance to you:

figure 1

Survey Question #2: Ranking Top 4 Priorities

 This question (figure 2) asked respondents to rank their opinion of the relative value of a set of NACPM’s functions. From the experience of reviewing responses to this question, we have learned that this type of question is difficult to analyze meaningfully. From your comments on this question, we understand that you found the request to rank the functions frustrating, with some of you commenting that it was difficult to respond because you felt all of the functions were important.

 What is clear from the results is that respondents strongly agree that advocating for CPMs to legislators and policy makers should be a top priority. While each of the 8 functions had its advocates as one of the top four priorities, the graph below demonstrates the top 3 of those 8 functions that were chosen by the majority of respondents.

 Q2 – The following is a list of NACPM functions.  Please rank your top four priorities from this list, with 1 being most important:

  figure 2

Questions #3 & 4: Open comment opportunities to identify additional priorities

 Survey participants provided many valuable suggestions in these comment sections, all of which have been brought to the attention of the NACPM Board of Directors, and a number of which have been in discussion in NACPM leadership conversations prior to the survey. In addition to the priorities identified in survey questions #1 and #2, suggestions included:

• Educate public & consumers about CPM care & build appreciation for the CPM credential

• Broaden the scope of practice for CPMs

• Establish CPM-specific core competencies

• Inform members about how CPMs can participate in the Affordable Care Act reforms

• Provide clinical guidance to CPMs through a practice committee

• Support increased access to insurance reimbursement

• Offer annual CPM symposiums

• Establish NACPM as the unified voice for CPMs

• Strengthen the education of CPMs and support the MEAC school route to the credential

• Provide for professional liability insurance at an affordable rate

• Support for transfer of care and necessary clinical services such as lab and ultrasound

• Align with ICM standards for education

Additionally, respondents expressed a need for regular news updates from NACPM detailing activities on behalf of CPMs, and for development and support for the CPM credential.

 Finally, we learned through your responses that an overwhelming majority of respondents found the survey itself to be an effective way to give feedback to NACPM leadership. We look forward to engaging and collaborating with our members in future surveys.

It is immensely gratifying to find that the membership supports us in pursuing the very goals that the board is working hard to address. Our current fundraising efforts are focused precisely on advocacy for access and licensure, promoting CPMs, spearheading and collaborating to develop a scholarship fund for women of color, and launching an initiative to expand and diversify the CPM workforce.

 Watch for a reinvigorated MAMA Campaign in 2014, ongoing NACPM participation in USMERA, an expanding NACPM Chapter Pilot Project, a webinar series to support state licensure and to inform members about CPM participation in ACA reforms, a 2014 year-end work group report on the development of the Practice Committee, and NACPM’s first virtual Annual Membership Meeting in March 2014.

 Thank you again, to all who participated in the survey. We deeply appreciate your engagement and support for NACPM in creating a unified national voice for CPMs.

 We welcome any and all comments from our members at any time. Please feel free to send your thoughts and ideas to executivedirector@nacpm.org and to admin@nacpm.org.

 Mary Lawlor, Executive Director

 Ellie Daniels, President

Nelson Mandela: We Mourn His Passing & Celebrate His Life

 Nelson Mandela

IN MEMORIAM

Nelson Mandela will long be remembered for his courageous, relentless pursuit of racial equality, and for his unerring belief in and ability to inspire all of humanity. We mourn his passing and celebrate and give thanks for his incalculable contributions to us all.

“I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”

“I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”

“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.”

- Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

News of Nelson Mandela’s passing:

• He Is Now At Peace

• South Africa’s Nelson Mandela Dies in Johannesburg

• The life of Nelson Mandela

• Send condolences to Nelson Mandela’s family

• Children in South Africa speak Mandela’s words

• Six Things Nelson Mandela Believed

• An Audio History

Please join us in honoring his memory,

The NACPM Staff and Board of Directors

NACPM Invites You to Help Increase Access to Midwifery Care

 NACPM Invites You to Help Increase Access to Midwifery Care

In this Newsletter:

• Free MANA Workshop in Portland: Working Toward Greater Equity in Maternal & Infant Health

• NABCC Urges Year-Round Efforts to Eliminate Disparities

 Free MANA Workshop in Portland: 

Working Toward Greater Equity in Maternal & Infant Health 

 NACPM encourages you to join our leadership team at the MANA free pre-conference workshop on Thursday, October 24 in Portland, Oregon: How Does Being White Impact Midwifery Practices? Working Toward a More Inclusive Profession and Greater Equity in Maternal and Infant Health.

 Register now for this free MANA workshop!

Many critical conversions emerged at the CPM Symposium 2012  among the attending NACPM members and stakeholders. One of these conversations was the role of societal and institutional racism in the U.S. in birth outcome disparities for women and babies of color. Following the Symposium, the NACPM leadership team committed to work within our sphere to address institutional racism personally and in our profession, and to work more effectively to eliminate racial disparities in the health of mothers and babies in the U.S.

(See NACPM Statement of Strategic Intent to Address Racism and Racial Disparities in the US).

 One aspect of this NACPM commitment is to acknowledge and appreciate the work of the Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Work in Midwifery (AROM) group that emerged from the CPM Symposium, and to encourage NACPM members to participate and access the anti-racism training resources this group provides.

 What You Can Do

• Please join the NACPM board and staff at MANA’s pre-conference workshop to learn how to work for racial justice in midwifery with experienced anti-racism facilitators from AROM. We look forward to joining you on October 24th in Portland!

• Read more about the CPM Symposium 2012 presentations on racism and birth outcome disparities, including video footage and a wealth of related resources.

  NACPM applauds MANA for hosting this workshop – at no charge, and for making this training available to us all.

 NABCC Urges Year-Round Efforts to Eliminate Disparities

 Following September’s National Infant Mortality Awareness Month, the National Association of Birth Centers of Color (NABCC) urges all of us to work to eliminate disparities in infant mortality throughout the year. 

 The mission of NABCC is to eliminate disparities in birth outcomes among communities of color by increasing the number of maternity clinics and birth centers owned and/or operated by practitioners of color who are committed to serving communities of color. NACPM encourages all CPMs to support this mission and the work of NABCC.

 To be of support, you can make a financial contribution to NABCC, join as a supporter, and “like” and “share” the NABCC Facebook Page. 

Please utilize this list of resources from NABCC, including information on infant mortality rates among populations of color, a webinar on welcoming African American women of color into your practice, a video on a Grand Midwife, and the March of Dimes Report Card on prematurity.

We hope to see you at the workshop on the 24th!

Suzy Myers, CPM President

Mary Lawlor, CPM Executive Director

NACPM 2013 Election Results are In!

NACPM 2013 Election Results are In!

Congratulations to Illysa Foster of Austin, Texas, Jamie Eidsath of Ann Arbor, Michigan and Autumn Vergo of Peterborough, New Hampshire. Welcome to the NACPM Board of Directors!

 Illysa, Jamie and Autumn will be joining the NACPM leadership team at our meeting this October in Portland, Oregon. We look forward to working with them and we thank them for their service.

 This year’s election results revealed a tie between two nominees for the second-most votes. The NACPM leadership responded by expanding the board from 7 to 8 members and will induct all three of these exemplary candidates into the board.

 Meet the New Board Members:

 Illysa is co-author of Professional Ethics in Midwifery Practice, a practical guide to ethics for midwives, and lectures at local, state and national conferences on midwifery ethics. She is studying perinatal psychology while training to be a psychotherapist for childbearing women. Illysa wants to help midwives in her region understand NACPM’s role, engage them with their professional organization, and assist them in having a national voice. She wants to support NACPM in upholding ethical and educational standards in the profession that reflect midwives’ deep commitment to quality maternity care and to promote the CPM credential as the standard for maternity care.

Autumn is a birth center owner, a CNM student, adjunct faculty at Birthwise Midwifery School in Maine, and a member of a New England regional multi-hospital quality improvement organization’s Homebirth Taskforce. She believes that CPMs have a unique perspective on patient choice and family-centered care, and that this perspective should be shared with our colleagues in healthcare and policy development. She wants to ensure that community midwifery remains a rich and sustainable career path for young people and for experienced midwives. To Autumn, serving on the Board of the NACPM represents an incredible opportunity to promote the visibility, expertise, and sustainability of the CPM profession.

Jamie is a partner at New Moon Midwifery since 2011, and is eager to support NACPM’s mission to expand access to midwifery care through policy work. As a midwife from a state with no licensing yet for CPMs, she wants to help NACPM support state licensure movements and bring the benefits of NACPM’s national policy initiatives to currently unlicensed states. Jamie believes it is important to support CPMs in collaborating with other health care providers, and to support access to physiologic birth and the care of CPMs for all women, regardless of income, especially women insured by Medicaid. She wants to help increase student’s access to high quality educational opportunities, student loans and financial aid to help grow and diversify the profession.

Welcome, Illysa, Autumn and Jamie!

Suzy Myers, CPM President

Mary Lawlor, CPM Executive Director

1st Annual Black Breastfeeding Week a Monumental Success!

August 25-31st was declared the first annual Black Breastfeeding Week. The theme for this first year was “Black Lives Matter”. This movement, created for and lead by black women, was an inspiration for community led action in the breastfeeding community.

Black Breastfeeding Week founding members are an impressive list of leaders in breastfeeding advocacy. They include author, journalist and nationally recognized breastfeeding advocate, Kimberly Seals Allers of the Mocha Manual and speaker at CPM Symposium 2012; Kiddada Green, the founding director of the Detroit-based Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association (BMBF) and co-founder of the Brown Mamas Breastfeed Project ; and Anayah Sangodele-Ayoka, of  Free to Breastfeed and MomsRising.org.

Kimberly Seals Allers

 Black Breastfeeding week was supported by many other advocacy organizations, including: 

ROSE, MomsRising.org, MyBrownBaby.org, BlackandMarriedWithKids, JhaZamora Publishing, the St. John Hospital and Medical Center, and the National Association of Birth Centers and Clinics of Color.

 The week kicked off with a local meeting of the Black Mother’s Breastfeeding Club in Detroit and continued online for the remainder of the week. Online events included the Black Lives Matter Forum, a free live lactation support session hosted by the BMBF Association, and a tweetchat hosted by Ebony Magazine. This online presence was noted by the BBW13 Facebook, page earning over 1400 “likes” during in just less than two weeks and many articles and blog posts being shared and picked up my larger publications including Ebony Magazine and Ms. Magazine.

 Congratulations to the founders and everyone who worked so hard on this incredible week. NACPM looks forward to Black Breastfeeding Week 2014!

Suzy Myers, CPM President

Mary Lawlor, CPM Executive Director