The Steering Committee for the Home Birth Consensus Summit released the 9 statements that represent the Common Ground that was found as a result of an intense 3 day process. As a delegate to the Summit, I represented Midwives and had the honor to share conversation and ideas with physicians, consumers, advocates, and policy makers …

Pt 2 : Perspectives on Global Midwifery; A US midwife’s diary of the 29th ICM Triennial Congress [Click here for Pt 1] As an advocate for US midwifery and women’s health, I recently had the opportunity to be temporarily lifted out of the trenches of our national battle for access to midwifery care.  As an …

I recently had the opportunity to travel to South Africa as part of a delegation for the Midwives Alliance of North America as an Observer to the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) Triennial Council meeting. I had the unique privilege of listening and learning about the organizational processes that unfold as midwifery leaders from over …

Last Friday, February 4 2011, the Board of Medicine of Virginia convened it’s 3rd workgroup on the issue of whether to allow CPMs licensed to attend births the authority to carry and administer the controlled substances they are trained to deliver. The draft minutes to the meeting are posted here. There are some inaccuracies, but it …

In Time’s American Women: Birthing Babies at Home, Catherine Elton discusses the “battle over birth” between midwives and obstetricians. As she reviews the recent skirmish related to a controversial meta-analysis by Dr. Joseph Wax published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology that throws the safety of home birth into question, she highlights the primary factor where …

Not in the opinion of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As a follow up to last year’s passage of legislation that would require evidence-based informed consent for all women seeking home birth Evidence Based-It’s Now the Law, the Virginia Regulatory Townhall posted the first of two public comment opportunities. Please read the following open letter to …

Leave it to those coffee loving, fault line dwelling northwesterners to come up with a brilliant new twist on lowering incentives for unneccessary c-sections. Beginning this month, the state of Washington will pay hospitals the same amount for an uncomplicated C-section as for a complicated vaginal birth when it reimburses them through Medicaid. Almost half …

This summer, scores of midwives and advocates are working relentlessly to lobby federal lawmakers as they draft language for the Health Care Reform bill. The Obama administration has promised Americans a new law by fall of this year and Congress is working all summer on multiple versions of an omnibus bill that will bring sweeping …

An incredibly bold and insightful article from a US Obstetrician.  If there are physicians like this within the bureaucracy, then there is hope for our future.  Please pass this along and send this woman some huzzahs! The following wins the Midwife Monologues award for “Best Quote of the Year”: Industrial obstetrics strips the locus of …

A recently revised Position Statement from the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) seeks to limit recognition of midwifery providers to those who have received their training through government accredited programs. The North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) oversees the credentialing of midwives who have received their training through time honored and evidenced based systems …