“Orgasmic Birth” will be shown at 12 noon at the State Theatre, in State College.
There will be tables and displays before this so come early to visit and check out the MAP table.
After the movie, there will be a panel discussion, with a number of MAPpers and more!

Directions and all other info on their site:

http://www.thestatetheatre.org/

Immediately following the panel, at @ 3 pm, we will walk five or so doors down the street and go upstairs to the Allen Street Grill.

All are welcome, but only MAP members can vote.

You can join MAP that day!

http://www.allenstreetgrill.com/

We will meet in the State Room and will eat off the regular menu.

We will have a MAP meeting, with the following items on our agenda:

• Discussion and voting on The Proposed Regulations for CPMs in PA*****
• Selecting The Five Names of Midwives willing to serve as advisors to the Board of Medicine
• Communicating with the Plain Midwives
• Communication with PA. Families for Safe Birth and other consumer groups.
• And, More! I am sure!

***About the Regs…yes you have all been waiting patiently to see them…and we will have them to you ASAP. Because your team of specialists are mostly midwives…births happen. They are working like crazy to get them to us soon.

In the meantime, we have gotten word from the powers that be that we can slow the process down. Hooray!

That means that we can take Saturday’s meeting to really discuss these regs, and give a yeah or nay to your board to go forward using them as the template from which to negotiate. Please please please check your emails in the next two days…we will send them as soon as we can, and there will be copies available all day at the screening and at our meeting so please find me or Lisa at the MAP table if you want a paper set of them to read.

Also, as Christy has said over and over, please read the 1929 statute and read about the regulatory process in PA. and be familiar with all of this before the meeting. We are trying very hard to address everyone’s questions and concerns, but please remember that this is a process and that there is a lot that we are all learning!

In order for your voice to be heard, you need to speak up! Join MAP and have a vote! Be there Saturday! This is a huge day for us all…we hope you can be part of it!

Krystn Madrine
for your MAP Board

Luncheon buffet from 12-1pm

Join us from 12-1 pm for food, conversation, and networking with fellow midwives from PALM(Pennsylvania Association of Licensed Midwives)*.

There will be a raffle/silent auction to help raise funds for MAP’s efforts.

Annual Meeting from 1:30-3:30pm

Hear updates from MAP’s first 6 months, help set MAP’s agenda for 2009, adopt our official bylaws and elect MAP’s Governing Council.

At Molly Brannigans
2nd and Walnut  Street (31 N. 2nd Street)
Harrisburg, PA  17101
717-260-9242

Lunch is free. Free parking is available at a lot across from the restaurant and on-street parking is free on Sundays as well.

Directions
From Route 83 take Exit 43/2nd Street exit towards the Capitol
Follow 2nd Street for several blocks and then turn right onto Locust St.
Free parking is available in a lot just to your right, or chose on-street parking.
Molly’s is just across the street from the parking lot.

Contact Paula at 717-741-6087 to register to attend, or to nominate yourself or a colleague for a leadership position in MAP.

*PALM’s 4th Annual Meeting and Conference will be held November 8th and 9th And all midwives are welcome to attend. Hilton 717-233-6000 : Group code PLM for room discount.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 1, 2008)—In the newest phase of its ongoing effort to deny women the right to choose their maternity care providers and birth settings, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has announced that eliminating access to midwives who specialize in out-of-hospital birth is now the second most important issue on its state legislative agenda. This move puts restricting access to trained midwives ahead of such critical issues as contraceptive equity, ensuring access to emergency contraception, and the prevention and treatment of perinatal HIV/AIDS.

“ACOG claims to be an advocate of women’s health and choice, but when it comes to the right to choose to deliver your baby in the privacy of your own home with a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) who is specifically trained to provide the safest care possible, ACOG’s paternalistic colors bleed through,” said Susan M. Jenkins, Legal Counsel for the Big Push for Midwives Campaign. “It is astonishing that an organization that purports to be a champion of women’s healthcare would put a petty turf battle that affects less than one percent of the nation’s childbearing women ahead of pressing issues that have an impact on nearly every woman in this country. If this is not dereliction of duty, I can’t imagine what is.”

In recent years, ACOG has led a well-financed campaign to fight legislative reforms that would license and regulate CPMs and has now teamed up with the American Medical Association (AMA) to promote legislation that would prevent families from choosing to give birth at home. Despite these joint efforts, the groups have not been successful in defeating the groundswell of grassroots activism in support of full access to a comprehensive range of maternity care options that meet the needs of all families.

“Wisconsin is a good example of what ACOG and the AMA are up against,” said Jane Crawford Peterson, CPM, Advocacy Trainer for The Big Push. “Our bipartisan grassroots coalition of everyday people from across the state managed to defeat the most powerful and well-financed special interest groups inWisconsin, all on an expenses-only budget of $3000 during a legislative session in which $47 million was spent on lobbying. When you try to deny women the fundamental and very personal right to choose where and how to give birth, they will get organized and they will let their elected officials know that restrictions on those rights cannot stand.”

Noting these successes, ACOG has recently launched its own grassroots organizing effort, calling on member physicians to recruit their patients to participate in its “Who Will Deliver My Baby?” medical liability reform campaign.

“ACOG itself admits that we’re facing a critical shortage of maternity care providers,” said Steff Hedenkamp, Communications Coordinator for the Big Push. “They certainly realize that medical liability reform is nothing more than a band aid and that increasing access to midwives and birth settings is critical to fixing our maternity care system and ensuring that rural, low-income and uninsured women don’t fall through the cracks. Midwives represent an essential growth segment of the U.S. pool of maternity care providers, but instead of putting the healthcare needs of women first, ACOG would rather devote its considerable lobbying budget to a last-ditch attempt to protect its own bottom line. This is not a happy Labor Day for our nation’s mothers and babies.”

The Big Push for Midwives (http://www.TheBigPushforMidwives.org) is a nationally coordinated campaign organized to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to deny American families access to safe and legal midwifery care. The campaign plays a critical role in building a new model of U.S. maternity care delivery at the local and regional levels, at the heart of which is the Midwives Model of Care, based on the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life processes. Media inquiries: Steff Hedenkamp (816) 506-4630, steff@thebigpushformidwives.org.

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The Big Push for Midwives Campaign is fiscally sponsored by Sustainable Markets Foundation, a not-for-profit organization recognized as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). The mission of the Big Push for Midwives is to build winning, state-level advocacy campaigns towards successful regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Visit the Big Push for Midwives Campaign on the Web at www.TheBigPushforMidwives.org.

Sustainable Markets Foundation  |  80 Broad Street, Suite 1600  |  New York, NY10004-2248

The Big Push for Midwives Campaign  |  2300 M Street, N.W., Suite 800  | Washington, D.C. 20037-1434

PushNews from The Big Push for Midwives Campaign
CONTACT: Steff Hedenkamp, (816) 506-4630, RedQuill@kc.rr.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, July 10, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 10, 2008)—Breaking 40 years of silence, the American Medical Association (AMA) issued an apology today for its role in ignoring and perpetuating racial disparities in medicine, from discriminatory practices that excluded African American physicians from membership, to the disproportionately poor health outcomes among racial and ethnic minorities.

“Those of us working on maternity care reform have long known that the racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes in the U.S. are a national scandal,” said Susan M. Jenkins, Legal Counsel for the Big Push for Midwives Campaign. “We’ve also known that midwives play a critical role in reducing the two most preventable causes of neonatal death, prematurity and low birth weight. Now that the AMA has recognized the problem, perhaps their members will stop trying to outlaw the solution.”

At its annual meeting in June, the AMA issued resolutions opposing the licensure and regulation of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), who specialize in out-of-hospital delivery, with a strong focus on preventative care. Historically, African American midwives have played a significant role in minimizing racial disparities in birth outcomes, and they were employed by the World Health Organization to train traditional birth attendants in developing nations. In the first several decades of the 20th century, the AMA and other medical groups launched a racist campaign to outlaw so-called “granny midwives,” which resulted in the closure of the Tuskegee Institute’s state-of-the-art midwifery school and forced African American women into segregated hospitals.

“African American midwives were also a target of racial practices and deserve to be recognized as well; when those midwives were in the community caring for women, we didn’t have such enormous disparity in birth outcomes,” said Jane Peterson, CPM and President of the Wisconsin Guild of Midwives, and Advocacy Trainer with the Big Push for Midwives Campaign. “Immigrant midwives here in Wisconsin and other Midwestern states also struggled against attempts to outlaw them, but they were never subject to the same level of racist animosity.”

LaKeesha Harris, Illinois State Representative for the International Center for Traditional Childbearing and a member of the Big Push for Midwives Advisory Committee said she is impatient with the AMA. “Apologies are meaningless without action. One way of ending racial disparities within medicine is by allowing African American women to have complete autonomy over their bodies. They can only do this by having access to health care providers of their choice,” she said. “This includes midwives who have been working for the betterment of our community health for centuries.”

The Big Push for Midwives (http://www.TheBigPushforMidwives.org) is a nationally coordinated campaign organized to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association to deny American families access to safe and legal midwifery care. The Big Push for Midwives Campaign is the first initiative of the National Birth Policy Coalition (NBPC) and plays a critical role in building a new model of U.S. maternity care delivery at the local and regional levels. At the heart of this new model is the Midwives Model of Care, based on the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life processes.

Media inquiries should be directed to Steff Hedenkamp (816) 506-4630, RedQuill@kc.rr.com.

#####

The Big Push for Midwives Campaign is fiscally sponsored by Sustainable Markets Foundation, a not-for-profit organization recognized as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). Our mission is to build winning, state-of-the-art advocacy campaigns towards successful regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs). 

CONTACT: Steff Hedenkamp, (816) 506-4630, RedQuill@kc.rr.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, June 16, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 16, 2008)—Just in time for Father’s Day, at its annual meeting last weekend, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a resolution to introduce legislation outlawing home birth, and potentially making criminals of the mothers who choose home birth with the help of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) for their families. 

“It’s unclear what penalties the AMA will seek to impose on women who choose to give birth at home, either for religious, cultural or financial reasons—or just because they didn’t make it to the hospital in time,” said Susan Jenkins, Legal Counsel for The Big Push for Midwives 2008 campaign. “What we do know, however, is that any state that enacts such a law will immediately find itself in court, since a law dictating where a woman must give birth would be a clear violation of fundamental rights to privacy and other freedoms currently protected by the U.S. Constitution.”

Until the AMA proposed ‘Resolution 205 on Home Deliveries,’ no state had considered legislation forcing women to deliver their babies in the hospital or limiting the choice of birth setting. Instead, states have regulated the types of midwives that may legally provide care. Currently, 22 states already license and regulate CPMs, who specialize in out-of-hospital maternity care and have received extensive training to qualify as experts in the types of risk assessment and preventive care necessary for safe and high-quality care for women who choose give birth at home. Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs), who are trained primarily as hospital-based providers, are licensed in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The resolution did not offer any science-based information for the AMA’s anti-midwife or anti-home birth position.

“Maternity care is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States,” said Steff Hedenkamp, Communications Coordinator for The Big Push for Midwives. “So it’s no surprise to see the AMA join the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in its ongoing fight to corner the market and ensure that the only midwives able to practice legally are hospital-based midwives forced to practice under physician control. I will say, though, that I’m shocked to learn that the AMA is taking this turf battle to the next level by setting the stage for outlawing home birth itself—a direct attack on those families who choose home birth, who could be subject to criminal prosecution if the AMA has its way.”

The Big Push for Midwives (http://www.TheBigPushforMidwives.org) is a nationally coordinated campaign organized to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association to deny American families access to safe and legal midwifery care.

Media inquiries should be directed to Steff Hedenkamp (816) 506-4630, RedQuill@kc.rr.com.

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© 2008 The Big Push for Midwives Campaign. All rights reserved. The Big Push for Midwives is fiscally sponsored by Sustainable Markets Foundation, a not-for-profit organization recognized as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). Our mission is to build winning, state-of-the-art advocacy campaigns towards successful regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs).

The Big Push for Midwives Campaign  |  www.TheBigPushforMidwives.org 

80 Broad Street, Suite 1600, New York, NY 10004-2248  |  2300 M Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20037-1434

The Midwives Alliance of Pennsylvania has announced today that The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has reversed the September 2007 decision of the Pennsylvania Board of Medicine to order Lancaster County Certified Professional Midwife Diane Goslin to cease and desist from the practice of midwifery. Diane Goslin may now legally attend births in The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Contrary to the Board of Medicine’s prior statements, the Commonwealth Court determined on Friday that, “…practicing midwifery cannot be construed to be the same as practicing medicine and surgery.” The Board had wrongly contended that Goslin was in violation of the 1985 Medical Practice Act by practicing medicine without a license.

Additionally, The Commonwealth pointed out that the 1985 Act, “…authorizes the Board to impose penalties only upon persons who practice as a nurse midwife without a nurse midwife license.” Goslin as a Certified Professional Midwife is certified by the National Association of Registered Midwives (NARM) and is considered trained and qualified to attend out of hospital birth.

The Commonwealth Court’s 5-2 ruling also overturned an $11,000 civil fine that the State Board of Medicine imposed on Midwife Diane Goslin. President Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter and Judge Doris A. Smith-Ribner dissented, but did not file opinions explaining their votes.
Goslin, 50, who lives near Strasburg in the heart of Lancaster County’s Amish community, said today her interpretation of the ruling is that it allows her to resume deliveries. The state board of medicine couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The board took action against Goslin in early 2007, eventually fining her $11,000. The situation resulted in several occasions where hundreds of Amish men, women and children came to Harrisburg to rally in support of Goslin.

The board can appeal to the state Supreme Court, no decision has been reached at this point whether they will pursue that course of action.

The Midwives Alliance of Pennsylvania (MAP) is a professional trade organization representing midwives statewide. MAP membership includes midwives, students, and a supporting membership of other healthcare professionals and consumers. MAP affirms the unique fabric and diversity of midwifery in Pennsylvania and seeks to promote and preserve the art and craft of midwifery while serving as a self-governing and self-regulating sisterhood for participating midwives. The aim of this group is to successfully advance legislation for the recognition, regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

See the www.SaveHomebirth.com for more information and updates.

Read the ruling by the Commonwealth Court here: http://tinyurl.com/4kfcqb

Congratulations to Diane and her family!

There is nothing I can think of which is more fundamentally transforming, and yet completely natural, than giving birth to a child.  Change is experienced physically, mentally and emotionally.  It is a process of pure growth, in leaps and bounds, for the physical being, the spiritual being and the emotional being, as well as the family unit, community and universe as a whole.

It seems in today’s society, birthing a child has become less about a woman’s personal growth and transformation and more about adhering to a vision, seemingly created by men, which is limited to how efficient and painless a birth can be.  And let me just state, what birth can be and what birth is meant to be is oftentimes at odds in this line of thinking.

There is a level of mental and emotional strength necessary to birth a child.  This is necessary because of the measure of mental and emotional strength it takes to raise a child.  Having come through a natural birthing experience, women become empowered and positive, and have this strength to draw on throughout the rest of their lives.  At least, that was my experience.

My son was born two weeks post date in a hospital setting, while I was hooked up to an IV and fetal monitor after having been induced with pitocin. It was an event which I still wanted to experience naturally, much to the chagrin of the stream of medical professionals floating through to regale me with stories of how much easier it could be if I just had an epidural.

Now, I am not advocating natural and/or home-birthing across the board.  Of course there are situations where either physically or mentally the help of a skilled medical professional can result in a birth which would be risky and/or life threatening in the absence of modern scientific technology. But here’s the thing, it has become society’s accepted view on birth to see a sterile hospital room with surgery possible a moment away should something go wrong.  And taking “too long” is considered something going wrong.  It is a bleak picture for advocates of natural birth, home birth and birth choices in general.

Imagine laboring in the comfort of your home, naked and assuming any position which makes you feel comfortable.  Imagine your partner, friends and family able to come and go at will – your will.  Imagine eating and drinking whatever you need to sustain your energy.  Perhaps a loving midwife assessing your progress as your curiosity warrants.  

Imagine your favorite music playing and dim, comforting lighting.  Imagine your verbalizing does not reverberate down a stark hallway, inspiring fear in the hearts of mothers birthing quickly and neatly thanks to medicine and medical professionals, but joins in a chorus with your loving partner and perhaps a labor doula who encourages and calms you.  

Imagine a baby being introduced to the world by way of a warm tub full of water and delivered directly to their mother’s breast where they are encouraged to immediately exercise their natural instinct to suckle, instead of being immediately whisked away to be cleaned, banded, printed and even inoculated.

My daughter was born in the comfort of my own home.  It was a birth attended by two loving midwives, their apprentice, my husband, my 18 month old son and a close friend.  One of the highlights of my birth memory is that of my son playing peek-a-boo with my midwife, Christy, while I labored on our couch.  They were peeking around my belly as I was naked, positioned on my knees, facing the back of the couch where my husband stood massaging my shoulders and providing loving support.    

Ultimately, my daughter was birthed in a labor tub where my husband and I, exhausted but ecstatic, snuggled our newborn in the warm water, where my son joined us to marvel at the new amazing addition to our family.  The screaming newborn flailing about in shock, a memory from my son’s birth, was nowhere to be found as my daughter began nursing in minutes in the comfort of the warm tub.

If this vision strikes fear in your heart, think why you don’t feel comfortable in your naked skin, in the comfort of your own home, surrounded by loving and caring people who believe so deeply that you know exactly what you are doing, intuitively.  Think why you may not trust yourself to work with your as yet unborn child to make their entrance to this world an experience the two of you will be amazed and proud of for your entire lives. Think why fear and doubt enters your heart and your mind in a place where peace, love and strength are meant to reside.

Everything changes when you become pregnant.  Your pregnancy is a moment in your life, culminating in your opening-up, more than you ever dreamed, to bring a new being into everyone’s life.  Let it be a time to open your mind as well.  Entertain the possibility that centuries of experienced women know more about birth than decades of scientists trying to make one of the most defining moments of your life and your child’s life shorter and easier and neater because they are not comfortable with the awe-inspiring power of a woman who has learned how to follow her intuition and natural instincts.