Cookie Day at the Capitol - 2009!

Midwife supporters started showing up bright and early laden with boxes, baskets, crates, backpacks, and even wheeled luggage crammed full of hundreds and hundreds of packages of cookies! We lost count of just how many home baked cookies were delivered on Cookie Day, but our estimate puts it around 800 packages, or 400 dozen cookies!

Jen Keifer, FoMM VP, arrived with a wagon load of cookies and children.
Her homeborn baby, David (above) appears ready to go charm the legislators!

By 1 pm, most people had visited dozens of offices with their children and cookies and were happy to sit and listen to special speakers at our rally in celebration of legal CPMs. Many people were especially excited to hear Jennifer Block from Brooklyn, New York and many brought copies of her book, "Pushed" to be autographed afterwards. A number of legislators and various lobbyists showed up to hear her as well.
Above, Halley Watson, Legislative Chair, welcomes everyone and thanks them for coming to celebrate with us.

After receiving an emotional standing ovation from a rotunda full of homebirth parents, children, and their midwives, Senator Loudon spoke about his motivation for legalizing Certified Professional Midwives. He added, "You wouldn't believe all the people I've met through this! I have so many Facebook friends because of this issue!"

Samanda Rossi, President of Friends of Missouri Midwives, surprised Mary and Debbie by coming to the front to recognize them for their years of service and present them with beautiful bouquets, thanking them for all that they have sacrificed over the past four years to make midwives legal in Missouri.

"In their time as unpaid, volunteer lobbyists, they [Debbie and Mary] gave up a great deal for the betterment of families in Missouri and the midwives who serve them. And they did without complaint or of asking for much beyond our presence at the Capitol. They dug deep into their pockets to pay for gas and meager dinners of canned beans and donated food.... After dinner, sleep was scarce and work hours were long as they strategized and planned for the daylight hours ahead...
The intensity and selflessness of Mary and Debbie's work may never be fully understood or appreciated. But the magnitute of their work will resonate each time a midwife takes her CPM exam, each time a mother-to-be locates a legal midwife to assist her patiently and lovingly through pregnancy, and each time a baby utters it's first sounds of greeting upon birth in the great state of Missouri." - Samanda Rossi

The crowd in the rotunda, listening to Debbie tell the story of how her midwife was arrested two weeks before her due date, leaving her with nothing to do but have her baby at home alone or go to the hospital. Debbie spoke of how that experience led her to spend years of her life working to make midwives legal for every other pregnant woman in Missouri.

Debbie Smithey, Jennifer Block, Mary Ueland, Sarah Greek listen to Elizabeth Allemann, MD. "We've hunted midwives down and thrown them in prison for 50 years in Missouri," she said. "Now, we've decided that they shouldn't be criminalized. But what should Missouri do with them now? I suggest that we integrate them into our maternity care system!"

Halley Watson, Debbie Smithey, Mary Ueland, Sarah Greek - the "old" lobbyists and the "new" midwifery lobbyists!

All together with their heroes - Senator John and Dr. Gina Loudon!

Sarah and Mary discuss the Supreme Court ruling with Steve Walsh, reporter for the MissouriNet news service at the Capitol.

An interview for KWMU news. Homebirth slideshow playing in the background.

After the rally, we spent some time in a basement hearing room with
Jennifer Block, discussing the state of our modern maternity care system
and how to reach women with information and options.

Members of Friends of Missouri Midwives and Missouri Midwives Association leadership went to dinner with Jennifer Block at Panera bread to continue our conversation. We are so grateful to Jennifer Block, author of "Pushed: The Painful Truth About Modern Maternity Care" for taking time out of her busy schedule to speak at our rally, and for coming to spend Cookie Day promoting midwives at the Missouri Capitol! Thank you, Jennifer!

And lastly, a picture of Sarah Greek and Halley Watson, the new faces of midwifery seen at the Capitol every day in place of Debbie and Mary's continual presence. Their job is to make sure that Certified Professional Midwives STAY legal!

Thank you so much Halley and Sarah!

Midwifery Memoirs

I recently finished reading and reviewing a great new midwifery memoir, The Blue Cotton Gown by Patsy Harman. This book was written by a CNM who no longer attends births, so it was about the rest of midwifery--the well woman care side. It was very good.

A few months ago, I also read the very excellent Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart, another midwifery memoir (this one had lots of births and also lots of drama!). I really loved it. Very good.

In short order, I also read Labor of Love, by the CNM who was shadowed in the film The Business of Being Born.

If you get the opportunity to read any of these books, I think you'll enjoy them!

Citizens for Midwifery Meeting in Rolla, MO!

This year, Citizens for Midwifery will hold its annual meeting in Rolla, MO and any and all interested birth activists are welcome to join us!

FoMM/MMA's very own Mary Ueland and Debbie Smithey have been nominated to receive the annual Susan Hodges award for excellence in consumer activism and that will be given during the public portion of the annual meeting.

This year our Annual Membership Meeting, including the election of members of the Board of Directors, will be held in Rolla, Missouri, on Saturday, November 8, 2008, from 1-2 pm, followed by a Gathering with other birth activists in the area from 2-4pm. The CfM Board members will be meeting in person throughout the weekend.

Location: These meetings will be held at Baymont Inn and Suites, 1801 Martin Springs Drive in Rolla, Missouri. Hotel phone: 573-364-7000.

Our Annual Meeting affords us the chance to review the past year and look ahead to the coming years – your questions and ideas are important! This is a great opportunity to meet with and talk to CfM’s Board of Directors in person. And of course we’ll count the ballots for the election of Board Members for the next year

Following the Annual Membership Meeting, a Birth Activist Gathering will bring together CfM members with Friends of Missouri Midwives and anyone else who is interested, including other consumer activists, midwives, and other birth professionals. CfM will give a brief presentation about our current work and projects, including our response to the AMA Resolution, an open discussion about "what’s next in MO" and how CfM can help, and how we can work together to sustain birth advocacy. This event is free and light refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP to molly@cfmidwifery.org if you plan to attend the meetings. CfM’s Board of Directors looks forward to hearing from many of you, and even seeing some of you in November!

Please pass this message along to other interested persons or organizations (including activists in our neighboring states of IL and KS, if you have contacts there).

Mark your calendars! I hope to see you there.

A Celebration of Legal Midwives in Missouri!

July 12, 2008 ~ St. James, Missouri

According to the Missouri Supreme Court, Certified Professional Midwives became legal to practice in Missouri on July 4, 2008.

It's a long story, beginning with a little word, "tocology" and ending with a historic Missouri Supreme Court decision that overturned a lower court's ruling. The Missouri Supreme Court stated that the physicians associations who sued the State over the new midwifery law (passed in 2007) had no right to be in court over this in the first place. So, the injunction that they had placed against the midwifery law in August of 2007 was thrown out, and the law stood as passed.

And Certified Professional Midwives became legal to practice in Missouri on the day we celebrate in honor of FREEDOM!

Since most people already had 4th of July plans, we had to postpone our statewide celebration a bit. (Actually, the St. Charles and St. Louis Friends of Missouri Midwives area chapters held celebrations the day the court ruling was handed down - June 24 - and a few days later at their usual monthly meetings.)

Our statewide celebration was planned rather last minute and the Nisbett's graciously offered their spacious home near Rolla.
Here are a few pictures from the Saturday afternoon party (July 12).

The Nisbett's have a dream yard for children...

Their house is really kid-friendly (and fun) as well.
All the kids had a blast!

Jesse and Emily (who take care of all of the accounting and web up-keep for Free the Midwives!) were at the party showing off their new little girl - Ellie.

Senator Mike Gibbons (President Pro Tem of the Missouri Senate)
showed up while we were eating lunch.
Here he is, chatting with folks in the kitchen.

After visiting for awhile and joining us for dessert, Senator Gibbons spoke to our group, congratulating us on the recent court ruling allowing professional midwives to practice freely and reminiscing about several funny incidents that happened at the Capitol, involving "the midwives." He said that every grassroots effort that he has seen in his 16 years as a legislator pales in comparison to the one that the midwives have put on at the Capitol.
Eventually he had to head off and hit the campaign trail again (for his Attorney General race).

Collene agreed to be MC for our afternoon program, which was mostly informal story-telling by those who had been involved in trying to legalize midwives in Missouri over the last thirty-some years.

Dr. David Stewart, Ph.D, and his wife, Lee, joined us for the day and spoke first. They told their story of having their first baby at home in Rolla without a midwife or a doctor in the 1960's, because there was no one to attend a homebirth at the time. They have been working to allow access to Missouri midwives and homebirth since 1967. David Stewart has written many books on the subject and is the founder of NAPSAC International (International Association of Parents and Professional for Safe Alternatives in Childbirth).

Keith and Kim Nisbett came next in the history as they moved to Missouri in the late 1980's and were shocked to find that they couldn't open the Yellow Pages and find a midwife. Keith told the story of writing up the first midwifery bill with their illegal midwife in their bedroom and taking it to the Capitol where he learned the legislative process over the next few years as the bill passed the House of Representatives many times. It was always blocked by a filibuster in the Senate, till families eventually burnt out and went home for a few years.

Margaret spoke next about Friends of Missouri Midwives organizing in the 1990's and deciding that a foundation of public education was necessary before success would ever be secured at the Capitol. (She's speaking way in the back in a white shirt in this picture.)

Then it was Debbie and Mary's turn to tell the story of how tocology really happened behind the scenes the day it was passed in the Senate.
Right in the middle of telling the tocology story, much to our surprise, we looked up and saw Senator Chris Koster (also a candidate for Attorney General, and a friend of ours at the Capitol) walk in! He took a seat and listened intently to all of the details that most of the legislators were never privy to hear about.
(Above, Chris Koster and Jonathan Smith listening.)

Then Collene told a touching story about the 2008 legislative session. She talked about how she was walking around the Capitol on one of the very last days, knowing that Senate Leadership was killing our bill behind the scenes.
She said that in desperation, she finally went into the little coffee room near the chamber and shut the door. She told us all how she had knelt down on the floor by the ice machine and cried out to God, "Why does this have to be so long and so hard and so painful? Why does our bill never pass? I've been coming to this place for 20 years and, God, you know how much I HATE it! I don't ever want to come back! Why can't our bill just pass?!"

She said that she stopped and thought about it before she said it, but then she ended her prayer with, "But I will come back if I must."

Then she recounted the last agonizing day of session and the feelings she had as she left the Capitol, tears stinging her eyes when, once again, our bill hadn't passed... not because it wasn't a good bill, not because it didn't have majority support or any other good reason. But simply because it was all about a few men who wanted to ensure their campaign donations in an election year. She had gone home and cried and wondered why things were so unjust.

And then she nearly brought the whole roomful to tears when she said, "And now I see why God didn't let that bill pass and gave us something better instead. Now I'm so happy that I didn't get what I asked for when I was crying in the little coffee room. Justice was served, and better than I could have imagined or asked for."

Afterwards, Senator Koster (above, speaking) added his own funny stories about "midwives in the Capitol".

... And then we posed for pictures!
Mary, Senator Koster, Debbie

Lastly, we all took a big group picture, and people began to head for home, feeling extremely thankful that midwifery had become legal in Missouri in a way that was far beyond anything we had ever imagined or hoped for. We also went away, realizing the gravity of the situation and the need for us to guard our new-found freedom vigilantly.

New Maternity Care Handout from Citizens for Midwifery

There is a nice new handout available from Citizens for Midwifery called "What Does Good Maternity Care Look Like?" that presents three models of good maternity care side-by-side--The Midwives Model of Care, the Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care, and Six Care Practices that Support Normal Birth. The handout is a nice, simple representation of the compatibility between all of these evidence based models of healthy, effective maternity care!

Home Birth

I recently finished reading the book, Mamatoto. (I wrote more about this book here.) This book is a look at birth in a variety of cultures around the world and explores various customs in various cultures. I liked this quote from the book about homebirth:

"'Home birth' can mean different things to different people. It can mean a bedroom, dimly lit and scented with myrr; a sweatbath perched on a Guatemalan hillside, or a birthing pool in an English flat; a warm fireside in a Himalayan kitchen; the packed-snow sleeping platform of an Inuit igloos; or a one-room shack in Jamaica, with a washing line dividing the family bed and the children waiting on the other side for a first glance at the baby who will be held up for them to see. When a woman gives birth at home, she and her family have a degree of control over the event; it's their domain."

Another favorite quote is this:

"Pay attention to the pregnant woman! There is no one as important as she!"

(Chagga saying, Uganda)

Pregnant women in Missouri want and need midwives. We need our legislators to pay attention! :-)

Ode to My Midwife

Previously published in the summer 2007 issue of the Friends of Missouri Midwives newsletter:

Ode to My Midwife…

Midwifery model of care

Inspiration

Dedication

Wisdom

Integrity

Friendship

Empathy

--Thank you!

Malpractice Insurance & Midwives

Midwifery advocates working on legislation are often met with the question/response, "but what about malpractice insurance? Families need to have some recourse in the event of problems during birth." This is often a close-the-door pseudo-question asked with an air of finality--as in, "now, that settles that. We're all finished here."

Reading the current issue of Midwifery Today finally helped me respond to that question and also to discern what I have always felt that questions of legislation and legalization of midwifery should not involve a need for, or a requirement of, malpractice insurance. It also helps explain why bringing up malpractice insurance need not be an avenue for closing discussion.

From author Judy Slome Cohain: "Mandatory malpractice insurance does not enable a person to sue for malpractice. Any midwife or citizen can be sued at present--insurance or no insurance. Mandatory malpractice insurance can only do one thing: increase the profitability of lawsuits."

When looking through this lens, it becomes clear that lawyers and insurance companies have more to gain from legislation mandating insurance policies for midwives than do birthing women and their families.

The article in Midwifery Today is called "Mandatory Malpractice Insurance: Increases CS Rate & Profitability of Litigation, Decreased Planned Homebirths."

Last year when the issue of malpractice insurance was raised repeatedly in the discussion of our midwifery legislation we discovered that there were no other laws (that we could find) mandating that ANY other type of professional have malpractice insurance, including OBs. If no other professionals in the state of Missouri are required by law to carry malpractice insurance, why is the issue even been raised when discussing midwifery? Yes, most hospitals do require malpractice insurance for their OBs as a condition of employment, but it is not a state regulated requirement that they have it.

Quotes from Birth Book

In the early 70's, Raven Lang was a self-trained midwife in Santa Cruz, CA. She and her sister midwives opened a birth center and served many women before one of the midwives was arrested in an undercover sting operation by a law enforcement couple posing as homebirth clients. Birth Book was the first woman authored, empowerment model, homebirth-oriented book to come out of the childbirth and midwifery movement of the 70's (published even before the better known and also much beloved classic, Spiritual Midwifery). This book has recently been reprinted on a very limited basis and is being sold by Citizens for Midwifery. This week I was delighted to read it at last and I wanted to share some quotes from the introduction of the book that felt relevant to me when thinking about midwifery in Missouri:

“Birth has not only reached the absurdity of having to be relearned, it also has the absurdity of becoming a criminal offense if we are to go ahead with our ideals and do things the way we desire. And so, because of the system, midwifery as practiced in this book is against the law. It has become political. We didn’t make it that way. For us it is a beautiful, personal, spiritual, sexual experience. And for us to have that, we become criminals.”

“None of this would have happened if we had waited for organized medicine to come around, or if we had been scared of the laws we would break, or if we had waited for money. I want now to say POWER TO THE PEOPLE, AND YOU CAN DO IT IF YOU WANT.”

St. Louis Post Dispatch Slideshow

There is a lovely slideshow of a midwife attended homebirth currently available on the St. Louis Post Dispatch website! This is what we're working towards--making births like this readily available to women throughout Missouri! :-)