Grassroots Network: PushNews: Flu and need for out-of-hospital midwives

Dear Friends,

The news of a pending flu epidemic is alarming. Even more so is the fact that national and state disaster preparedness plans have not given much attention to childbirth in the midst of any disaster, including an epidemic.

The Big Push has addressed this issue in a new "PushNews." You can read it here.

With health care reform around the corner, this is a great time to write letters to the editor, or op ed pieces for your local newspaper, and this is a newsworthy angle. Any positive mention of midwives (of any kind) in the newspaper is good! You can quote from the press release, and/or if you know a reporter at your local paper, you can give them a copy. When you write a letter to the editor, be sure to find out the word limit for your paper (so you can do any editing!). Find some "Tips for Writing Letters to the Editor" here.

The Big Push for Midwives is "a nationally coordinated campaign to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico."

If you haven't already, to take a look at the Big Push website and you can sign up for PushAlerts here.

Sincerely,
Susan Hodges, "gatekeeper"