Grassroots Network: Midwifery Legislation Triumph in Idaho!

Dear Friends,

The Big Push for Midwives campaign, TheBigPushforMidwives.org, has issued a press release with the following very exciting announcement:

Idaho Pushes Midwife Movement to the Tipping Point
Physician and Midwife Groups Forge Unprecedented Alliance as Idaho Becomes the 26th State to Pass Legislation to Legalizing Certified Professional Midwives

BOISE, ID (April 1, 2009) Governor C.L. Butch Otter signed into law today a bill to license and regulate Certified Professional Midwives, making Idaho the 26th state to legally authorize them to provide out-of-hospital maternity care. In a notable reversal of longstanding anti-midwife policies, medical groups worked together with legislators, midwives, and advocates to reach consensus on a law that provides for independent practice, mutual collaboration, and the rights of parents to choose where and how their babies are born.

"This is a great day for midwives and home birth advocates all across the country," said Kyndal May of Idahoans for Midwives. "We truly have reached the tipping point, breaking through the medical lobby's longstanding opposition and developing a legislative consensus model that other states are looking to follow."

Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs), who practice primarily in hospital settings, are legally authorized in all 50 states, while Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), who specialize in out-of-hospital birth, until today were legally authorized to practice in just half the states. Representatives from The Big Push for Midwives Campaign noted that Idaho typifies recent legislative trends across the country, as a growing number of states come closer to passing CPM legislation.

And here's a bit more on the Big Push:

Through its work with state-level advocates, the Big Push is helping to forge a new model of U.S. maternity care built on expanding access to out-of-hospital maternity care and CPMs, who provide affordable, quality, community-based care that is proven to reduce costly and preventable interventions as well as the rate of low-birth weight and premature births.

Also, the Big Push is convening this summer in Alabama. For more information, go to: http://pushsummit.eventbrite.com/.

Sincerely,
Arielle Greenberg Bywater, "sidekick"