Medically unnecessary pro­cedures to deliver babies early are on the rise in West Virginia, prompting officials to aim at reversing the trend.

Click here to comment in response to the recently published Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration [Tuesday, November 25, 2008].  We need to flood the site with comments calling for Medicaid reimbursement for CPMs and pointing out that CPMs actually staff the majority of freestanding birth centers in the US. We also need comments noting that CPMs are specialists (or have expertise in) the provision of out-of-hospital maternity care, both in birth centers and in homes.

Please take the time to call your federal (not state) Senators and Congresspeople.  Use the search engine on the notice below to get their names and phone numbers.  Ask them to co-sponsor a bill to that would add birth centers as a Medicaid-covered service.  Presently, some states pay birth center facility fee charges and some don't, but CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the federal government) began to disallow those payments last year.

It is vital to the survival of freestanding birth centers for this bill to be enacted.  Many birth centers care for Medicaid recipients, many as high as 50% of their clients and some as high as 85 or 95% .

The report, Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What It Is and What It Can Achieve, takes stock of the U.S. maternity care system, identifies many opportunities for improving the quality, outcomes, and value of maternity care, and presents policy recommendations. It was developed through a collaboration among Childbirth Connection, the Reforming States Group, and the Milbank Memorial Fund.

Synopsis – Submitted by Martha Blizzard White – Unbelievable encounter with over 50 women – midwives, students, supporters, mothers, and a few fathers to boot. Great weather, full moon, incredible venue...

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.

Letter to AMA from the President of ACNM, ,regarding the American Medical Association's recent resolutions 204 "Midwifery Scope of Practice and Licensure." as well as Addendum I to the letter.

From the President's Desk-
 
We are pleased to announce the release of an Issue Brief: Certified Professional Midwives in the United States. The Midwives Alliance of North American (MANA) collaborated with the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM), the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC), and the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM) to create this issue brief. These four national organizations-MANA, NARM, MEAC and NACPM-have played essential roles in the conception, formation, promotion and maintenance of the Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) credential...