Petitions & Surveys
Please sign the petition to keep home birth safe and legal in the US!!
Join the Citizens for Midwifery
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Share Your Story - The Birth Survey
Given birth in the last three years?
Want folks to know how you feel/felt about your experience?
Have good news to share about a talented midwife, doula or MD?
Have a complaint about whether your birth plan and other wants and needs were honored?
Register all that here: The Birth Survey
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Formula Fed America - a new film http://www.formulafedamerica.com/site/index.html
Create a 4-7 minute video about childbirth options and you could win $1000! More details…
Films & Trailers
BirthRights: The Risk of Choice
a lovely short film about VBAC
Guerrilla Midwife
A new film about midwife Robin Lim
View the trailer
Initation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth reduces infant mortality rate by 22%
Orgasmic Birth
A film by Debra Pascali-Bonaro
View the trailer
Pregnant in America
A film by Steve Buonagurio
View the trailer
The Other Side of the Glass
A film by L. Janel Martin
View the trailer
Born
A Film by Helen Knowles
View the trailer
The Business of Being Born
A film by Sabrina McIntyre
View the trailer
Prevent Cesarean Section
Watch the video
In the News!
Announcing The New York Coalition for Doula Access!
The Doulas for All campaign is requesting Medicaid coverage for doula care.
Please click below to view the final version of the Medicaid Funding letter, the response from the state Department of Health, and a recap letter.
Medicaid Funding Letter
Letter from NYS Dept of Health
Recap Letter
Midwife Robin Lim Wins CNN Hero of the Year!
RABN POLICY CHANGES
Greetings all!
There have been some questions about the new policy that all those
included on our referral lists must now be members. If you are,
have been, or wish to be on one of our paper/e-mail lists
(http://www.rabn.org/information.html) you must now join to continue
to be included. The fee is set by Birth Network National. Go to http://www.birthnetwork.org/ for more information.
We have offered free listings for the last 14 years. All we are
asking is the people who have benefited from this free service for
so long now join a non-profit organization, and support us in turn.
Remember, your donation is tax deductible!
What We Do
Provide the Rochester area community with important information
about Evidence-based
maternity care and options that women and families have
regarding childbirth, and offer networking opportunities for
professionals, parents, and others interested in birth.
Membership
Your $25, tax-deductible membership fee made directly to Rochester Area Birth Network furthers our efforts to make birth healthier and safer for mothers and babies in Rochester and the surrounding communities. Your RABN membership includes a membership to BirthNetwork National.
You will receive a free posting on our recommended professionals list. These lists are supplied upon request, most commonly by e-mail. For a example of what types of professionals we would include go to the Information page .
Please volunteer for one project a year! We need your help to change birth in our community!
You can also make a donation in any amount to support the following:
- Supplying the Rochester community with free information and referrals on birth related issues.
- Developing programs to educate the pubic at large about healthy pregnancy, labor and birth options, and the present state of birth in the US.
- Supporting legislation that helps to improve normal maternity
care and that supports midwifery and homebirth. (i.e. The
Midwifery Modernization Act)
- Establishment of permanent solutions to the maternity care crisis in the United States, such as grants for the free-standing birth center, serving Rochester and its surrounding areas. It is our goal that this will offer low-risk women the option of a stable community birth center with midwives, providing New York citizens with statistical data on midwifery care and its safety and cost effectiveness.
Our next major projects include a film festival, and next summer we hope to have a Mothering Tent at some of the festivals. This would allow women to stop by, nurse their babies, and rest in a comfortable private place.
We welcome ideas for new projects, and ask that people volunteer for one project per year. It need not be a big job, but could be as small as making a few phone calls, or "(wo)maning" a booth for a few hours.
Don't like the new rules? Have suggestion for a project? Attend a meeting and help us figure out how to do things differently. :>)
Thanks for your patience during this time of change, and for your continued support.
Amy
Amy V. Haas, BCCE
Vice President
Rochester Area Birth Network
www.rabn.org
The “MOMS” BILL
H.R.5807 - Maximizing Optimal Maternity Services for the 21st Century
111th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5807
To promote optimal maternity outcomes by making evidence-based maternity care a national priority, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 21, 2010
July 21, 2010
Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD (for herself, Ms. BALDWIN, Mrs. CAPPS, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CONYERS, Mrs. DAVIS of California, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. HINOJOSA, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. MICHAUD, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. NORTON, Mr. REYES, Ms. VELAZQUEZ, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. WOOLSEY, and Ms. SCHAKOWSKY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
Official Summary
7/21/2010--Introduced.Maximizing
Optimal Maternity Services for the 21st Century or the MOMS for the 21st
Century Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of
Health and Human Services (HHS), acting through the Office on Women's Health,
to:
(1) establish the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Promotion of
Optimal Maternity Outcomes; and
(2) develop and implement a consumer education campaign to promote
understanding and acceptance of evidence-based maternity practices and models
of care for optimal maternity outcomes among women of childbearing ages and
families of such women. Requires the Secretary, acting through the Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality, to make publicly available and update an
online bibliographic database identifying systematic reviews for care of
childbearing women and newborns. Requires the Secretary, acting through the
Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, to:
(1) designate maternity care health professional shortage areas under
the National Health Service Corps program;
(2) establish a loan repayment program to alleviate critical shortages
of maternal care professionals; and
(3) award planning and implementation grants to address workforce
disparities for such professionals. Directs the Secretary to support the
establishment of two additional Centers for Excellence on Optimal Maternity
Outcomes to conduct research to improve maternity outcomes. Requires the
Secretary to convene a Maternity Curriculum Commission to discuss and make
recommendations for:
(1) a shared core maternity care curriculum;
(2) strategies to integrate and coordinate education across maternity
care disciplines; and
(3) pilot demonstrations of interdisciplinary educational models. Amends
title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to cover services provided by
a supervised student midwife or an intern or resident-in-training under a
teaching program under certain circumstances.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h5807/show
The Midwifery Modernization Act Passed!
http://freeourmidwives.org/victory-for-new-york-state-women-families-and-midwives/
What Does the Midwifery Modernization Act mean for you?
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Hello,
Carolyn.
MOMS for
the 21st Century Bill Filed in House of Representatives! This
sweeping legislation aims to “promote optimal maternity outcomes by making
evidence-based maternity care a national priority.” Key provisions include:
• establishing
a focal area on optimal maternity care in the Office Moms for
the 21st Century includes key provisions recommended in two Childbirth
Connection reports: Evidence-Based
Maternity Care: What It Is and What It Can Achieve (2008) and
the “Blueprint
for Action: Steps toward a High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care System”
(2010). Childbirth Connection issued Evidence-Based
Maternity Care together with the Reforming States Group and the
Milbank Memorial Fund. The Blueprint was developed through the Transforming Maternity Care project, a multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder collaboration that engaged
leaders from across the health care system over two and one-half years in
identifying priority actions for driving maternity care quality improvement.
Childbirth Connection was honored to work closely with Ms. Roybal-Allard’s
office on this important legislation.
ENews
readers are encouraged to: ACOG
Issues New VBAC Guidelines The new
guideline persists in recommending that women who desire VBAC should give
birth in facilities that provide immediate access to emergency cesarean, even
though this is based on the lowest, Level C evidence (primarily consensus and
expert opinion). Thus, this version is unlikely to increase access to VBAC in
the many hospitals without 24/7 on-site surgical teams. On the other hand,
the guidelines newly identify many clinical situations that are candidates
for VBAC, including many women with: two prior cesareans, a suspected large
fetus, and fetal gestation beyond 40 weeks. These changes could lead to
increased use of VBAC in facilities with continuously present surgical teams.
Childbirth Connection offers eNews readers tables
comparing the new and previous ACOG VBAC guidelines (PDF).
Best wishes,
|
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VBAC: NIH Consensus Development Conference on Vaginal Birth After Cesarean: New Insights
March 8–10, 2010 Bethesda, Maryland http://consensus.nih.gov/2010/vbac.htm
Sign up to receive the
statement that will be the result of this conference (go to http://consensus.
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Outcomes of planned home birth with registered midwife
versus planned hospital birth with midwife or physician
Patricia A. Janssen PhD, Lee Saxell MA, Lesley A. Page PhD, Michael C. Klein MD,
Robert M. Liston MD, Shoo K. Lee MBBS PhD
Interpretation: Planned home birth attended by a registered
midwife was associated with very low and comparable
rates of perinatal death and reduced rates of obstetric
interventions and other adverse perinatal outcomes compared
with planned hospital birth attended by a midwife
or physician.
Dispatch: Birth Wars
By Jennifer Block http://babble.com/winning-homebirth-debate/
Midwives in Albany seeking professional independence!
A new bill has been introduced to eliminate the Written Practice Agreement from the Midwifery Licensing law. It is called the Midwifery Modernazation Act . This would remove a significant barrier to women's access to midwives, and allow Midwives to practice independently. See above for more information on the next Lobby day: April 12th 2010.
Home births 'as safe as hospital' 
BBC news: The largest study of its kind has found that for low-risk women, giving birth at home is as safe as doing so in hospital with a midwife.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7998417.stm
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120125883/issue?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
Consumer Union has launched a campaign called the Safe Patient Project
In 1999, the National Institute of Medicine created a goal
of reducing medical errors in half by 2004. Unfortunately, without transparency in health care, we have no idea if this has happened. There are
no reporting requirements for medical errors and institutionally acquired
infections. As detailed on the link, this can have a direct and even tragic
impact on maternity and neonatal care. Mandatory reporting can drastically
improve this situation. General efforts to increase reporting and
transparency can only help our efforts to increase transparency in maternity
care. Hence, this initiative is consistent with the Transparency in
Maternity Care Project and we hope you will sign the petition.
Snail mail letters are usually the ideal way to reach policy-makers, but at
least take 60 seconds to send this email off to the Obama Administration. Sign Petition here
National Cesarean Rate Jumps to an all time High!
CIMS - Coalition for Improving Maternity Services Press Release:
Need for Transparency Increases as Cesarean Section Rates Rise
http://www.lamaze.
“Evidence Increases for Risks in Cesarean Surgery as
National Rate Continues to Rise”
* Contact the Administration's Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs to share your concerns and hopes for health care reform.
* Introduce yourself (via calls, e-mails) to your elected representatives..
* Organize or attend lobby days with state and local officials.
* Write op-eds or letters to the editor of your local paper.
* Ask local journalists on health care beats to report on maternity care developments. Point them to CIMS member organizations for reliable information about maternity health care reform.
Visit the Administration's Agenda for Women site to see the President's position on important policy issues pertaining to women.
Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada Release Joint Statement on Normal Birth
The Trouble With Repeat Cesareans
Pregnancy & Birth - Choices in Childbirth: A Statement by Physicians, Midwives and Women’s Health Ad...
We are physicians, midwives, women’s health advocates, and educators concerned about preserving safe choices in childbirth that respect the diversity of women’s needs. As this country moves forward with various proposals for national health care reform, we urge the following:http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/b .. .NY gets bad marks in the fight to prevent prematurity.
The March of Dimes has finally acknowledged that medically unnecessary inductions and cesareans increase the prematurity rate and hence raise the infant mortality rate. This means that babies (and moms) are dying simply because Doctors are inducing and sectioning women for convenience, not true medical need.
http://childbirthtoday.blogspot.com/2008/11/chicago-birth-summit-part-2.html
Seeking an Option to Hospital Births
Jeanine Moyer couldn’t find the birthing option she wanted for son Aemon, 2…
The United States ranked 29th in the world in infant mortality in 2004
Medical News from News-Medical.Net
New U.S. infant mortality data released. Published: Wednesday, 15-Oct-2008. Child Health News
The United States ranked 29th in the world in infant mortality in 2004, compared to 27th in 2000, 23rd in 1990 and 12th in 1960, according to a new report from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
The U.S. infant mortality rate was 6.78 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2004, the latest year that data are available for all countries. Infant mortality rates were generally lowest (below 3.5 per 1,000) in selected Scandinavian (Sweden, Norway, Finland) and East Asian (Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore) countries. Twenty-two countries had infant mortality rates below 5.0 in 2004.
The findings are published in a new Data Brief "Recent Trends in Infant Mortality in the United States." The data come from the Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set and Preliminary Mortality Data File, collected through the National Vital Statistics System.
The report shows the U.S. infant mortality rate did not decline from 2000 to 2005. However, preliminary data for 2006 show a significant 2 percent decline between 2005 and 2006.
Other findings include:- The current U.S. infant mortality rate is about 50 percent higher than the national goal of 4.5 infant deaths per 1,000 births.
- The infant mortality rate for non-Hispanic black women was 2.4 times the rate for non-Hispanic white women. In 2005, the infant mortality rate for non-Hispanic black women was 13.63 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to a rate of 5.76 for non-Hispanic white women. Rates were also higher for Puerto Rican and American Indian women, 8.30 and 8.06 respectively.
- Increases in preterm birth and preterm-related infant mortality account for much of the lack of decline in the United States' infant mortality rate from 2000 to 2005.
The full report is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/datawh/vitalstats/VitalStatsbirths.htm
According to a recent USA Today story covering Childbirth Connection's Milbank Report (see below), Gov. Paterson signed into law new legislation that would create a "community education and outreach" program through the Department of Health. The bill (A7674B/S5018-B ) that was signed into law on September 26 of this year reads: "AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to public education and outreach about cesarean birthing procedures"
Gov. Paterson also signed into law a bill (A5505-B/S04019A) that ensures hospital privileges to licensed midwives in NYS! This bill takes effect on October 26.
You can read that bill summary here .
(Our Thanks to Elizabeth Becker for this information!)
Evidence-Based Maternity Care Report (2008) Released - The Milbank Report
A new report finds that the U.S. maternity care system falls short, and has even been losing ground, on many quality indicators. Widespread problems include "overuse" -- delivering costly unneeded care with harmful side effects -- and "underuse" -- not providing beneficial, safer care. The good news: many rigorous systematic reviews of research point the way to higher quality care, better outcomes, and good value. The 113-page report was a collaboration among Childbirth Connection, The Reforming States Group, and the Milbank Memorial Fund.
Learn more about Evidence-Based Maternity Care, and read the report
Read the Consumer Reports story
Take the Consumer Reports quiz
ACNM responds to AMA Resolutions (regarding home birth and doctor supervision of midwives)
August 1st, 2008
The American College of Nurse Midwives has responded to recent AMA Resolutions (regarding home birth and doctor supervision of midwives) with a letter to the AMA and addenda.
A press release from the Big Push for Midwives Campaign
Number Two With a BulletCritical Women's Health Issues Neglected as Physician Group Yet Again Sets its Sites on Midwives
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.
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.
Midwife-led Versus Other Models of Care for Childbearing Women
Source: www.cochrane.org
In many parts of the world, midwives are the primary providers of care for childbearing women. Elsewhere it may be medical doctors or family physicians who have the main responsibility for care, or the responsibility may be shared…
We are an official chapter of BirthNetwork National, a 501c3 nonprofit organization.