Federal Health Reform Needs CPMs
There is a national uprising underway
Mothers and families are taking their case straight to their national policymakers. They are clear in their message: Federal health reform MUST include Certified Professional Midwives, or CPMs, who are specially trained in out-of-hospital birth and provide affordable, quality, community-based care.
One Minute to Sign It, One Minute to Push It On
TODAY, right now, please go to http://tinyurl.com/Support-CPMs-Petition to sign your name to support including Certified Professional Midwives and out-of-hospital maternity care in federal health care reform. Then, help spread the word about the PushPetition to others.
It is so very important for us to show members of Congress (who continue to draft bills this week and next!) that there is widespread support for Certified Professional Midwives and out-of-hospital maternity care across our country.
If you are a midwife, doula, or childbirth educator, please send word to your clients since they will always be the biggest supporters. Please post to other groups. We want to raise the roof with 10,000 signatures. Do your part -- sign today and PUSH it out to others! Share with friends, colleagues, post to Facebook and all your yahoo groups.
Incorporating CPMs into federal health care reform is something that both Democrats AND Republicans have been able to get behind in Washington. They understand it will not only save lots of money, but also improve the health of mothers and babies.
Thank you!!!!
Share this with at least three friends to help our PushPetition grow! Please tell your friends and family, colleagues and cronies how they can sign-up or donate to the Big Push for Midwives Campaign today! And if you haven't heard it enough lately, thank you VERY much for all that you do. YOU are making the difference in this effort!
Pushers Tell the White House How CPMs are a top priority!
JUNE 1 - The PushNation rises up to tell the White House about how access to out-of-hospital maternity care and Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), who are specially trained to provide it, are a top priority in national health care reform! You can help by sending a short, simple message about why you want all women, including those on Medicaid, to have access to out-of-hospital maternity care and Certified Professional Midwives who are specially trained to provide it. You can send a message too!
It takes just 5 minutes, and your voice makes all the difference!
Congress Invited to Attend Issue Briefing on Maternity Care and the Role of Out-of-Hospital Birth in Reducing Costs, Improving Outcomes
MAY 21 - Advocates for Certified Professional Midwives hold a briefing on Capitol Hill that includes a panel of experts in epidemiology, economics, public health, and maternity care, who present research and data showing that women whose babies are delivered by Certified Professional Midwives experience significant reductions in preterm and low-birth weight—two of the leading causes of infant mortality—racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes, as well as the costs associated with long-term neonatal care.
The Grassroots Speaks Directly to Washington
APRIL 9 - Federal health reform is moving fast and the window of opportunity for including Certified Professional Midwives is rapidly closing. Bills are being drafted now and any providers who aren't on "the list" by September will be left behind. Advocates working for critical change to our country's maternity care system to create a safer, less-costly model are stepping up, in front of the lobbyists and special interests of Organized Medicine to share their truth directly to power. Read what they're saying ...
Pushers from coast to coast are meeting with their member of Congress and Senators ... educating their federal representatives about CPMs and making sure they are doing everything they can to make sure that CPMs are included in the final reform package. If you - or your community leaders, local clergy, physicians, nurses or other providers, neighbors or members of your family - want to join this national campaign, email us today. Lend your face to a cause that cannot go unseen.
The Big Push for Midwives at the Iowa White House Forum on Health Reform
MARCH 23 - Iowa hosted the third Regional White House Forum on Health Reform on March 23, 2009. The event was moderated by Iowa Governor Chet Culver, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds, U.S. Senator from Iowa Tom Harkin, and Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the White House Office of Health Care Reform.
Steff Hedenkamp, Big Push for Midwives Campaign Communications Director, was able to attend the meeting and share information with Sen. Harkin and Ms. DeParle about the urgent need to include Certified Professional Midwives in federal health care reform to address the looming U.S. maternity care crisis. In 2006 alone, the nation's maternity bill hit $86 billion, nearly half of which was picked up by U.S. taxpayers.
"President Obama's pledge to stop lobbyists from running the show gives me, and tens of thousands of mothers and families across the nation great hope. My name is Steff Hedenkamp, and I am here today on behalf of the 84% of American women who will carry a pregnancy to term and give birth in their lifetimes.
"We have a voice, and it is growing louder in its chorus for increasing birthing options available to the women of this country. I have a thumb-drive here, full of letters from across the nation written by mothers. They tell us clearly what federal government can do:"
- Medicaid reimbursement for CPMs
- Encouraging policies that would increase the utilization of midwives in general
- Inclusion of CPMs as mandated providers in the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan and Tricare
- Funding for education of CPMs, as well as inclusion of CPMs as eligible providers within the National Health Service Corps
- Requiring Homeland Security to work with and include CPMs, within any and all disaster planning – local, regional, national
During the event, Steff was impressed by what she heard from forum participants, many of whom expressed their strong desire for more options and alternatives for their health care, and to the extent possible, those that are not only preventative but home-based. "Home is where so many of us want to be: for birth, for ongoing care, for death. We want to be home, and we want our health care to follow us," she said. "We now understand the setting of care has a huge impact on the cost of that care."
You can download the full text of Steff's statement here. (Large font as written to be read at the mic. Just email Steff if you need a print-friendly version.)
North Carolina hosted the fourth Regional White House Forum on Health Reform on March 31, 2009.
Here's what the Pushers in North Carolina said to President Obama on the state of maternity care. Russ Fawcett, Legislative Chair for North Carolina Friends of Midwives, delivered a compelling message on behalf of mothers and families in his state:
Download Additional Information
Statement to Include CPMs in Health Care Reform 3-23-09
Last year in the United States, we spent $2.4 trillion dollars on health care ... Now, in 2006, the bill for our maternity care $86 billion dollars—nearly half of which was picked up by us, the taxpayers. Six of the 15 most frequent hospital procedures billed to private insurers and Medicaid are maternity related. Yet despite this enormous spending, we have the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world, and we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates among all industrialized countries. The cesarean surgery rate in the U.S. has risen by 50% from just a decade ago, and this increase has done nothing to improve infant- or maternal-mortality statistics.
