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What did coverage of midwives and home birth look like BEFORE The Big Push for Midwives began to proactively promote CPMs and out-of-hospital maternity care to the media?

Look at how coverage has changed since our Media Team launched its campaign to:

• Ensure that state, national, and international media outlets receive a steady flow of information, news, and press releases with positive, consistent messaging about the benefits of CPMs and out-of-hospital maternity care
• Reach out to and develop strong relationships with key reporters and journalists
• Create a comprehensive, real-time data-base that allows us to track and respond to coverage
• Direct reporters to experienced spokespeople and well-prepared, vetted sources for interviews and information

BEFORE:
The disturbing but all-too-typical headlines that appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and the AP from 2000 to 2006:

MIDWIVES GIVE BIRTH TO LAWSUITS, CRIMINAL CHARGES; MIDWIVES AT THE CENTER OF CONTROVERSY, UNLICENSED MIDWIVES ATTEND MOST HOME BIRTHS IN THE U.S.; PROSECUTIONS THIN RANKS OF MIDWIVES, CRIMINAL CHARGES UNDERSCORE A DIVIDE ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS WHEN GIVING BIRTH; PROSECUTION OF MIDWIFE CASTS LIGHT ON HOME BIRTHS; MANSLAUGTER CHARGES AGAINST LAY MIDWIFE LEAD TO MISTRIAL; MIDWIFE, AIDE ACCEPT FINES IN WOMAN’S DEATH; MIDWIFE TURNS HERSELF IN, POSTS BOND, COUPLE’S TAPES OF APPARENT; STILLBIRTH LED TO CHARGES; MIDWIFE PANICKED AS BABY DIED, DETECTIVE SAYS ‘I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE’ TAPE SHOWS WOMAN TELLING COUPLE; OCCIDENTAL MIDWIFE FACES CHARGES FOR BABY’S DEATH; MIDWIFE TO STAND TRIAL IN HOME DELIVERY DEATH, BABY DIED AFTER COMPLICATED BREECH BIRTH IN 2002; MIDWIFE CHARGED WITH CHILD ENDANGERMENT, BABY’S BRAIN DAMAGED DURING HOME BIRTH; TWO UNLICENSED MIDWIVES PLEAD GUILTY IN MOM’S DEATH, WOMAN DIED OF BLOOD LOSS AFTER GIVING BIRTH AT HOME; MIDWIFE OUT ON BOND IS BARRED FROM PRACTICE.

The OLD message? Midwives are illegal, unscrupulous women who engage in reckless, criminal behavior that routinely ends in the deaths of mothers and babies. The vast majority of the coverage of midwifery that appeared      in local and national American media outlets during this period were highly sensationalized stories about criminal prosecutions of direct-entry midwives in assorted states across the country.

AFTER:
Now look the headlines that began appearing in December 2007, just weeks after The Big Push Media Team launched its outreach campaign. These headlines appeared in the very same major newspapers cited above, as well as in other targeted national and international media outlets, including but far from limited to, US News and World Report, USA Today, Consumer Reports, Time, Newsweek, and high-traffic national blogs such as MSNBC, the Huffington Post, AlterNet, Women’s E-News, Daily Women’s Health Report, Medical and Health News, and various local television news stations throughout the country.

DELIVERING AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE; THE ECONOMICS OF GIVING BIRTH; HOME BIRTH WITH MIDWIFE AS SAFE AS HOSPITAL BIRTH; NEW LEGISLATION FOR MIDWIVES IN OHIO; ONE SMALL STEP FORWARD FOR NC MIDWIFERY; HOME BIRTH ADVOCATES PRESS PRO-MIDWIFE CAMPAIGN; SENATE PASSES MIDWIFE BILL; STATE LAWMAKERS LOOK TO LICENSE MIDWIVES; HOME BIRTH ADVOCATES PUSH FOR CHANGE IN LAWS, CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL MIDWIVES SEEK LICENSING TO EXPAND THEIR ROLE; MIDWIVES SEEK LICENSING, LEGAL STATUS COALITION OPENS U.S. CAMPAIGN; SUPPORTERS WANT LARGER ROLE FOR MIDWIVES BUT FACE OPPOSITION FROM AMA; RICKI LAKE FIRES BACK AT AMA FOR CHILDBIRTH STATEMENT; MIDWIVES FIGHT AMA TO PROVIDE BLACK MATERNAL CARE; ACOG OUT OF TOUCH; DOCTORS’ OPPOSITION TO HOME BIRTHING RILES MIDWIVES, MOMS; THE DELIVERY DEBATE; A BUNDLE OF DEBATE OVER GIVING BIRTH TRYING TO TAKE BACK CHILDBIRTH; LABORING TO SAVE HOME BIRTHS; STEFF HEDENKAMP IS GIVING BIRTH TO A MIDWIVES MOVEMENT; A PASSION PROJECT FOR HOME BIRTHS; LOCAL WOMAN SEEKS SUPPORT FOR IN-HOME BIRTHS; NON-HOSPITAL BIRTHS GROWING IN PROSPERITY; FOREGOING THE HOSPITAL FOR A MIDWIFE; BABY, YOU’RE HOME! BACK TO THE BASICS FOR SAFER CHILDBIRTH; THE TRUTH ABOUT HOME BIRTHS; SPECIAL DELIVERY: GIVING BIRTH AT HOME; USA GETS A BIG PUSH; PUSHING FOR OPTIONS; A HOMEBIRTH FAMILY HONORS THEIR MIDWIFE; SD MOTHER WALKING FOR MIDWIVES AWARENESS; MIDWIFE OFFERINGS INCLUDE INTIMACY WITH MOM-TO-BE; MIDWIFE DELIVERS BABIES IN MOTHERS’ HOMES; IT’S YOUR BIRTH—SHOW UP FOR IT! NO PLACE LIKE HOME.

The NEW message? Midwives are professional, credentialed, cost-effective health care providers who offer safe care in out-of-hospital settings to women who are seeking them out in growing numbers and fighting for access to CPMs and OOH birth, both in state legislatures and against the AMA and ACOG.

Thanks to our efforts and your ongoing support, the tone of media coverage of midwives and home births has undergone a radical shift from negative and sensationalized to consistently positive, balanced, and comprehensive.

Your donation is needed today to keep it this way, and we'll be blunt. We need money. The funder who covered the costs of our subscription to our state-of-the-art media database, has declined to support us this year.

To keep our media outreach running for the next year, we need to raise $5000 by Christmas.

We are so very grateful to have so many of you helping with legislative efforts in your states. We are reaching out to the PushNation and those who have provided steadfast support. We hope you have benefited from the resources that The Big Push provides.

Please contribute in support of our state and national media outreach efforts. Without the media database, our media operations go dark:

• No more press releases.
• No more PushAlerts.
• No more rapid responses to attacks from ACOG and the AMA.
• No more proactive media alerts about the latest ACOG and AMA stunts.
• No more media support for the states working on CPM legislation.
• No more coordinated blog coverage of our issues.
• No more of the positive, proactive coverage that midwives and home birth have received from dozens of international, national, state, and local media outlets since The Big Push began our outreach effort in 2007.

None of us wants to go back to the days when we would just sit back and watch while midwives were routinely, and negatively, misrepresented by reporters who were more interested in sensationalized stories about scary lay midwives and dead babies than they were in writing about the benefits and safety of out-of-hospital maternity care with Certified Professional Midwives.

Thanks in no small part to The Big Push's media outreach efforts during the last two years, we have made huge strides in how the media, the general public, and legislators perceive CPMs and out-of-hospital birth.

Our movement can't afford to lose media momentum now.

We appreciate all that you do in the PushNation to advance the cause and to keep the troops mobilized, and we thank you in advance for any outreach that you can do within your state groups and coalitions to help us raise money to keep our media operations running.

If you are a midwife, doula, or childbirth educator, please send to your clients since they will always be the biggest supporters. Please post to other groups. Do your part -- donate what you can today and PUSH it out to others! Share with friends, colleagues, post to Facebook and all your yahoo groups.

Thank you so much!!!!

 

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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!