Big Vision, Small Steps
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, right?! We realize this vision is much bigger than anything that can be accomplished overnight. In order to make this a reality, we have identified several areas of focus to help direct our efforts.
EDUCATE
consumers, midwives, and community partners. With more education comes more power. And with appropriate education comes collective social movement. We all need to be on the same page and moving toward the same goals if we want to see change. We want to educate consumers on birthing options including places of birth and types of providers. We want to further educate midwives, contributing to better care and better outcomes. We want to educate community parters (hospitals, hospital providers, EMS, etc.) to help facilitate better continuity of care for birthing people.
Increase Safety
for birthing people in the community setting. Safe birth should include an appropriate place of birth as well as a skilled and well-equipped provider. In the community setting, we want to advocate for further educations for community-based providers as well as better access to medications and equipment that contribute to birthing safety.
INCREASE ACCESSIBILITY
to competent midwifery care for all birthing people regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender or socio-economic factors. Finances should not be a barrier families who are wanting to receive midwifery care in the community birth setting. We want to advocate for better insurance coverage, both privately and through Medicaid.
Support Maternal Mental Health
both during and after pregnancy. As the rate of perinatal mood disorders continues to climb both nationally and within our community, it is our desire to help provide training for community birth providers to help recognize perinatal mood disorders as well as resource birthing people with appropriate support.
IMPROVE POSTPARTUM CARE
Families should not lose access to postpartum care from their midwife for any reason. One six-week check up is not enough. Period.