ACTION ALERT: Health Care Reform

Dear Midwifery Supporters,

Florida Friends of Midwives supports The Big Push for Midwives in their current federal legislative efforts. They have been hard at work presenting evidence in Washington that access to Certified Professional Midwives and out-of-hospital maternity care would save billions of US healthcare dollars while simultaneously improving birth outcomes.

Now, it's Florida's turn to show our support. Please read the following ACTION ALERT carefully, and take few moments to let our current administration know that this issue is important to you and your family.

Thank you,
Board of Directors
Florida Friends of Midwives
_____________________________________________________________________________________

As many of you may know, the White House issued a call this week asking citizens from across the country to send emails about what they would like to see in health care reform. Not long afterwards, the server accepting the emails crashed.

Why? Because it got flooded with emails about the President's birth certificate!

Now the press is reporting about it, just as they did when grassroots organizers for the legalization of marijuana set the record for the most number of emails sent during the transition-a mere 6000. We can top that!

It turns out there is another, lesser-known online form for submitting comments about health care reform. Let's use it!

If we top 6000 emails-and I know we can-we will set a new record and get the White House's attention on how strong support for out-of-hospital maternity care and Certified Professional Midwives is.

So please go to the following link and fill out the form with 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.

http://www.healthreform.gov/communityreports/comments.html

Pick one or two points to include in your own words: And always use the title, Certified Professional Midwives, spelled out.

Certified Professional Midwives are specially trained as experts in out-of-hospital maternity care and deliver babies in private homes and in freestanding birth centers.

Research consistently shows that low-risk women planning to deliver their babies at home under the care of Certified Professional Midwives experience outcomes equal to low-risk women who deliver in the hospital, but with far fewer costly and preventable interventions, including a five-fold decrease in cesarean section.

Babies delivered under the care of Certified Professional Midwives have significantly reduced rates of prematurity and low-birth weight, two of the leading contributing factors to racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes and to the costs associated with long-term care.

David Anderson, Professor of Economics at Center College with a specialization in the costs of out-of-hospital maternity care, calculates that increasing use of Certified Professional Midwives and of out-of-hospital maternity care by less than 10% would result in savings of $9.1 billion annually, while actually improving outcomes.

The state of Washington reports a savings of $3.1 million dollars over a period of two years to the state Medicaid system when women experiencing healthy, low-risk pregnancies give birth with licensed midwives instead of in the hospital.

The recent Milbank Report conservatively estimates savings of $2.5 billion dollars a year if the cesarean surgery rate is brought down to 15% in the U.S.

Certified Professional Midwives are the only providers specially trained in out-of-hospital birth in the event that hospitals become unsafe for healthy pregnant women during a disaster.

Thank you to everyone who is reaching out-it only takes a few minutes but it is so very helpful. We are making amazing progress in DC and now is not the time to let up! So please forward this to family and friends who can help, and thank you for doing your part to get Certified Professional Midwives and out-of-hospital maternity care included in health care reform.

ATTENTION MIDWIVES! Yes, we are shouting at you! Please send this action alert with a personal appeal to your networks of clients-it only takes a few minutes, and people are especially motivated to act when they get a personal request from their midwife.

STATE GROUPS! Please be sure to post this alert to your state lists!

Katherine Prown, PhD
Campaign Manager
TheBigPushForMidwives.org
414.550.8025
Envisioning a safer, less-costly model of maternity care in the United States.