Nelson Mandela: We Mourn His Passing & Celebrate His Life

 Nelson Mandela

IN MEMORIAM

Nelson Mandela will long be remembered for his courageous, relentless pursuit of racial equality, and for his unerring belief in and ability to inspire all of humanity. We mourn his passing and celebrate and give thanks for his incalculable contributions to us all.

“I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”

“I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”

“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.”

- Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

News of Nelson Mandela’s passing:

• He Is Now At Peace

• South Africa’s Nelson Mandela Dies in Johannesburg

• The life of Nelson Mandela

• Send condolences to Nelson Mandela’s family

• Children in South Africa speak Mandela’s words

• Six Things Nelson Mandela Believed

• An Audio History

Please join us in honoring his memory,

The NACPM Staff and Board of Directors

NACPM Invites You to Help Increase Access to Midwifery Care

 NACPM Invites You to Help Increase Access to Midwifery Care

In this Newsletter:

• Free MANA Workshop in Portland: Working Toward Greater Equity in Maternal & Infant Health

• NABCC Urges Year-Round Efforts to Eliminate Disparities

 Free MANA Workshop in Portland: 

Working Toward Greater Equity in Maternal & Infant Health 

 NACPM encourages you to join our leadership team at the MANA free pre-conference workshop on Thursday, October 24 in Portland, Oregon: How Does Being White Impact Midwifery Practices? Working Toward a More Inclusive Profession and Greater Equity in Maternal and Infant Health.

 Register now for this free MANA workshop!

Many critical conversions emerged at the CPM Symposium 2012  among the attending NACPM members and stakeholders. One of these conversations was the role of societal and institutional racism in the U.S. in birth outcome disparities for women and babies of color. Following the Symposium, the NACPM leadership team committed to work within our sphere to address institutional racism personally and in our profession, and to work more effectively to eliminate racial disparities in the health of mothers and babies in the U.S.

(See NACPM Statement of Strategic Intent to Address Racism and Racial Disparities in the US).

 One aspect of this NACPM commitment is to acknowledge and appreciate the work of the Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Work in Midwifery (AROM) group that emerged from the CPM Symposium, and to encourage NACPM members to participate and access the anti-racism training resources this group provides.

 What You Can Do

• Please join the NACPM board and staff at MANA’s pre-conference workshop to learn how to work for racial justice in midwifery with experienced anti-racism facilitators from AROM. We look forward to joining you on October 24th in Portland!

• Read more about the CPM Symposium 2012 presentations on racism and birth outcome disparities, including video footage and a wealth of related resources.

  NACPM applauds MANA for hosting this workshop – at no charge, and for making this training available to us all.

 NABCC Urges Year-Round Efforts to Eliminate Disparities

 Following September’s National Infant Mortality Awareness Month, the National Association of Birth Centers of Color (NABCC) urges all of us to work to eliminate disparities in infant mortality throughout the year. 

 The mission of NABCC is to eliminate disparities in birth outcomes among communities of color by increasing the number of maternity clinics and birth centers owned and/or operated by practitioners of color who are committed to serving communities of color. NACPM encourages all CPMs to support this mission and the work of NABCC.

 To be of support, you can make a financial contribution to NABCC, join as a supporter, and “like” and “share” the NABCC Facebook Page. 

Please utilize this list of resources from NABCC, including information on infant mortality rates among populations of color, a webinar on welcoming African American women of color into your practice, a video on a Grand Midwife, and the March of Dimes Report Card on prematurity.

We hope to see you at the workshop on the 24th!

Suzy Myers, CPM President

Mary Lawlor, CPM Executive Director

NACPM 2013 Election Results are In!

NACPM 2013 Election Results are In!

Congratulations to Illysa Foster of Austin, Texas, Jamie Eidsath of Ann Arbor, Michigan and Autumn Vergo of Peterborough, New Hampshire. Welcome to the NACPM Board of Directors!

 Illysa, Jamie and Autumn will be joining the NACPM leadership team at our meeting this October in Portland, Oregon. We look forward to working with them and we thank them for their service.

 This year’s election results revealed a tie between two nominees for the second-most votes. The NACPM leadership responded by expanding the board from 7 to 8 members and will induct all three of these exemplary candidates into the board.

 Meet the New Board Members:

 Illysa is co-author of Professional Ethics in Midwifery Practice, a practical guide to ethics for midwives, and lectures at local, state and national conferences on midwifery ethics. She is studying perinatal psychology while training to be a psychotherapist for childbearing women. Illysa wants to help midwives in her region understand NACPM’s role, engage them with their professional organization, and assist them in having a national voice. She wants to support NACPM in upholding ethical and educational standards in the profession that reflect midwives’ deep commitment to quality maternity care and to promote the CPM credential as the standard for maternity care.

Autumn is a birth center owner, a CNM student, adjunct faculty at Birthwise Midwifery School in Maine, and a member of a New England regional multi-hospital quality improvement organization’s Homebirth Taskforce. She believes that CPMs have a unique perspective on patient choice and family-centered care, and that this perspective should be shared with our colleagues in healthcare and policy development. She wants to ensure that community midwifery remains a rich and sustainable career path for young people and for experienced midwives. To Autumn, serving on the Board of the NACPM represents an incredible opportunity to promote the visibility, expertise, and sustainability of the CPM profession.

Jamie is a partner at New Moon Midwifery since 2011, and is eager to support NACPM’s mission to expand access to midwifery care through policy work. As a midwife from a state with no licensing yet for CPMs, she wants to help NACPM support state licensure movements and bring the benefits of NACPM’s national policy initiatives to currently unlicensed states. Jamie believes it is important to support CPMs in collaborating with other health care providers, and to support access to physiologic birth and the care of CPMs for all women, regardless of income, especially women insured by Medicaid. She wants to help increase student’s access to high quality educational opportunities, student loans and financial aid to help grow and diversify the profession.

Welcome, Illysa, Autumn and Jamie!

Suzy Myers, CPM President

Mary Lawlor, CPM Executive Director

1st Annual Black Breastfeeding Week a Monumental Success!

August 25-31st was declared the first annual Black Breastfeeding Week. The theme for this first year was “Black Lives Matter”. This movement, created for and lead by black women, was an inspiration for community led action in the breastfeeding community.

Black Breastfeeding Week founding members are an impressive list of leaders in breastfeeding advocacy. They include author, journalist and nationally recognized breastfeeding advocate, Kimberly Seals Allers of the Mocha Manual and speaker at CPM Symposium 2012; Kiddada Green, the founding director of the Detroit-based Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association (BMBF) and co-founder of the Brown Mamas Breastfeed Project ; and Anayah Sangodele-Ayoka, of  Free to Breastfeed and MomsRising.org.

Kimberly Seals Allers

 Black Breastfeeding week was supported by many other advocacy organizations, including: 

ROSE, MomsRising.org, MyBrownBaby.org, BlackandMarriedWithKids, JhaZamora Publishing, the St. John Hospital and Medical Center, and the National Association of Birth Centers and Clinics of Color.

 The week kicked off with a local meeting of the Black Mother’s Breastfeeding Club in Detroit and continued online for the remainder of the week. Online events included the Black Lives Matter Forum, a free live lactation support session hosted by the BMBF Association, and a tweetchat hosted by Ebony Magazine. This online presence was noted by the BBW13 Facebook, page earning over 1400 “likes” during in just less than two weeks and many articles and blog posts being shared and picked up my larger publications including Ebony Magazine and Ms. Magazine.

 Congratulations to the founders and everyone who worked so hard on this incredible week. NACPM looks forward to Black Breastfeeding Week 2014!

Suzy Myers, CPM President

Mary Lawlor, CPM Executive Director