Live Remote Proctoring for the NARM Exam is Available!

As you know, most of the usual NARM test sites are closed, and many applicants are also in states with shelter-in-place orders. This situation has delayed the testing part of the CPM certification process for the past three weeks and for what could be several months to come.

NARM submitted an application to the National Commission for Certifying Agencies to permit Live Remote Proctoring of the NARM Exam, and it was approved!

The CPM credential is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA). In the past, NCCA has prohibited remote proctoring for accredited exams, but with the current situation they have realized the need to make an exception. They are now allowing certifying organizations to obtain temporary permission to test applicants via their home computers. NARM and PROV have received permission to deliver the NARM Exam to applicants on their home computers with a web camera in place that will allow proctoring under the visual oversight of a remote proctor. PROV has contracted with Examroom, a live proctoring company, to offer the NARM Exam.
Applicants who are eligible for the NARM Exam now have the option to take the exam on a home computer while the option is available or to wait until the regular test sites are open again.
If your testing deadline occurs during this undetermined time period, there will be no penalty for the delay in testing. When testing sites are open again, new deadlines will be set to complete the process.
Basic requirements for home testing are:

• A MAC, PC, or Chromebook with an operating system less than 4 years old

• A Chrome or Firefox browser (Chrome works best)

• A functioning computer web-camera and microphone

• A good consistent Internet connection capable of uploading files in excess of 3 Mbps

• A quiet area with no distractions for the duration of the exam time for two, 3-hour time frames.

• A phone camera for a second camera in the testing room to be placed slightly behind and beside the web camera. Currently, only Android cameras work with the Examroom software, but they are developing software for the iPhone. So, right now you need an Android phone (it can be a borrowed one or an Android tablet with camera). iPhone capacity is coming soon, we hope!

For more information —

Applicants currently eligible to test may contact Applications@narm.org to register for this option.

For more questions, email testing@narm.org

NACPM COVID-19 Webinars

COVID-19: Telehealth for Community Midwives

Friday, April 3, 2020 1:00-2:30 ET
MEAC CEUs applied for

WATCH RECORDING

VIEW SLIDES (PART 1)

VIEW SLIDES (PART 2)

Certified Professional Midwife care takes place within the context of relationship, respect and support. As providers of high-touch, time-intensive and highly personal care, midwives are having to adopt policies and procedures for protecting their clients and themselves from the coronavirus while continuing to support their clients to achieve the birth experience they are seeking. Telehealth has quickly become an essential component of prenatal and postpartum care for community midwives during this health crisis. NACPM wants to provide support to midwives as they adapt their practices to account for our suddenly changed environment.

Two experts from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation will provide an overview of telehealth, the different models and services that can be provided, the potential roles of telehealth in maternity care, some of the startup issues and a summary of the landscape of policies and laws that govern provision and coverage of telehealth.

essential component of prenatal and postpartum care for community midwives during this health crisis. NACPM wants to provide support to midwives as they adapt their practices to account for our suddenly changed environment.

Two experts from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation will provide an overview of telehealth, the different models and services that can be provided, the potential roles of telehealth in maternity care, some of the startup issues and a summary of the landscape of policies and laws that govern provision and coverage of telehealth.

Gabriela Weigel is a Health Policy Fellow for the Kaiser Family Foundation, a member of the Foundation’s Women’s Health Policy team and is leading the Foundation’s work on pregnancy and COVID-19. She is the lead author on the Foundation’s policy briefs, Novel Coronavirus “COVID-19”: Special Considerations for Pregnant Women and Telemedicine and Prenatal Care.

Usha Ranji is Associate Director for Women’s Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Her work addresses the impact of major health policy issues on women and girls, with an emphasis on insurance coverage, access to care, and low-income populations and how federal, state and local policies influence health and access to services for women.

We also welcome Nancy Koerber, CPM, CPC, who will talk about the latest developments on coding and billing for telehealth during the pandemic. Nancy is the executive director of the WNC Birth Center in Asheville, N.C. She is a Certified Professional Coder with experience in small business operations, having worked for a federally qualified community health center as medical coder, auditor, documentation specialist, team leader for the ICD-10 transition and compliance educator for providers and residents.

Please come with your questions for our presenters – there will be one-half hour for Q&A with the presenters. If you have a question ahead of time, please submit them here.

COVID-19: Community Midwives, Public Health, and Emergency Preparedness

Tuesday, April 7, 2020 1:00-3:00 ET
MEAC CEUs applied for

REGISTER HERE

In these days of the coronavirus pandemic, midwives are putting themselves on the front line to serve childbearing people. They are organizing to increase their capacity to serve people now flocking to midwives as well as those who may soon need community midwife services as hospitals caring for the increasing numbers of people sick with the virus reach capacity. In these troubled times, the pandemic is prompting unprecedented collaboration among midwives and outreach to other providers, hospitals and public officials to enable midwives to meet the growing and urgent needs of the childbearing population. This webinar explores the role of CPMs and other community midwives as integral members of the public health system and features examples from communities from around the country where midwives are developing policy and forging coordination and collaboration and building new opportunities to deploy midwives.

• The role of midwives and community birth in the context of a global pandemic: Tamara Wren, MA Tamara is Executive Director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery (FAM), and played a lead role in developing the FAM statement on Out of Hospital Birth and Pandemic Planning, a guide to the role of community midwives in emergency planning for maternity care during a global and national pandemic.

• Community Midwives: Shifting the perspective from ‘my practice’ to midwives as critical public health providers and how this shift will change practice in a global pandemic: Karen Hayes, DNP, CNM, APRN Karen is adjunct faculty member at Bastyr University in the Department of Midwifery, a homebirth and hospital midwife, and an active contributor to the American College of Nurse-Midwives Disaster Caucus, Global Health Media Project, Pronto International, and the King County Medical Reserve Corps.

• Caring for the Community: collaboration and coordination between hospitals and community midwives during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of a community hospital: Autumn Vergo, MSN, CNM, APRN Autumn, Chief of Obstetrics at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock, a collaborative Women’s Health practice in Keene, NH, is originally an apprentice-trained, state-licensed midwife and provided home and birth center services for many years.

• A Washington State task force to elevate and support midwives during the COVID-19 pandemic: Emily Jones and Jen Segadelli, JD, MSM Long before COVID-19, senior Bastyr midwifery student Emily studied the role of community midwives in disaster preparedness for her master’s thesis, Integration of Community Midwifery and Licensed Freestanding Birth Centers into Washington State Disaster and Emergency Management. Jen is the Clinical Education Supervisor and adjunct faculty member of the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University, and co-president of the Midwives Association of Washington State.

• The Rainier Valley Community Clinic in Seattle – how their Birth Bundle model can support a midwifery response to COVID-19: Jodilyn Owen, LM (WA & TN) and Latonia Westerfield, midwife student at Birthwise Midwifery School

• A Minnesota approach to secure and enhance hospital-community midwife coordination : Rebecca Polston, CPM, LM Rebecca is the founder, owner and director of Roots Community Birth Center with a passion for building community and creating a safe space for all birthing families.

• A Maryland midwife collective responding to a governor’s call to reopen recently closed hospitals to address pandemic-generated needs: Mairi Breen Rothman, CNM, DM Mairi is leading a large CNM/CPM midwife collaborative to work with officials to reopen a community hospital as a place for birth during the pandemic and beyond.

• A North Carolina example: requesting a governor’s order to expedite the licensing of CPMs during COVID-19: Meredith Christie, CPM Meredith is the president of the NC NACPM Chapter and a leader in NC MERA.

REGISTER HERE

NACPM Celebrates CPM Victories!

Today, we celebrate three exciting milestones! NACPM has an abiding commitment to social justice in birth, to eliminating the unconscionable effects of racism on birth outcomes, and to investing in a strong, racially, ethnically and socially representative midwifery workforce. We are honored to partner with community leaders, our midwife colleagues, students, donors and other stakeholders to achieve the goal of justice, health and well-being for all birthing people and their babies. We invite you to celebrate with us a new law to license CPMs in the District of Columbia, the first MEAC school grant applications for federal funding for midwifery education, and NACPM’s newest Bigger Table Fund awardees!

DC Becomes the 34th Jurisdiction to License CPMs! 

On Tuesday, March 3rd, the District of Columbia joined the 33 other jurisdictions that now license Certified Professional Midwives by passing, without opposition, the Certified Professional Midwife Act of 2019. We could not be more proud of Aza Nedhari, CPM, MS and her colleagues who pulled off this critical win, an inspiring example of a community-driven solution to the perinatal care crisis in the U.S. The plight of birthing people in the District, already grave, has been made more desperate by hospital closures, provider shortages, and increasing social disparities. As community-based midwives, CPMs are prepared to immediately deploy to care for people in the most-affected communities in the city where the need is most urgent, the outcomes the poorest, and services currently most limited. We are deeply grateful to Osa Imadojemu, JD, MPH, recently Deputy Director for the DC City Council’s Committee on Health, who envisioned the role CPMs could play in serving those most in need in the District, who reached out to CPMs to be part of the solution, and who shepherded this legislation from start to finish. NACPM was honored to provide strategy and technical support to Osa, Aza and the Committee on Health throughout the process. Congratulations to the midwives and birthing people of the District of Columbia!

MEAC Schools Apply for Federal Government Grants for the First Time

NACPM heartily congratulates Birthwise Midwifery School of Maine, the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University outside of Seattle, and the Midwives College of Utah on this week submitting the first-ever MEAC school grant applications for federal funding for midwifery education - a significant step toward the goal of equity in midwifery shared by NACPM, our schools and our profession. NACPM applauds you and we are rooting for your success!

In December 2019, Congress passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020, whichincluded an allocation of $2,500,000 to educate midwives within the Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) Program in Title VII of the Public Health Service Act. For the first time ever, students enrolled in MEAC-accredited schools and programs have been included in the categories eligible to receive SDS scholarships.

These grants will increase the number of MEAC students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including members of racial and ethnic minority groups, and the number of our MEAC school graduates working in underserved communities. NACPM, MEAC and our schools recognize the undue barriers faced by indigenous and midwifery students of color. We are deeply grateful to Congresswomen Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-WA) – both of whom are dedicated to federal support for midwifery education becoming part of the normal course of business for the government – for the opportunity to work with them to mitigate these barriers with federal funding for midwifery education.

NACPM is enormously proud of our schools for stepping up to the daunting application process and the less than two month turnaround for submission, as well as for their track record of racial and ethnic diversity within their student populations and of the number of their graduates serving in provider shortage areas – requirements to be eligible for these grants. This new funding will support our schools to include more students of color and indigenous students, and to better support the students from these communities already enrolled in their programs. More of our schools hoped to apply but discovered unexpected and various reasons for why they did not meet all the eligibility requirements. These schools are making plans now, based on all they have learned about eligibility, to be prepared for future grant opportunities.

Anticipating this opportunity, NACPM called together an Educators Task Force late in 2019 to provide support for our schools to ensure their applications would be competitive.  NACPM partnered with the participating schools and with MEAC to hire a DC firm – McAllister and Quinn – with deep experience in supporting institutions of higher education to apply for these SDS Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grants.  We made sure to include schools not able to apply this round in some of the services offered by McAllister and Quinn, at no cost to them, to help build expertise among all of our schools. Current applicants anticipate partnering in future rounds with schools  new to the process. We have learned a lot about the grant application process and how to prepare for future opportunities; we plan to share these learnings about our schools and our profession in the near future.

NACPM continues to work towards the passage of H.R. 3849, the Midwives for Maximizing Optimal Maternal Outcomes (MOMS) Act, which will establish new federal funding streams for midwifery education, including $15 million that MEAC schools to will be able to apply to.  On Wednesday, March 11th, Mary Lawlor, NACPM’s executive director, will join Amy Kohl, ACNM Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs, to lobby Congress in support of this important legislation.  Please contact your Congress members to ask for their support of this

NACPM Congratulates the First 2020 Bigger Table Fund Awardees

It is with great pleasure that NACPM congratulates the first 2020 Bigger Table Fund awardees: Chelsea Jahn’s award towards state licensing fees, and Tamara Trinidad-Gonzalez,Elizabeth Merbitz and Davonia Greenslade who were awarded funding to take the NARM examination. Congratulations! We look forward to the many contributions you will make to improve the lives and health of childbearing people in our country!

Aligning with requests and recommendations from the community, The Bigger Table Fund provides scholarships for student midwives of color, indigenous and/or LGBTQIA2S+ student midwives for the initial NARM examination fee, the fee for retaking the NARM examination when needed, and state licensure fees for those who are already CPMs. Since its inception in the final quarter of 2018, twenty-six Bigger Table Fund scholarships have been awarded.

The goal of the fund is to remove some of the significant financial barriers that student midwives of color, indigenous and/or LGBTQIA2S+ students and midwives face when entering the CPM profession. Funds are distributed quarterly, according to a lottery system, with $3000 available per cycle. The maximum individual award is $1000.

Apply Now for the Next Cycle of the Bigger Table Fund!

Eligible candidates may apply through this form by April 15.

$2.5 Million to Educate Disadvantaged Student Midwives Becomes Law

On Thursday, December 19th, following a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier in the week, the Senate passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which includes funding for the Department of Health and Human Services through next September. NACPM and the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC) are thrilled to announce that funding to educate midwives that was included this past summer in the House appropriations bill, is part of this final legislation. The President signed this Act last evening, December 20th.

This legislation allocates $2,500,000 to educate midwives within the Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) Program in Title VII of the Public Health Service Act. For the first time ever, midwives enrolled in accredited programs will be included in the categories of students eligible to receive SDS scholarships. This funding within the SDS program will increase the number of midwifery graduates working in underserved communities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, including students who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups.

“A midwifery workforce that represents the changing racial and ethnic demographics of the childbearing population is urgently needed to address the mortality and morbidity crisis for birthing people in the U.S. today,” said Mary Lawlor, Executive Director of NACPM. “We know that communities of color tragically suffer these outcomes disproportionally and that concordant care – where people see themselves as similar to their care provider – contributes to better outcomes in vulnerable populations. NACPM celebrates this new funding as a positive step forward toward a representative midwifery workforce and better health for all people having babies.”

NACPM and MEAC are committed to investing in a strong, racially, ethnically and socially representative CPM workforce to meet the urgent needs of childbearing people. We applaud Congress for prioritizing for the first time the growth of the midwifery workforce. We especially thank Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Chair of the Maternity Care Caucus, and Congresswoman Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-WA), Co-Chair of the Caucus, for supporting the critical role midwives must play in alleviating the birth care crisis. We thank them first for including this funding in the House appropriations legislation this past summer, and for ensuring that it remained intact in the final legislation. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work with these Congressional champions to address the critical national shortage of birth care providers, and to specifically address the urgent lack of adequate racial representation in the midwifery workforce.

“Midwives are integral to solving the current maternity care crisis in the United States,” said Kristi Ridd-Young, Vice-President of Outreach for the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council. These funds will have a direct impact on the midwifery student’s ability to graduate and practice as a qualified, credentialed midwife in their own underserved communities. The completion of a degree or certificate, particularly in midwifery, requires so much more than evidence-informed curriculum and qualified faculty. A safety net of support is vital to the success of midwifery students, especially those who are from disadvantaged backgrounds, racial or ethnic minorities, and who are first-generation college students.”

This past fall, NACPM, with participation from MEAC, convened a Task Force to develop guidance for our MEAC-accredited schools to ensure they have the information needed to apply for grants provided by this $2.5 million funding. Schools and programs can expect this guidance early in the new year.

We now look forward to working with the Maternity Care Caucus Co-Chairs in 2020 to ensure the passage of H.R. 3849, the Midwives for Maximizing Optimal Maternity Services (MOMS) Act. This legislation, introduced by these Congresswomen, will create historic and substantial new funding streams for midwifery education within Titles VII and VIII of the Public Health Service Act. It will provide grants to accredited midwifery programs for direct student support, expansion of programs, and support for the preceptor workforce. This legislation will also address the lack of adequate racial representation in midwifery by directing resources to schools and programs that train students who plan to practice in provider shortage areas, and that focus on increasing racial and ethnic representation in midwifery education and the workforce.

$2.5 Million to Educate Disadvantaged Student Midwives Becomes Law

On Thursday, December 19th, following a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier in the week, the Senate passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which includes funding for the Department of Health and Human Services through next September. NACPM and the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC) are thrilled to announce that funding to educate midwives that was included this past summer in the House appropriations bill, is part of this final legislation. The President signed this Act last evening, December 20th.

This legislation allocates $2,500,000 to educate midwives within the Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) Program in Title VII of the Public Health Service Act. For the first time ever, midwives enrolled in accredited programs will be included in the categories of students eligible to receive SDS scholarships. This funding within the SDS program will increase the number of midwifery graduates working in underserved communities and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, including students who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups.

“A midwifery workforce that represents the changing racial and ethnic demographics of the childbearing population is urgently needed to address the mortality and morbidity crisis for birthing people in the U.S. today,” said Mary Lawlor, Executive Director of NACPM. “We know that communities of color tragically suffer these outcomes disproportionally and that concordant care – where people see themselves as similar to their care provider – contributes to better outcomes in vulnerable populations. NACPM celebrates this new funding as a positive step forward toward a representative midwifery workforce and better health for all people having babies.”

NACPM and MEAC are committed to investing in a strong, racially, ethnically and socially representative CPM workforce to meet the urgent needs of childbearing people. We applaud Congress for prioritizing for the first time the growth of the midwifery workforce. We especially thank Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Chair of the Maternity Care Caucus, and Congresswoman Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-WA), Co-Chair of the Caucus, for supporting the critical role midwives must play in alleviating the birth care crisis. We thank them first for including this funding in the House appropriations legislation this past summer, and for ensuring that it remained intact in the final legislation. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work with these Congressional champions to address the critical national shortage of birth care providers, and to specifically address the urgent lack of adequate racial representation in the midwifery workforce.

“Midwives are integral to solving the current maternity care crisis in the United States,” said Kristi Ridd-Young, Vice-President of Outreach for the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council. These funds will have a direct impact on the midwifery student’s ability to graduate and practice as a qualified, credentialed midwife in their own underserved communities. The completion of a degree or certificate, particularly in midwifery, requires so much more than evidence-informed curriculum and qualified faculty. A safety net of support is vital to the success of midwifery students, especially those who are from disadvantaged backgrounds, racial or ethnic minorities, and who are first-generation college students.”

This past fall, NACPM, with participation from MEAC, convened a Task Force to develop guidance for our MEAC-accredited schools to ensure they have the information needed to apply for grants provided by this $2.5 million funding. Schools and programs can expect this guidance early in the new year.

We now look forward to working with the Maternity Care Caucus Co-Chairs in 2020 to ensure the passage of H.R. 3849, the Midwives for Maximizing Optimal Maternity Services (MOMS) Act. This legislation, introduced by these Congresswomen, will create historic and substantial new funding streams for midwifery education within Titles VII and VIII of the Public Health Service Act. It will provide grants to accredited midwifery programs for direct student support, expansion of programs, and support for the preceptor workforce. This legislation will also address the lack of adequate racial representation in midwifery by directing resources to schools and programs that train students who plan to practice in provider shortage areas, and that focus on increasing racial and ethnic representation in midwifery education and the workforce.

Upcoming Webinar: The Power of Mentorship

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Lessons Learned from Designing and Implementing an Undergraduate Mentorship Program
Thursday, December 12
3:00-4:30 ET

One of NACPM’s core commitments is investing in a strong, racially, ethnically and socially representative CPM workforce to meet the urgent needs of childbearing people in our country.  In partial fulfillment of this goal, we are pleased to bring you Lessons Learned from Designing and Implementing an Undergraduate Mentorship Program.  This webinar is both the 8th in our Equity, Race and Access to Midwifery Series, and the first in NACPM’s new Education in Midwifery Series.  Drs. Keisha Goode and Ashlee Lien have important research to share with us from their mentorship program at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury that can apply to supporting increased representation in our midwifery training programs.  Please join us !

Register Now

Lessons Learned from Designing and Implementing an Undergraduate Mentorship Program
By Keisha Goode, PhD and Ashlee Lien, PhD

In addition to our roles as Professors, we are Co-Coordinators of the Research Aligned Mentorship (RAM) Program at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Old Westbury. The RAM Program is funded by a Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) grant awarded by the United States Department of Education. The RAM Program is collaboratively administered among five universities: Farmingdale State College, Bowie State University, Central Connecticut State University, Kean University, and SUNY Old Westbury.

In each of the Fall 2016, Fall 2017 and Fall 2018 semesters, 100-115 incoming first year students at Old Westbury were selected into the program by lottery.  The Program is designed to provide each cohort of students, regardless of major, with exclusive supports to improve retention and graduation rates. Some of the program benefits include priority registration; customized workshops; and, supports for the completion of an applied learning experience opportunity which may include independent research with a faculty sponsor, an on- or off-campus internship, a global learning opportunity, an addendum to an applied learning course within the major or an interdisciplinary learning experience on campus. The most effective program element we have identified thus far, however, is mentoring in which each RAM student is matched with a faculty or staff member to provide social support and leadership development throughout their undergraduate experience. The role of the mentor is not to be an academic advisor (students have designated academic advisors on campus) but instead is to be, as we like to call it, “their person” on campus. 

For incoming first year students, having a mentor has a positive impact on adjustment to college and academic success throughout the student’s college years (Phinney, Campos, Kallemeyn, & Kim, 2011; Hurd, Tan, & Loeb, 2016). To assess the effectiveness of the mentoring aspect of the RAM program, current RAM students were asked to participate in focus groups about their experience in the program. Research team members held three focus groups during the Fall 2018 semester.

In this webinar, we, along with one of the research team members, Rhayna Prado, look forward to sharing more about the lessons we learned from the various strategies we used over the years to match faculty/staff mentors with students, along with sharing some of the findings from the focus group research.

This academic year is the last year of the program’s funding. Many of our first cohort will be graduating in May 2020, and we are very proud of them. This webinar is an important opportunity for us to reflect on our experience and candidly share with you so that the midwifery community may continue the work of brainstorming, researching and implementing mentoring programs for midwives. Mentoring is essential to NACPM’s commitments to growing the CPM workforce and investing in one that is racially, ethnically and socially representative to meet the needs of childbearing people.

We look forward to sharing with you on Thursday, December 12, from 3-4:30pm EST.

Equity and Education Resources:  Mentorship and Beyond

Equity in Midwifery Education provides a rich array of resources with an equity focus:  power and privilege are taken into account so that school and clinic climates can better support the learning of all students.

NACPM Archived Webinar ~  Diversity Matters:  What Are Our Challenges

Keisha Goode, PhD, and Nancy Anderson, MD, MPH, will discuss the barriers to attaining a representative midwifery profession and the positive impact that a truly representative midwifery workforce could have on health inequities.  They report on their landmark research, designed to reveal the experiences of contemporary black midwives and students in midwifery education programs, practice settings, and professional associations.  Their important findings and recommendations are a call for action for all midwives.

The Power of Mentorship

Lessons Learned from Designing and Implementing an Undergraduate Mentorship Program
Thursday, December 12
3:00-4:30 ET

One of NACPM’s core commitments is investing in a strong, racially, ethnically and socially representative CPM workforce to meet the urgent needs of childbearing people in our country.  In partial fulfillment of this goal, we are pleased to bring you Lessons Learned from Designing and Implementing an Undergraduate Mentorship Program.  This webinar is both the 8th in our Equity, Race and Access to Midwifery Series, and the first in NACPM’s new Education in Midwifery Series.  Drs. Keisha Goode and Ashlee Lien have important research to share with us from their mentorship program at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury that can apply to supporting increased representation in our midwifery training programs.  Please join us !

Register Now

Lessons Learned from Designing and Implementing an Undergraduate Mentorship Program
By Keisha Goode, PhD and Ashlee Lien, PhD

In addition to our roles as Professors, we are Co-Coordinators of the Research Aligned Mentorship (RAM) Program at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Old Westbury. The RAM Program is funded by a Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) grant awarded by the United States Department of Education. The RAM Program is collaboratively administered among five universities: Farmingdale State College, Bowie State University, Central Connecticut State University, Kean University, and SUNY Old Westbury.

In each of the Fall 2016, Fall 2017 and Fall 2018 semesters, 100-115 incoming first year students at Old Westbury were selected into the program by lottery.  The Program is designed to provide each cohort of students, regardless of major, with exclusive supports to improve retention and graduation rates. Some of the program benefits include priority registration; customized workshops; and, supports for the completion of an applied learning experience opportunity which may include independent research with a faculty sponsor, an on- or off-campus internship, a global learning opportunity, an addendum to an applied learning course within the major or an interdisciplinary learning experience on campus. The most effective program element we have identified thus far, however, is mentoring in which each RAM student is matched with a faculty or staff member to provide social support and leadership development throughout their undergraduate experience. The role of the mentor is not to be an academic advisor (students have designated academic advisors on campus) but instead is to be, as we like to call it, “their person” on campus. 

For incoming first year students, having a mentor has a positive impact on adjustment to college and academic success throughout the student’s college years (Phinney, Campos, Kallemeyn, & Kim, 2011; Hurd, Tan, & Loeb, 2016). To assess the effectiveness of the mentoring aspect of the RAM program, current RAM students were asked to participate in focus groups about their experience in the program. Research team members held three focus groups during the Fall 2018 semester.

In this webinar, we, along with one of the research team members, Rhayna Prado, look forward to sharing more about the lessons we learned from the various strategies we used over the years to match faculty/staff mentors with students, along with sharing some of the findings from the focus group research.

This academic year is the last year of the program’s funding. Many of our first cohort will be graduating in May 2020, and we are very proud of them. This webinar is an important opportunity for us to reflect on our experience and candidly share with you so that the midwifery community may continue the work of brainstorming, researching and implementing mentoring programs for midwives. Mentoring is essential to NACPM’s commitments to growing the CPM workforce and investing in one that is racially, ethnically and socially representative to meet the needs of childbearing people.

We look forward to sharing with you on Thursday, December 12, from 3-4:30pm EST.

Equity and Education Resources:  Mentorship and Beyond

Equity in Midwifery Education provides a rich array of resources with an equity focus:  power and privilege are taken into account so that school and clinic climates can better support the learning of all students.

NACPM Archived Webinar ~  Diversity Matters:  What Are Our Challenges

Keisha Goode, PhD, and Nancy Anderson, MD, MPH, will discuss the barriers to attaining a representative midwifery profession and the positive impact that a truly representative midwifery workforce could have on health inequities.  They report on their landmark research, designed to reveal the experiences of contemporary black midwives and students in midwifery education programs, practice settings, and professional associations.  Their important findings and recommendations are a call for action for all midwives.

Managing Postpartum Hemorrhage

Considerations for Managing Postpartum Hemorrhage in the Community Setting

NACPM is committed to informing and supporting evidence-based practices among CPMs and to promoting safe and healthy birth for all people having babies in the United States. Skillful management of postpartum hemorrhage is a cornerstone of safe birthing care. Postpartum hemorrhage remains a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. Families choosing to deliver their babies at home and in birth centers need guidance through shared decision making addressing their risk, their midwife’s plan for managing hemorrhage, and the resources for emergency care available in their birthing communities.

While competent pharmacologic management is the standard of care during hemorrhage, planning for patients’ safe progression through third stage ideally begins during prenatal visits with careful history-taking, risk assessment, and education for families on what they can do to ensure a healthy, uncomplicated physiologic labor, birth, and recovery.

Some certified professional midwives practice in environments where the pharmacologic formulary is limited. By necessity, CPMs must develop their skills of initial and ongoing risk assessment, partnering with and educating pregnant patients in order to decrease risk, ongoing evaluation of labor disposition, and the timely activation of consultation and transfer. These skills may be deemphasized in hospital practice where medications, procedures, and surgery are readily available.

Community midwives have an opportunity to model assessment and education-based strategies for decreasing hemorrhage risk to their colleagues in hospital practice, while advocating for good access to uterotonic and antifibrinolytic medications in all states.

Support for Managing Postpartum Hemorrhage in the Community Setting - 18th Offering in NACPM’s Clinical Practice Webinar Series Thursday, September 26 3:00-4:30 ET 

We begin this webinar with a presentation by Margie Mueller Boyer, MS, RNC, C-EFM, CNS-BC.  Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality for childbearing people in the U.S., even though researchers have identified PPH to be preventable in many cases.  Margie will explore key strategies to decrease the rate of PPH through early recognition of excessive blood loss.  Based on research, visual estimation of blood loss is considered an imprecise method based on research and quantification of blood loss (QBL) is considered best practice.  Margie will outline the steps for quantifying blood loss, an important and highly practical support to midwives practicing in community settings.

Margie received her BSN & Masters from The Ohio State University where she worked for a decade. She has worked as a Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist, a hospital administrative director, and patient safety manager.  Margie serves on the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative Obstetrical Hemorrhage Initiative as a Nurse Expert and is an AWHONN Obstetric Patient Safety Instructor.  After working for twenty-seven years at Advent Health Tampa, formerly Florida Hospital Tampa, Margie is now taking a year to travel and work as a consultant.

Autumn Versace Vergo, CNM, MSN, APRN, our second presenter, will offer practical information for midwives who attend deliveries and provide shared decision-making about hemorrhage risk and management in community settings.  Included will be a case presentation, a review of risk assessment, a review of pharmacologic management of PPH, and a comparison between hospital-based and CPM-relevant formularies and protocols.

Autumn is a certified nurse-midwife and Chief of Obstetrics at Cheshire Medical Center  Center/ Dartmouth-Hitchcock, a collaborative Women’s Health practice in Keene, NH. She is originally an apprentice-trained, state-licensed midwife and provided home and birth center services for many years. She has worked extensively on regional perinatal quality improvement, focusing on best practice in collaborative care and interprofessional communication. She has served as a subject matter expert on community midwifery to NH Medicaid and the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, and is a member of the faculty at Birthwise Midwifery School, a MEAC-accredited program in Bridgton, Maine.

Register now and join us on September 26 th for this exciting webinar!

Excellent Resource for Managing Postpartum Hemorrhage in the Community Setting

In addition to NACPM’s September 26th webinar on managing postpartum hemorrhage, we refer you to the Clinical Practice Guideline on Postpartum Hemorrhage from the Ontario Midwives Association. This excellent and comprehensive resource includes basics about PPH, risk factors, prevention, treatment including pharmacologic and herbal agents, recovery, perspectives and needs of clients, considerations for debriefing experiences with clients and families, and more. We invite you to review this guide and let us know your thoughts on this important clinical topic area: info@nacpm.org.

Safe Distance to the Hospital: Impacting the Availability of Midwives

At what distance from the hospital is home and birth center birth safe? This question is especially important to examine due to the critical role that CPMs, as community-based providers, must play in mitigating the birth care provider shortage in both rural and urban areas. Recent research demonstrates that placing arbitrary limits on distance to the hospital is not evidence-based, and in fact there are social and medical risks associated with placing limits on community-midwife services in care shortage areas.

A 2017 report from ACOG, The Obstetrician-Gynecologist Workforce in the United States, Facts, Figures and Implications, tell us that 49% of the 3,143 U.S. counties lack a single obstetrical provider, affecting more than 10 million people who live in predominantly rural counties. The shortage of birth care providers, however, is not limited to rural areas. In Washington, D.C. for example, where mortality for birthing people is among the highest in the nation, the closures of birth care units and hospitals over the past years have left the birthing residents of the poorest and predominantly Black sections of the city with no labor and delivery services at all. People in these neighborhoods often must travel for over an hour on public transportation for care, sometimes resulting in loss of employment. In March of last year, the Atlanticquoted Aza Nedhari, CPM and founder of D.C.’s perinatal support organization, Mamatoto Village: “Every black woman who makes it and has a full term baby – it’s just like ‘You made it!” CPMs provide critical, life-saving services in our rural and urban birth care deserts.

A March 2019 article in the Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health  – Distance from Home Birth to Emergency Obstetric Services and Neonatal Outcomes: A Cohort Study – concludes:  “…From a policy perspective, our findings suggest that it is inappropriate to place arbitrary limits on proximity to hospital to determine eligibility for home birth…There are both medical and social risks associated with restricting access to maternity services in remote settings and with imposing a requirement for people to travel to access intrapartum care (italics added).  Arbitrary limits on the acceptable distance for home birth and birth centers from hospitals with cesarean capacity are not evidence based and limit the ability of community midwives to provide skilled maternity services to rural residents.”  These findings would apply to urban areas as well, such as in Washington, DC, where there is no access in whole parts of the city to hospital intrapartum services.  

A related article published in the journal Birth in June 2018 – Rural community birth: Maternal and neonatal outcomes for planned community births among rural women in the United States, 2004-2009 -using a Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) dataset of 18,723 people, concluded “…after adjusting for risk factors and confounders, there were no significant differences for a composite of maternal or neonatal outcomes between rural and nonrural pregnancies…Among this sample of low-risk women who planned midwife-led community births, no increased risk was detected by rural vs nonrural status.”

Midwives provide critical, life-saving services in our rural and urban birth care deserts and evidence backs the safety of community midwife practice in these care shortage areas.

From the MANA News, Issue #102, September 4, 2019: How Reliable is the APGAR Score?

A new article, authored by MANA Division of Research members, Marit Bovbjerg, Melissa Cheyney and Jennifer Brown, and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, examined data on Apgar scores using both the MANA Stats dataset and a large, hospital birth dataset from California. This article focuses on implications for research rather than on clinical implications for care. It reports on the limited usefulness of the Apgar score in research and shows that it is not an effective proxy for eventual infant well-being in research settings.

Thursday, 10.17.19 1:30-3:00 ET

2019 State and Federal Legislative Updates!

• Kentucky with Mary Kathryn DeLodder, MA

• Hawaii with Sky Connelly, CPM

• Washington, D.C. with Aza Nedhari, CPM, MS

• H.R. 3849, the Midwives for MOMS Act with Mary Lawlor

Thursday, 11.21.19 3:00-5:00 ET

Annual Member Meeting

with NACPM Board, Staff and Chapter Leaders

Thursday, 12.12.19 3:00-4:30 ET

On Mentorship: Lessons Learned from the Research Aligned Mentorship Program

with Keisha Goode, PHD and Ashlee Lien, PHD

Affirming NACPM’s commitment to oppose the oppression of LGBTQIA2S+ people

NACPM Statement_Midwifery Today & NACPM Commitments 

All childbearing people have the right to safe, effective, respectful care, including and especially the care of midwives. NACPM affirms our commitment to oppose the oppression of LGBTQIA2S+ people, including our commitment to oppose homophobia, transphobia, and violence or exclusion based on sexuality, gender expression, and family structure.

Equity is essential to our ability to effectively advocate for midwives and childbearing people. Our NACPM chapters are uniquely positioned to work for equity in their local communities and nationally, and NACPM supports them in their efforts.
NACPM stands behind the recent efforts of our NACPM Pennsylvania Chapter and other advocates around the country to oppose Midwifery Today’s discrimination against LGTBQIA2S+ midwives in their choice of venue for their conference. We stand with their statement that: “Midwifery Today’s choice of venue is discriminatory, callous, and behind the times. Exclusionary policies based on race, sexual orientation, or lifestyle have no place in the midwifery community.”

We urge our members to consider deeply what it means to spend time and money on subscriptions and conference attendance if they are out of alignment with your values. When some of the content is homophobic or racist, even when it is not a majority of the content, it influences the conversations we have about midwifery, and it ultimately impacts the care we provide. Magazines and conferences can be an entry point to the profession and a community for isolated midwives. They shape the profession, and it is time to expect that a sustained commitment to equity is a basic expectation of our midwifery organizations and publishers.

Affirming NACPM’s commitment to oppose the oppression of LGBTQIA2S+ people

NACPM Statement_Midwifery Today & NACPM Commitments 

All childbearing people have the right to safe, effective, respectful care, including and especially the care of midwives. NACPM affirms our commitment to oppose the oppression of LGBTQIA2S+ people, including our commitment to oppose homophobia, transphobia, and violence or exclusion based on sexuality, gender expression, and family structure.

Equity is essential to our ability to effectively advocate for midwives and childbearing people. Our NACPM chapters are uniquely positioned to work for equity in their local communities and nationally, and NACPM supports them in their efforts.
NACPM stands behind the recent efforts of our NACPM Pennsylvania Chapter and other advocates around the country to oppose Midwifery Today’s discrimination against LGTBQIA2S+ midwives in their choice of venue for their conference. We stand with their statement that: “Midwifery Today’s choice of venue is discriminatory, callous, and behind the times. Exclusionary policies based on race, sexual orientation, or lifestyle have no place in the midwifery community.”

We urge our members to consider deeply what it means to spend time and money on subscriptions and conference attendance if they are out of alignment with your values. When some of the content is homophobic or racist, even when it is not a majority of the content, it influences the conversations we have about midwifery, and it ultimately impacts the care we provide. Magazines and conferences can be an entry point to the profession and a community for isolated midwives. They shape the profession, and it is time to expect that a sustained commitment to equity is a basic expectation of our midwifery organizations and publishers.

Legislation to Fund Midwifery Education Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives

 Legislation to Fund Midwifery Education Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives

Congresswomen Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-WA), Co-Founders and Co-Chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Maternity Care, introduced the Midwives for Maximizing Optimal Maternity Services Act (H.R. 3849) on May 19, 2019. The Midwives for MOMS Act authorizes new federal funding for midwifery education within Title VII and Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act. This bill addresses the growing birth care provider shortage by increasing the number of midwives available to families in our country today. In addition, the bill addresses the significant lack of racial and ethnic representation in the birth care workforce by focusing resources on schools and programs that prioritize students who plan to practice in health professional shortage areas and that focus on increasing racial and ethnic representation in midwifery education and the workforce.

NACPM is invested in a strong, racially, ethnically and socially representative

CPM workforce to meet the urgent needs of childbearing people. We join the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) and midwives everywhere in applauding the Congresswomen for their leadership in addressing the underlying causes of poor birth outcomes in the U.S. by elevating midwifery care, and thank them for the opportunity to consult on the development of this important legislation.

The Midwives for MOMS Act authorizes the first-ever federal funding program that will support the education of CPMs: $15,000,000 for fiscal years 2021-2025. This funding will apply to CPM and Certified Midwife (CM) schools that are accredited by MEAC or ACME. (The Act authorizes a corresponding $20,000,000 for nurse-midwifery education in Title VIII.) Grants from this funding can be used for these purposes:

• Establish or expand CPM and CM accredited midwifery schools and programs

• Secure, prepare and/or provide support to increase the number of qualified preceptors for training the students of an accredited CPM or CM midwifery school or program

• Provide direct support for CPM and CM students (stipends/tuition reimbursement) including minority students, in an accredited midwifery school or program

Call Your Legislators Today

Now the work begins – and your help is needed!

Please reach out to your Congress member today and urge them to support H.R. 3849, the Midwives for MOMS Act of 2019.

• Find your Representative here

• Click here for specific support in navigating to your Representative’s contact information and making your call

• Let us know if we can be of any assistance to you!

• Please let NACPM know of any response you receive from your Representative as a result your call – positive or negative – by writing to us at info@nacpm.org or calling us at 603-358-3322.

• Make a visit to your Representative’s District office. Congress is in recess in Washington, D.C. during the month of August, and August is a great month to visit the office in your District to urge support for the Midwives for MOMS Act! Call today for an appointment.

• Print and take this one-page advocacy sheet with you to the District Office visit

• Thank you!

Tips for Calling Your Representative

Click here for instructions, talking points and scripts for making your call.

Thank you!

Policy Update: Exciting Federal Opportunities for CPMs on the Horizon

Historic 116th Congress

A vibrant new energy is palpable in the halls of this 116 th Congress, the most racially, ethnically and socially diverse in history, and exciting new federal opportunities for CPMs are on the horizon. A new commitment among our nation's leaders has emerged to address the unconscionable rates of mortality, preterm birth and severe complications of pregnancy suffered by birthing people in our country, and especially and disproportionally by Black and Native American childbearing people - along with a critical recognition that midwifery care is key to improving outcomes while lowering costs. Two bills to support the education of midwives are on or will soon be on the docket this session, supporting the growth of and urgently needed racial diversity in the midwifery profession.

TESTING

Who are CPMs

A Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) is a knowledgeable, skilled and professional primary maternity care provider. Certified Professional Midwives are trained and credentialed to offer expert care, education, counseling and support to women for pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period. CPMs practice as autonomous health professionals working within a network of relationships with other maternity care providers who can provide consultation and collaboration when needed. All Certified Professional Midwives meet the standards for certification set by the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM).

In the United States, Certified Professional Midwives provide unique and critical access to normal physiologic birth, which profoundly benefits mothers and newborns. Although qualified to practice in any setting, they have particular expertise in providing care in homes and free-standing birth centers, and own or work in over half of the birth centers in the U.S. today.

Certified Professional Midwives are a fast-growing branch of the midwifery profession in the United States. With the first CPM certificate issued in 1994, and with over 2454 certificates awarded as of January 2014, approximately 1 in 6 midwives in the U.S. today is a CPM.

Policy Update: Exciting Federal Opportunities for CPMs on the Horizon

Policy Update: Exciting Federal Opportunities for CPMs on the Horizon

Historic 116th Congress

A vibrant new energy is palpable in the halls of this 116 th Congress, the most racially, ethnically and socially diverse in history, and exciting new federal opportunities for CPMs are on the horizon. A new commitment among our nation’s leaders has emerged to address the unconscionable rates of mortality, preterm birth and severe complications of pregnancy suffered by birthing people in our country, and especially and disproportionally by Black and Native American childbearing people – along with a critical recognition that midwifery care is key to improving outcomes while lowering costs. Two bills to support the education of midwives are on or will soon be on the docket this session, supporting the growth of and urgently needed racial diversity in the midwifery profession.

Two Bills:  First-Ever Federal Legislation to Fund the Education of CPMs

Funding for Midwifery Education included in the House 2020 Appropriations Bill

On June 19th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2740, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act of 2020. NACPM and ACNM were invited to work with Congresswoman Roybal-Allard’s office to include $2,500,000 in this legislation to be allocated to educate midwives within the Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students program in Title VII of the Public Health Service Act. MEAC and ACME-accredited schools and programs will be able to apply for grants for direct support for CPM, CM and CNM students of color and Native American students. This funding will help address the critical national shortage of birth care providers, and specifically address the urgent lack of adequate racial representation in the birth care workforce . The Senate is currently at work on their version of the 2020 appropriations bill, after which the House and Senate bills will be reconciled to produce the final Congressional appropriations legislation for 2020. NACPM will continue to work with Congresswoman Roybal-Allard and Congress to advance this exciting and important legislation through these next steps and will keep you up to date.

Midwives for Maximizing Optimal Maternity Services (Midwives for MOMS) Act of 2019

NACPM has been privileged, along with ACNM, to assist in the development of legislation with Congresswoman Roybal-Allard’s (D-CA-40) office that has the potential to revolutionize progress for the Certified Professional Midwife profession and access to care for childbearing people in our country.

This legislation will authorize the first-ever federal funding program that will support the education of CPMs. Soon to be introduced, the bill will authorize a funding stream of $15,000,000 for fiscal years 2021-2025 in Title VII of the Public Health Service Act. This funding will apply to CPM and Certified Midwife (CM) schools that are accredited by MEAC or ACME. (The Act authorizes a corresponding $20,000,000 for nurse-midwifery education in Title VIII.) Grants from this funding can be used for these purposes:

• Establish or expand CPM and CM accredited midwifery schools and programs

• Secure, prepare and/or provide support to increase the number of qualified preceptors for training the students of an accredited CPM or CM midwifery school or program

• Provide direct support for CPM and CM students (stipends/tuition reimbursement), including minority students, in an accredited midwifery school or program

Special consideration will be given to schools that prioritize students planning to practice in health professional shortage areas and that demonstrate a focus on increasing racial and ethnic minority representation in midwifery education.

Once the Midwives for MOMS Act is introduced, NACPM will reach out for your help securing your legislators’ support for this exciting and important legislation. We at NACPM are thrilled with this opportunity and its potential to transform our profession.

Key Federal Policy Opportunity for CPMs: Including CPMs in the Federal Medicaid Program

NACPM commends Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI-4th) for her focus on including CPMs in the federal Medicaid program in H.R. 2751- the MAMA’s First Act, and the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) for their support to this office on this legislation.

Securing federal recognition and inclusion in the federal Medicaid program for Certified Professional Midwives by amending the Social Security Act has been a top priority for NACPM since 2009. CPMs have a critical role to play in improving outcomes for all childbearing people in the U.S., and in eliminating racial inequities and disparities for Black and Native American and Alaska Native people and their infants in our country. Including CPMs in the federal Medicaid program is urgently needed to achieve these goals. NACPM appreciates Congress’s continued and current interest in this policy, one that will make such a difference in outcomes for those most affected, while also reducing healthcare costs.

 Historical Context for this Policy

Congresswoman Moore has been a champion of this initiative since its inception, and was an original co-sponsor of the Access to Certified Professional Midwives Act introduced in the 112th and 113th Congresses by NACPM - H.R. 1054  and H.R. 1977 . NACPM subsequently consulted with her office during the 114th Congress on draft legislation, the Midwifery Access Act of 2015, to federally recognize both CPMs and Certified Midwives (CM). Following six years of significant investment and dogged advocacy with Congress, this draft bill reflected a new strategy to overcome several years of persistent opposition and to achieve success for this policy by including US MERA agreements for accredited education and the Midwifery Bridge Certificate for purposes of reimbursing CPMs in the federal Medicaid program.

Since 2016 when the current administration came into office, NACPM has focused our efforts on working behind the scenes to listen to concerns from midwives about the implications for and impact on their states of this federal policy, to search for innovative solutions, to build resources and to cultivate key relationships. Now, with the advent of this new Congress and its welcome commitment to using the power of the federal government to improve the health and save the lives of childbearing people in our country, there are new opportunities for success. NACPM has renewed its commitment to working with Congress and with colleagues to shape this important policy of including CPMs and CMs in federal Medicaid in a way that can be as inclusive as possible and in a way that has the best chance of becoming law.

As of April 2019, of the thirty-three states that license CPMs , only fourteen of these states include CPMs as reimbursed providers in their state Medicaid plans. In addition to expanding access to CPM care to all states where CPMs are licensed, recognizing CPMs in the Social Security Act (the law that houses the Medicaid and Medicare statutes) would:

• Open doors for CPM inclusion in the systems of care and reimbursement that define the delivery of health care in our country

• Support participation in other federal insurance programs, such as Tricare, expanding access to care for members of the military

• Allow CPM participation in federal student loan repayment programs and support the increase of critical racial representation in the CPM workforce

• Open access to participation in the National Health Service Corps - student loan forgiveness for serving underserved areas & populations

• Allow CPM direct participation in Federally Qualified Health Centers- a sustainable model for serving Medicaid populations

In 2017, NACPM wrote and distributed a set of Briefing Papers: Midwifery Landscape and Future Directions that describes the momentum generated by the US MERA agreements in gaining legal recognition and access to midwifery care for more people. The papers address the opportunities to overcoming long-standing barriers, both state and federal, that have stood in the way of midwives and birthing people for far too long. The NACPM Briefing Papers are designed to answer questions and engage midwives and students in further conversations about the future of the profession. One of the briefing papers Certification and a National Credential has recently been translated into Spanish. We are working to ensure that the remaining papers will also be translated.

We invite you to explore and engage with us:

• read the CPM Briefing Papers

• listen to archived webinars that share information and conversation about US MERA and federal policy for CPMs

• Reach us on Social Media on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

• Send us your comments, ideas, feedback or reach out to us for a conversation at info@nacpm.org
  

NACPM’s position on the Portfolio Evaluation Process (PEP)

NACPM has been asked by members of our community to clarify our position in relationship to the Portfolio Evaluation Process (PEP).

Importantly, NACPM values the Portfolio Evaluation Process (PEP) as an innovation ahead of its time, whose attributes of accessibility, affordability, and student-directed learning and pace are only now being acknowledged and reflected in the most cutting- edge innovations in higher education in the country – in particular in competency- based, direct-assessment education . NACPM is committed to advancing midwifery education that reflects the innovations, affordability, accessibility and benefits to students that are embodied in the PEP process within accredited institutions and programs.

You can read   NACPM’s full statement here.

NACPM: Re-Envisioning Commitments – An Invitation to Commit to Justice

An Invitation to Commit to Justice with NACPM Leaders, Celebrating February 2019 Bigger Table Fund Awardees and a Call for Contributions:   Midwifery Matters Special Edition ~  Anti-Racism and Equity in Midwifery.  

READ MORE IN THIS WEEK’S NEWSLETTER

Announcing Four New Chapters as of 2019!

The NACPM Chapter Program had a strong finish to 2018 with the formation of four new chapters! Georgia, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Virginia were all able to take advantage of the generous start-up funding from Ann Geisler and Southern Cross Insurance before the close of our chapter program launch period at the start of 2019. We are so excited to have these new chapters as part of our community, and encourage you to reach out and get involved!

READ MORE IN OUR CHAPTER NEWSLETTER

Kicking Off the New Year with Our 5th Virtual Annual Meeting

Join us on Tuesday, January 8 from 4-6pm ET for our 5th Virtual Annual Meeting! Also register for our January 17 webinar!

READ MORE IN THIS WEEK’S NEWSLETTER

Celebrating Bigger Table Fund Awardees

NACPM Congratulates Bigger Table Fund Awardees

NACPM celebrates and heartily congratulate the first awardees of the Bigger Table Fund! The Fund provides awards to student midwives of color, indigenous and/or LGBTQIA+ student midwives to cover the initial NARM certifying examination fee, the fee for retaking the NARM examination when needed, and state licensing fees. In addition, Cascade Birth Supplies is generously supporting the Bigger Table Fund by providing a doppler or a five-hundred-dollar gift certificate to one awardee a year.

2019 Application Deadlines
January 15, April 15, July 15, October 15
2019 Bigger Table Fund Award Announcement Days
February 1, May 1, August 1, November 1

Apply now for the January/February Award Cycle

The goal of the fund is to remove some of the significant financial barriers that student midwives of color, indigenous and/or LGBTQIA+ student midwives face when entering the CPM profession. We recognize that there are multiple barriers beyond the NARM examination and state licensure fees that student midwives encounter, and it is our ardent intention go grow this fund in the coming years to help defray some of those additional expenses.

Funds are distributed quarterly, according to a lottery system, with $3000 available per cycle. The maximum individual award is $1000.

Your Donation Makes a Difference

Please support the work of NACPM with your year-end giving! Your donation makes a difference . NACPM relies on your kind generosity to support our work to support you – midwives and students, and to increase access for all birthing people and their infants to the high-value care of Certified Professional Midwives. Please give today!

We hope you will also make a donation to the Bigger Table Fund and help support emerging new midwives and leaders. The name of the fund derives in part from the quotation: “When you have more than you need, build a bigger table not a higher fence.” Let’s work together to build a bigger table!

Increasing safety for families across all birth settings

In response to the recent GateHouse Media piece, the Midwives Alliance of North America Division of Research Coordinating Council came together with a number of organizations, including NACPM, to release a statement on increasing safety for families across all birth settings. Signatories include:

American Association of Birth Centers
American College of Nurse Midwives
Association of Midwifery Educators
Birth Place Lab
Citizens for Midwifery
International Confederation of Midwives
Midwifery Education Accreditation Council
National Association to Advance Black Birth
National Association of Certified Professional Midwives
National Black Midwives Alliance
North American Registry of Midwives
Queer and Transgender Midwives Association

We welcome you to read, share, and sign on to the statement here. Find it here on Facebook.

Please Join Us for our Annual Meeting!

Tuesday, January 8, 2019 4-6pm, ET

Register Now

Every year, NACPM increases our capacity to carry out our functions as a professional organization – to serve our members, grow and strengthen the profession, to increase access to our care for all childbearing people, and to influence public policy in favor of better health for all families. Please join us on Tuesday, January 8! Please note that if you previously registered for the December 6 meeting, you are already registered for the new time.

Save the Date: Tackling Quality of Care Issues Locally/The Oregon Experience

Thursday, January 17, 2019 from 2pm – 3:30pm, ET

1.5 MEAC CEUs available

Silke Akerson, CPM, LDM

Ongoing work on quality improvement is essential to safe, excellent and responsive midwifery care in any setting.  Please join Silke Akerson, CPM, LDM, Director of the Oregon Midwifery Council, to learn about the Oregon experience of creating a community-based midwifery Quality Improvement (QI) Program in response to safety concerns.  In this webinar, which is part of our CPM Clinical Practice series, Silke will cover each strategy used in Oregon for quality improvement and discuss the improvements in outcomes and transport relationships the midwives have seen as a result.  Participants will come away understanding the concepts and evolution of quality improvement, the use of QI in midwifery, cultural competency in relation to QI, the benefits of QI, and with concrete tools for addressing quality issues in your own state or community. 

Season’s Greetings!

As we approach the winter months, this time when the earth goes into hibernation, we want to take a moment to express our gratitude for all the challenges and lessons of this year as it heads to a close. We are grateful for our new members and new chapters, the advisors and partners who are walking with us on this journey towards excellent health for all families in our country, and toward a fair, just and peaceful world. And for those of you who are celebrating the season, all of us at NACPM wish you happy holidays and warmest wishes for the new year! We look forward to working with you in 2019 to ensure the manifestation of our vision for childbearing families.

Annual Meeting New Date

Our Annual Meeting has been moved to Tuesday, January 8, 2019 from 4-6pm,ET

FOR REGISTRATION LINKS, CLICK THROUGH

Annual Meeting and Webinar Details

Remember to register for this Thursday’s Annual Meeting and next week’s webinar with Jill Alliman and Saraswathi Vedam titled “Addressing Birth Disparities with Midwifery Care”

DETAILS IN THIS WEEK’S NEWSLETTER