Today’s the day!

Since everyone has been working so hard to spread the word on the
Midwifery Bill (SB 2636), several people have written in to ask–why do
we need this bill?

In a nutshell, we (the Mass Coalition for Midwifery–a group of midwives
and consumers who birthed with midwives) are working hard to get this
bill passed because there is no regulatory board that oversees midwives
in MA.

The reason the Newton/Wellesley Birth Place (a freestanding birth center
where my son was born in 2004) closed is because the midwives need a
“patron” OB to “oversee” their practice. Although I saw no OB during my
entire experience at the Birth Place, when the OB who “oversaw” the
midwives retired, the Birth Place closed.

Midwives are competing with docs for turf, and because birth, especially
surgical birth and interventionist birth, is very, very lucrative. The
OBs are fighting like mad to prevent midwives from having more autonomy
in their practices (another thing the bill would provide).

In addition, homebirth midwives (CPMs) are currently not recognized in
MA (as they are in 28 other states). As a result, CPMs are technically
practicing medicine w/o a license. In NY, where, like MA, they also
have no recognized status, they are declared felons. Recently in CT,
which, like NY and CT does not recognize CPMs, 2 midwives had to defend
themselves in criminal court and have been banned from practicing
midwifery.

The bill will create a Board to oversee all midwifery practices,
ensuring better safely standards for women and their families.

Here’s a link to the current text of the Midwifery Bill, Senate 2636.

Please feel free to direct folks to the mfom.org site (Mass Friends of
Midwives) which has lots of info, too.

Here, once again is how to find your MA State Representative’s contact
information: Go here and type in your address. Your state representative’s email and phone
number is found here.

Please email us at info.mfom.org to let us know if you’ve successfully
reached your Rep’s office and what they responded.

The clock is running down. Any support you can provide is much, much
appreciated

–Ann