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Emerging Models of Midwifery During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Webinar this Friday, April 3

12 PM Pacific/ 1 PM Mountain/ 2 PM Central/ 3 PM Eastern

Details

The first episode of the "Emerging Models of Midwifery During the COVID-19 Pandemic" webinar series will feature Seattle, Washington and Miami, Florida.

Speakers:
Jamarah Amani, LM
Emily Jones, MS Midwifery, Class of 2020, Bastyr University
Jen Segadelli, JD, MSM, CPM
Tara Lewal, MS, RN

In this webinar series, midwives working in community settings (home and birth center) will share information on their models for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will feature a range of communities across the U.S. Community responses vary due to their own context of existing integration of community providers, access to technology, impacts of racism, and cultural values and beliefs.

Recording will be available

We know that there are many webinars being offered related to midwifery, birth, and COVID-19. In addition, many of us are busy with work and caregiving. If you cannot make our webinar live, we are planning to make a recording available. Please register so that we can contact you with a link to the recording.

Special thanks to Lactation Education Resources for hosting the webinar on their platform.

Stay Tuned...

This will be the first in a series. Look for a second webinar to be announced soon.

ICYMI: “Out-of-Hospital Birth and Pandemic Planning”

We are proud that FAM’s statement “Out-of-Hospital Birth and Pandemic Planning” has been used by midwives and advocates across the U.S. since being released last week. This document outlines the role of midwives in providing maternity care outside of the hospital during a pandemic, and the need to immediately remove barriers to midwifery care in homes and freestanding birth centers. We encourage advocates to use and share this as a basis for the local policies you need to support midwives and the families they serve.

If your organization would like to endorse FAM's Statement "Out-of-Hospital Birth and Pandemic Planning," please e-mail resources@formidwifery.org.

Read this!

"Meanwhile, as this pandemic lays bare the many gaping flaws in our healthcare system, we are forced to reckon with the root cause of this present crisis: the medicalization of birth along with the subsequent criminalization of midwives. The fact that women were forced into hospitals to deliver, when birth is not a medical event, is now reaping grave consequences for us all. To be clear, most births do not need to occur in a hospital setting. In fact, in almost every other industrialized nation in the world, women do not give birth with doctors and are not in an official hospital setting at all, unless there are complications or a medical necessity. The question we should be asking now is, why are we? "
- Kimberly Seals Allers
Read the whole article "Covid-19 Restrictions on Birth & Breastfeeding: Disproportionately Harming Black and Native Women" in Women's eNews.

COVID-19 Pandemic Resources

The Midwives Alliance of North America released a statement earlier today "Implications of COVID-19 in Midwife-led Care of Childbearing Families".
The International Confederation of Midwives has put out a statement "Women’s Rights in Childbirth Must be Upheld During the Coronavirus Pandemic"
Birth Place Lab has aggregated COVID-19 Evidence-Based Information for Sharing.
Evidence-Based Birth has a COVID-19 resource page that includes a replay of their recent webinar. Also check out their podcast interview with midwife Vicki Penwell.
The Big Push for Midwives has aggregated resources for a wide range of midwifery and birth organizations, "Home birth during a pandemic".

A note about FAM: Please rest assured that FAM is practicing physical distancing, and we continue, as always, to do our work remotely. We are primarily volunteer-driven, with one part-time staff person. Some of us are practicing midwives, with a huge surge in client load right now. Some of us are caring for children or other family members at home. All of us have to deal with the stress and uncertainty this moment brings. None of us, during this pandemic, are at our usual capacity for productivity. We recognize the reality of this moment, and must take each week, each day, as it comes.

We know that many are struggling and facing financial uncertainty at this time. If you have the capacity to give, please consider supporting midwifery.

You can make a tax-deductible donation online or mail a check to FAM at PO Box 744, Harriman, NY, 10926.

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Use Amazon Smile every time to ensure that your purchases support FAM.

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