Our bill our bill- H522/S662 – due to unfortunate circumstances was tabled before Health and Human Services committee could hear it this year. However, we did win an important concession; a special committee has been ordered to hear it and we are in a prime place to come back in January 2013! Thanks to everyone who worked tirelessly trying to get the bill passed this year. Between your letters, e-mails, visits and phone calls you never let up on the legislators reminding them that this issue is of prime importance to you! We would like to send a shout out of special recognition to Russ and Lisa Fawcett, who have clocked countless hours in Raleigh and on the phone at their own expense working for the cause.
Do not misunderstand; home birth in North Carolina is under attack! Between the investigations/arrests of homebirth midwives over the last year and the CNM crisis that happened recently, we are under a microscope. Please stay tuned and be ready to continue to act as needed, we will keep you informed. Even though we are not coming back up again until January, we still need you to remind your legislators that we aren’t going away. Sending a holiday card for each of the holidays coming up at the end of the year to their office, with a brief note about supporting midwifery as it comes back in January is a great way to help while we wait for further direction. Consider making a donation to North Carolina Friends of Midwives, to help support paying the lobbyist Rob who has done SO MUCH for us, and to help cover expenses as we gear up to hit the legislature hard again in January 2013.
Along with again being considered one of the most successful grass roots campaigns for midwifery; we had another first here in NC. The GOP added support of licensure of CPM’s to their party platform! This is huge, regardless of your personal political affiliations this is the first time in history a party has endorsed CPM’s.
Please, if you support access to midwifery care in North Carolina join North Carolina Friends of Midwives! You can learn more about them by going here www.ncfom.org
North Carolina Midwives Alliance PO Box 1553 Garner,NC 27529 ncmidwivesalliance@gmail.com