Actions to Support CPMs and Out of Hospital Birth!

Dear Friends,
As the Senate and House are in the final weeks and days of
preparing their Health Reform bills for floor debate, THIS IS THE
TIME to write letters and anything else you can do to make sure
your Senators and Representatives in Washington, DC, know that
you want CPMs included at the federal level!
This e-mail includes three things to as soon as possible!
1. The MAMA Campaign continues working in DC to have Certified
Professional Midwives included on the federal list of Medicaid
Providers. Please write a brief letter to your Senators and
Representatives today! They need to hear from their constituents!
Even if you think your Congress people have already decided not
to vote for any health reform bill, write to them anyway about
CPMs. You can find all the needed information (including sample
letter language and links for finding who your representative and
senators are and how to contact them) at the Take Action page of
the MAMA Campaign website:
http://www.mamacampaign.org/contact-your-legislator/
2. The National Women’s Law Center has produced a brief video
“A Woman Is Not a Preexisting Condition!” that you can
see at: http://awomanisnotapreexistingcondition.com/
They have an email setup right on that page to send emails to
Congress about this issue, which has a section to add your own
words. This is a great opportunity to add some sentences about
CPMs, birth centers, and out of hospital birth in general.
Thanks to Susan Jenkins for sending this information!
3. The Big Push for Midwives is encouraging everyone to sign
their petition supporting CPMs and out-of-hospital birth. This is
easy to do, and you are encouraged to forward this request to
others. The petition sign-up is at:
http://tinyurl.com/Support-CPMs-Petition. Find the full text
of the Big Push notice at the end of this message.
This is our chance! Let’s make sure Congress “gets
it” about Certified Professional Midwives!
Sincerely,
Susan Hodges, “gatekeeper”
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Get in touch with us!
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From The Big Push:
Push the Petition! We’re Almost 10,000 Strong!
Please take a minute to sign your name in support
of Certified Professional Midwives and out-of-hospital birth
today!
http://tinyurl.com/Support-CPMs-Petition
We need to reach our goal of 10,000 names this week, as Congress
moves closer to taking final action on health care reform
legislation. All members of Congress need to know that support
for CPMs and out-of-hospital birth in their state is strong!
Be sure to forward this message far and wide and ask your family
and friends to lend their support to the cause.
Midwives, it is especially important for you to let your clients
know that we need them to speak up!
If you live in one of the following states, we really need you to
act. We can’t allow Delaware’s Congressional delegation
to believe that only 11 people in the entire state support
midwives and home birth! If you live in Delaware, spread the word
NOW!
Or Utah, South Dakota, Vermont, New Hampshire, West Virginia and
Wyoming! Surely there are at least 100 people in each of these
states who can let their elected officials in DC know how much
they support access to midwifery care!
Most states have hundreds of signatures, some close to 1000. But
if you live President Obama’s home state of Hawaii, or in
Senator McCaskill’s home state, Missouri, or in her neighbor
state, Kansas, Congress needs to hear your voices today!
We can’t afford to allow any members of Congress to think
that there are fewer than 100 midwifery supporters in ANY state!
If you have family or friends in any of the states mentioned,
please reach out to them.
Those are states with fewer than 100 signatures but we need ALL
the states to give the petition one more Push over the top so we
can reach our goal and put Congress on notice that we want access
to CPMs now!
http://tinyurl.com/Support-CPMs-Petition

Thanks!
Stephanie Beck Borden
Grassroots Organizer, The Big Push For Midwives Campaign