SB 457 — ACOG’s newest attempt to eliminate PHB and severely restrict LM scope of practice, threaten license and livelihood of Ca LMs

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Roxanne Potter-Cummings, CNM Santa Cruz, CA b.1950 ~ d.2016

Why CALM, CCM & C-FAM (you too we hope) is opposed to California senate bill 457

The California Nurse-Midwives Association and the California Association of Licensed Midwives (CALM) stand together in opposition to this bill.

CALM is opposed because:

This bill, which is being promoted by anti-midwife physician groups, drastically reduces the scope of practice for both Licensed Midwives and Certified Nurse-Midwives and severely restricts access to out-of-hospital maternity care for all families in the state of California.

This bill mandates that women with potential risk factors who are planning an out-of-hospital birth must undergo a medical examination by an OB/GYN and seek their permission to remain under midwifery care. Midwives who continue to provide care without physician permission will be charged with unprofessional conduct.

This bill denies out-of-hospital midwifery care to women who have had either a cesarean section or any other previous abdominal surgery, including laparoscopy or laparotomy, for a broad range of conditions, from hernia and appendicitis to gall bladder removal.

This bill mandates that women must give birth in the hospital if they live more than 20 minutes from a hospital, which will impose even more limits on access to care for California’s rural families.

This bill mandates that women who are planning an out-of-hospital birth must be presented with so-called “informed consent” documents that are based on junk science.

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SB 457 strikes down major portions of the Licensed Midwifery Practice Act of 1993. In addition, it denies essentially healthy childbearing women the right to determine for themselves *which set* of risks is most consistent with the parents’ values, goals, finances, and geographical considerations — the risks of a professionally-attended normal childbirth in a non-medical setting, OR the risks associated w/ typical obstetrical management in a hospital .

This bill strikes down the current law that gives Licensed Midwives the legal ability to obtain both routine and life-saving tests and medications, putting mothers and babies at unnecessary risk.

This bill strikes down the current law allowing Licensed Midwives to provide family planning services, denying women access to fundamental and essential reproductive health care.

This bill represents a major setback for maternal and infant health in the state of California by denying families access to care, violating their personal decision-making rights, and imposing state-mandated obstetrical care on women who are seeking out-of-hospital birth, midwifery, and other safe and cost-effective models of care.

All calls are needed, but those in Senator Bates’ district or other Republican districts are CRITICAL.

Respectfully request that Senator Bates NOT introduce anti-midwifery legislation planned for SB 457.

If you live in Senator Bate’s district, your calls TODAY are critical. Please share this alert with other midwives and midwifery supporters in your community NOW.

Senator Bates’ Sacramento Office: 916-651-4036

The message: Please respectfully request that Senator Bates NOT introduce anti-midwifery legislation planned for SB 457.

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Kate Bowland, CNM; providing midwifery care in Santa Cruz, CA since 1972 {retired}

If you live in a Republican district, your calls are particularly important TODAY. Find your state senator HERE and call NOW.

The message from me, and Kate, Rox, Karen, Rosanna, Hope and many other midwives and the healthy families they serve: 

Please ask your state senator if he or she would respectfully request that Senator Bates NOT introduce anti-midwifery legislation planned for SB 457.

Michael Baker FRM. CIA Operative ~ interviewed on MSNBC 04-08-2017

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