Welcome to the Washington Chapter of the ACNM
We're glad you're visiting the home of the Washington Chapter of the American College of Nurse-Midwives. Not only does this site serve Washington certified nurse-midwives, we also offer practical information to the public on midwifery and access to midwives throughout the state. Read on to find out why you might choose a midwife for yourself!
What are midwives? The word "midwife" means "with woman," because we provide health care to women throughout the lifecycle. Midwifery care includes prenatal care and attending births, postpartum and early infancy care, family planning services, and well-woman health exams. Midwives believe that puberty, pregnancy, birth and menopause – the major transitions of women's lives – should be safe, satisfying, and sacred.
Midwifery care is centered on the woman and her family to enhance normal physiologic and psychological events in her life, using technologic interventions and medications only as needed or desired by her.
New Feature: Midwifery Spotlight
In the hopes of connecting our sister midwives from all over the state of Washington, this website will have a new section called “Midwifery Spotlight”. Each month, it will highlight a midwifery practice and its fabulous midwives.
2010 ACNM Conference Wrap-up: As many of you know, the ACNM conference for 2010 was held in Washington DC last month.  Hopefully, many of you had a chance to attend. In case you didn’t I wanted this month’s spotlight to reflect some of the positive changes that came from that conference. Below, Michelle Grandy, our local Chair, shares with us the journey our chapter has taken to become an affiliate. Next, Heather Bradford offers some exciting news about the political impact midwives have on Capitol Hill!
Washington becomes first state affiliate of ACNM in region VI!
By Michelle Grandy, CNM
Under the ACNM Bylaws approved by members in 2008, each state was mandated to create an official affiliate organization to the ACNM. The development of State Affiliates offers new opportunities to improve the way ACNM members work together within states, between states, and with the ACNM national organization. The purpose is to create a more unified organization from the national level to the state level.
During this past year, we, as a chapter, began to explore the necessary steps to become an affiliate of ACNM. In January, the national office began to put forth tremendous amount of energy to support states in this process. The national bylaws committee created templates for all of the needed documents. Webinars were led to explain the process to all the chapter chairs. Bylaw committee members were readily available for help via a listserv.
At our February meeting, we started our journey to become a state affiliate by creating a committee to begin work on draft documents. Sachiko Oshio and I met to put together a draft for the bylaws. We melded the current bylaws of our chapter with the template published by ACNM. Sachiko researched the steps to incorporate in WA State and obtain a new tax ID.
At our March meeting, these documents as well others were approved by the chapter members!
In April, we officially incorporated, completed the tax ID process, and submitted all of these documents to the ACNM bylaws committee for approval. In May, the ACNM bylaws committee submitted our affiliate documents to the ACNM board of directors for approval.
In Washington DC at the annual meeting in June, I was told that we had officially become an affiliate of ACNM. I believe we were the third state in the nation and the first in region VI!! I was proud to accept, on your behalf, a gavel engraved: "Washington State Affiliate- Chartered June 2010".
So what is an affiliate?…..and what does this mean for Washington State?
The affiliate is the State "umbrella" organization. Within the affiliate, we can develop local chapters in different geographic, if desired. Each chapter could gather to meet the needs of the local group of midwives….and report back to the state affiliate. The state affiliate will report to the regional representative who can take concerns to the ACNM board.
Starting in 2011, all members who wish to belong to ACNM will need to be members on the national AND the state level. When you renew your membership, you will be required to pay national AND state dues. ACNM will have an easy online service that will allow you to pay both at one time. This further solidifies the commitment within the organization between the national and state levels. The collected state dues will be passed directly to the state affiliate.
If you wish to review the WA State Affiliate documents, they are posted on the members page.
This is an exciting new change for our professional organization. One that, I hope, will help us become a unified voice from the national to state level, working toward creating more work opportunities for midwives and reaching out to more women and families to access to the amazing care we provide.
Be an active part of our professional organization! Attend meetings…..and email me with your ideas on how this affiliate can serve YOU!
WA Nurse-Midwives Storm the Hill!
By Heather Bradford, CNM
This year, I had the privilege of ending my ACNM legislative tenure on a great high. I have served on ACNM’s Government Affairs Committee (GAC) since 2001, with the most recent 3 years as Chair. The  Midwifery Care Access and Reimbursement Equity Act of 2009 passed in March, so as of January 1, 2011, the CNM reimbursement rate will increase from 65% to 100% of the Medicare Part B fee schedule. Now, after over 20 years of work, the GAC can move onto another legislative agenda! I feel very lucky to end my Chair term on such a positive note.
My other job as Chair was to help organize midwives from across the country for Lobby Day, which happened on Tuesday, June 15th as apart of the ACNM Annual Meeting in DC. ACNM hosts its meeting in DC once every four years so midwives can storm Capitol Hill to meet with their legislators and discuss issues vital to the sustainability and growth of midwifery. In my mind, this is one of the most important personal contributions we can make to our profession. And we contributed indeed. I am so proud and thankful that over 450 midwives met with over 300 offices that afternoon. Almost 450 tickets were sold for the Capitol Hill Reception. Every state was represented on the Hill except for Alabama (meaning, we met with 98 Senators!). It was quite a site to walk up and down the streets of the Capitol and see midwives on every corner.
And WA State CNMs and SNMs did us proud. Over twenty five of us met with Senators Murray and Cantwell’s offices, and then split into individual groups and met with every U.S. Representative from our state (including Reps. McDermott, Inslee, Reichert, Smith, Larsen, McMorris, Hastings, Baird and Dicks).
During our visits, we thanked them for their support of our Medicare Equity bill (and if they did not support our bill and/or health care reform, we educated them about the positive benefits of the legislation as it relates to women’s health). We also shared with them the new decrease in reimbursement for CNMs under Aetna and the need to correct it. The focus of our visit was a new bill that ACNM is championing called the MOMs 21 Act, which stands for Maximizing Optimal Maternity Services for the 21st Century. This bill, which has not been introduced yet, will improve maternity care outcomes for mothers and babies and bend the cost curve of our maternity care expenditures in the U.S. It has many components, but the section we are most interested in will establish reimbursement for midwives who supervise residents, medical students and student midwives in academic health centers. You can learn more about it here.
After we met with our legislators, many of us gathered at a nearby restaurant for a 2 hour Capitol Hill Reception, where we drank wine, rehashed our day, celebrated equitable reimbursement under Medicare, and watched ten legislators (or their staff) receive ACNM awards for their contributions to midwifery and women’s health. The highlight of these awards was when Senator Menendez (D-NJ) ended his speech by saying, “I Love Midwives!” I had tears in my eyes and felt so proud that midwives have such vital voices on Capitol Hill. I hope you can join us the next time we are in DC. Putting a face on midwifery for our legislators is essential to effect change in the laws that regulate our practice.
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If you know of a midwife who deserves to be in the spotlight, please email Kristina Chamberlain at kristinacnm@yahoo.com.
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