Download the images to print your post card and send to legislators announcing the birth of a new constituent-into the hands of a midwife.
Communicating with Legislators: How to’s
-
- Click here to access our VA ACNM YouTube page for videos made specifically for you on advocating for midwifery care in VA and how to talk with your representatives (state and national!)
- Click here for a great video on Midwifery Advocacy. It was made by the lobbyist for our sisters in the Virginia Midwives Alliance and has helpful information for ALL Virginia Midwives!
Contact your national legislators to co-sponsor and support legislation!
What is the Healthy Birth Initiative?
The American College of Nurse-Midwives Healthy Birth Initiative™ has created several tools to support and promote the value of healthy, spontaneous labor and birth. They are:
For women: Normal, Healthy Childbirth for Women & Families: What You Need to Know is a free handout that explains what parents and their babies can expect from a normal, healthy birth and what they can do to maximize their chances of having a healthy, physiologic birth while minimizing their chances of experiencing unnecessary medical interventions during childbirth. Available in both ENGLISH and SPANISH language versions.
For maternity care providers: BirthTOOLS.org, which stands for Tools for Optimizing the Outcomes of Labor Safely, is an interactive online toolkit that presents the evidence and offers targeted resources, protocols, and other materials to assist clinicians and health care systems in implementing best practices that promote physiologic birth. Click to download a handy 2 page PDF handout that can be shared with others to introduce them to the BirthTOOLS.org website and its resources. There are also resources and support for midwives contributing to quality improvement work in their practice or institution. ACNM Bundles included on BirthTOOLS:
- Focus on Physiologic Birth
- Shared-decision making
- Promoting Spontaneous Onset of Labor
- Promoting Progress in Labor
- Promoting Comfort and Coping in Labor
- Assessment of Fetal Well-Being
- Dyad Care in the Immediate Postpartum Period
- Unit Culture that Promotes Care Approaches to Support Physiologic Birth
For hospital policymakers, payers, and other organizations: Birth Matters is a handout for quality administrators that explains how implementing an evidence-based strategy focused on physiologic birth increases the well-being of families and prevents rare, adverse outcomes for hospital systems.