The MAWS eBulletin
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Volume 3, Issue 1 February 2010
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Greetings!
The
snow is falling in the mountains of Eastern Washington, but it's been
unseasonably warm and dry this January for those of us along the I-5
corridor - one example of the diversity of experience between MAWS
members. Thank you to those of you who made the trip to Lobby Day - we
will keep you posted about our successes in Olympia.
We on the MAWS Board look forward to an exciting new year and to
continuing to improve the organization for you, our members. And we
also set our sights beyond our own professional development this year
with renewed energy for launching our Better Birth Options campaign to
improve maternity care for the women and families we serve.
Look for an update on the work MAWS has been doing for you over the
last eight months in the Annual newsletter that will be arriving soon
via snail mail!
With great hope for increasing the number of women who have access to normal empowering birth and prenatal care,
Sincerely,
Audrey Levine, President & Kristin Effland, Vice President Midwives' Association of Washington State
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Childbirth Connections's Blueprint for Action! Following on the tails of their Milbank Report, Childbirth Connection released their Blueprint for Action this week.
MAWS is already beginning to think about what we in WA can do to take action!
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Washington Midwives in the News - "Benefits of midwifery go beyond money saved"
"Midwives in Washington state provide an excellent service to expectant mothers and have their place in the budget under consideration by state lawmakers," states an editorial in The Olympian this week.
"Midwives provide comprehensive prenatal care for mothers with low-risk pregnancies who plan to deliver at home or at a birth center. State records show that there are 86 licensed midwives. Collectively, they give pregnant women a safe alternative to a hospital delivery, saving taxpayers a considerable amount of money."
Read the full article in The Olympian>
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Greetings from the QMP/MAWS
liason! I am happy to bring you this brief update. Every
January and every July, I will provide a brief QMP update for the MAWS eBulletin regarding the work that the QMP is doing for you!
The QMP was hard at work in
2009 and we accomplished a lot.
We addressed and
solved the problem in our mail pick-up/distribution system (there used
to be a rather lengthy time lag between the MAWS mailbox and the QMP).
This problem no longer exists. We are now getting our mail on time and
responding appropriately. Since Lynn Hughes collects the mail from the
MAWS address and forwards it along to the QMP, we have her to thank!
We successfully
updated our IRP document, which has much more lenient and flexible timelines
for operation. We were very pleased when the Department of Health approved
this revised document because we are now able to better comply with
the guidelines.
We updated various
IRP documents and created new documents.
Our committee meetings
are running smoothly and efficiently. We were able to properly address
all of the new incidents that were reported to the QMP in 2009 (12 total)
and we are successfully continuing to track all of the cases which remain
open from previous years.
Sincerely,
Erin Curtiss, L.M.
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MAWS FORUM - Come on! Try it out!
If you haven't joined the forum yet, click here and register. Please use a login or email that is identifiable so we know you are a member and can approve you quickly. (The MAWS Discussion Forum is for Professional Members Only.)
Check out some of the studies in this e-news and post your thoughts to the forum. Go to the board, "Clinical News & Issues," and post under the category, "Clinical News and Issues."
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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS RENEWED THEIR MEMBERSHIP FOR 2010
Many of you have already renewed, and we so appreciate that! We're pulling together some important materials we want to pass along to you in a membership packet this year (including a hard-copy newsletter), so you will receive your certificate in that packet by the end of February. If you have a more urgent need for proof of membership, please contact Lynn, and we can send your certificate as a pdf for you to print out quickly.
IF YOU HAVEN'T RENEWED YET, PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT NOW! If you need help with the membership system (you're not alone), just write to Lynn. Send your phone number with good times to call if you'd like a phone call.
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THANK YOU TO OUR NEWEST ASSOCIATE MEMBERS!
The following list contains our newest Associate Members (those who have joined since the last eBulletin) who are supporting MAWS at the $100 level. Click here to find out how you can help support MAWS by recruiting your favorite providers to become Associate Members. You will find these Associate Member listings in the MAWS online directory under "Midwife-Friendly" Providers:
Stacy Bowker
Snohomish Valley Holistic Medicine Naturopathic pediatric and family medicine; well child exams; sports & school physicals; immunizations; acute illness care. www.snovalleyholistic.com Port Orchard
Kendra Machen A Dalai Mama - Your Birth Guru Childbirth Preparation classes by Certified Educator; Breastfeeding
classes; Professional Labor Support Doula with current CPR, first aid
and NRP provider certifications; Birth Tub rentals; Professional
Placenta Encapsulation. Send an email to Kendra Port Orchard
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MAWS MIDWIVES TO JOIN WASHINGTON RESEARCH PROJECT
A tremendous opportunity has presented itself and we're
thrilled to share the news with you. MAWS has been invited by the Foundation for Healthcare Quality
to participate, along with 8 hospitals in Washington State, in a 6-month
project called OB-COAP (Clinical Outcomes Assessment Program). Licensed midwives who are members of
MAWS are being asked to contribute very basic data for out-of-hospital births
occurring between January and August 2010. You'll have the option of submitting data electronically or
on paper and it is estimated that each entry should take no more than 10-15
minutes of your time (or the time of the lucky person in your practice who does
your MANA stats).
We're hoping that the MAWS community will enthusiastically
embrace this chance to put our data alongside hospital-based data to
demonstrate not only that licensed midwifery care in Washington State results
in excellent maternal and neonatal outcomes but that these results can be
achieved without a heavy reliance on costly medical interventions. Our participation in OB-COAP is being
regarded by the Foundation for Healthcare Quality as part of a strategy to affect
change in hospital-based birth practices, lower costs, and improve outcomes for
moms and babies.
You'll be receiving more details about OB-COAP in the mail
next week, including information about the two upcoming WebEx trainings
(February 22nd from 1 - 2:30 or February 24th from 10:30 - 12). It is our expectation that ALL licensed midwives who are MAWS members
will participate in OB-COAP because the quality of the data depends on full
participation. You will be
rewarded for your time and effort! Be sure to open the mailing to find out how!
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Babies exposed to toxic chemicals in utero! MAWS board member Molly Gray to testify this week at a Senate Hearing in DC
New tests by the Washington Toxics Coalition reveal that children
spend their first nine months in an environment that exposes them to
known toxic chemicals. Washington Toxics Coalition tested nine pregnant
women, from Washington, Oregon, and California, for chemicals including
bisphenol A, phthalates, mercury, and "Teflon chemicals."
The
first-of-its kind study tested blood and urine from pregnant women
during their second trimester of pregnancy and found their bodies
contaminated with chemicals found in a wide variety of consumer
products. This means that when babies are born, they've already spent
nine months developing in an environment contaminated with chemicals
linked to cancer, reproductive problems, and diabetes. In order to
understand the issue and help your clients reduce their baby's exposure
utilize WA toxics coalition "Tips for a healthy pregnancy".
MAWS
board member, Molly Gray, ND/LM, was part of a study by the WA Toxics
Coalition regarding toxic chemical exposure in pregnancy, and we're
proud that she recently traveled to Washington DC to testify on
this issue!
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Tell legislators its time to eliminate BPA from baby bottles!
Exposure to BPA before birth has been linked to a host of health
problems including early puberty, infertility, and cancer. After
they're born, children's exposure continues from countless sources,
including baby bottles, sippy cups and infant formula cans. Thankfully,
we have a monumental opportunity to do the right thing in Washington
state and eliminate BPA from food and beverage containers intended for
young children.
Urge them to make protecting the health of Washington families a
priority by passing the Safe Baby Bottle Act! Click here for more
information on this action from Washington Toxics Coalition. Then click here for an easy way to write to your legislators.
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BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS NEEDED FOR MAWS WEB SITE
We are embarking on a web site face lift and are also developing a co-branded sister site called "Better Birth Options" specifically targeted to consumers! We need high quality photos of moms, babies and families for these sites. Please send your client photos (with their permission, which we are happy to confirm) to Lynn.
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Sugary Colas Tied to Gestational Diabetes
Study found drinking five or more per week prior to pregnancy increased risk by 22% Women who drink five or more servings of
sugar-sweetened cola per week before they conceive increase their risk
of developing diabetes during pregnancy, a new study indicates.
"Previous studies have shown an association with other chronic
metabolic problems," said study author Dr. Liwei Chen, an assistant
professor of epidemiology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences
Center, in New Orleans. "This is the first to show an increased risk
among pregnant women."
The report appears in the
December issue of Diabetes Care. Read full article>
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SPRING CONFERENCE - SAVE THE DATE!
Planning is underway for the Spring MAWS Conference coming April 30, 2010. Watch for details.
Want to help with the conference? Send us an email.
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Clinical Quandries: Accurate Pregnancy Dating
Kristin Effland, LM, CPM
Accurate pregnancy dating can be a clinical challenge for midwives and
our clients. Routine dating ultrasounds are not recommended for
clients who have regular cycles and who keep accurate records of their
last normal menstrual period. However, the majority of clients may not
fit into this narrow category since many of them will have one or more
factor that complicates the calculation of an accurate EDD. Still,
many midwives and our clients feel concerned about the potential risks
that may be associated with the overuse of ultrasound.
I am particularly interested in this topic because in my practice in
Northwestern Washington, we find that many clients report "regular"
periods because they have recently discontinued birth control pills
that made their cycles regular but that also may have caused them to
ovulate at an unexpected time during their cycle. We also have clients
with recent miscarriages or who are still nursing which as we all know
may affect when they ovulated. Other clients are often unsure of their
LMP or didn't take a pregnancy test until many weeks after their missed
period. Other clients will report a known LMP from which we calculate
an EDD using Naegele's rule only to find at a fetal survey ultrasound
that their expected EDD is >10 days different than expected.
Because of these and other related issues, I contacted our local
ultrasound imaging center to ask for clarlity about the margins of
error related to ultrasound dating at various stages of pregnancy.
They reported the following margins of error for ultrasounds conducted
at their facility:
Prior to 10 weeks gestation (8 weeks by embryo dating) +/- 5 days
10 weeks - 22 weeks +/- 10days
22 weeks - 30 weeks +/- 14 days
30+ weeks +/- 21 days
Margins of error in ultrasound dating may vary by facility.
Here are two articles with current research related to this topic:
Issues in Pregnancy Dating: Revisiting the Evidence: Ultrasound Dating published in the Journal of Midwifery & Women's
Health. 2009;54(3):184-190. Read article>
New charts for ultrasound dating of pregnancy and assessment of fetal
growth: longitudinal data from a population-based cohort study
published in Ultrasound Obstetriscs & Gynecology 2008; 31: 388-396. Read article>
To discuss these and related issues with fellow MAWS members, visit the MAWS online discussion forum.
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UPCOMING CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
Midwifery Update 2010 - 11TH Annual Pacific Northwest Conference February 10, 2010 - Shoreline, WA. More information>
What to do - The Unexpected Breech at Home - Kitsap Birth Collective February 20, 2010 - 1025 Tacoma Ave. Port Orchard. Event listing with more information on Facebook or send an email to Kendra. CIMS,
2010 Mother-Friendly Childbirth Forum & Annual Meeting
February 26-27, 2010 - Austin, TX. More information>
NIH VBAC Consensus Conference
March 8-10, 2010 - Bethesda, MD. More information>
Trust Birth Conference March 12-14, 2010 - Redondo Beach, CA. Speakers include Sarah Buckley, MD, Gail Hart, Karen Strange, Carla Hartley. More information>
Midwifery Today Conference April 14-18, 2010 - Philadelphia, PA
2010 speakers include Ina May Gaskin, Marsden Wagner, Michel Odent, and Debra Pascali-Bonaro. More information>
Normal Labor & Birth: 5th International Research Conference - The Benefits & Challenges of Preserving Physiologic Birth July 20-23, 2010 -Vancouver, BC. More information>
See the MAWS web site for ongoing continuing education opportunities.
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BUY PENNY SIMKIN'S NEW COMFORT MEASURES FOR CHILDBIRTH DVD & PENNY WILL DONATE 10% TO MAWS!
This 90-minute interactive DVD contains more than 40 techniques for reducing and managing the pain of labor contractions. Christiane Northrup, MD states, "Comfort Measures is wonderful. I suggest that it be required viewing for all pregnant couples and childbirth professionals." Use this link to buy it now or click here to read more about it.
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This is your newsletter. Please send any feedback or suggestions to Kristin Effland. We welcome suggestions for
future topics, popular articles or research to include.
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