Couldn't make it to Olympia for Midwives' Lobby Day? You can still make a difference! Please contact your legislators TODAY and ask them to support funding for the health professional loan repayment and scholarship program in the state budget.

Sample language to use in an email or when calling the office of your representative:

Restoring funding to the health professional loan repayment and scholarship program is critical to providing access to quality maternity care across the state. Midwives who have utilized this program in the past have stayed on in rural areas where other maternity care providers are sometimes hours away. The more midwives we have practicing, the higher quality care families receive, and the more money the state saves through their cost-effective care. Please include funding for the health professional loan repayment and scholarship program in the state budget.

To find out who your representatives are and how to contact them, go to the legislative website: http://app.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/

THANK YOU!

MAWS Legislative and Policy Committee

Birth Center Survey

Have you had the chance to take our survey on how to best handle the representation of birth centers in Washington State? We would love all the feedback you can give us.

This is only a 5 question survey and should only take a few minutes of your time. Thank you!

Please visit survey by clicking here

Anti-Racism Committee

Do you have one hour each month to devote to anti-racism work?

MAWS needs people like you to become part of our Anti-Racism Committee(ARC). This committee, based on a collaborative model, is dedicated to working towards ending healthcare disparities and addressing the impacts of racism as they pertain to birth and pregnancy outcomes. This committee, and MAWS as an organization, recognizes that racism and white privilege play a role in birth and pregnancy outcomes. This is not easy work, and it is incredibly important.

If you would like to be a part of helping MAWS address these issues please, contact Oesa Hauch oesahauch@gmail.com , the current committee chair. There is no prior experience necessary and commitment currently involves a monthly phone call.

Now is an exciting time to get involved and your involvement would be very valuable! Please consider becoming part of ARC. Thank you!

Call For Talented Volunteers!

MAWS, as most of you know, is 90%+ run by volunteers. This means we rely on them a bunch! We are looking for a few people willing to lend us their strengths and help us make MAWS even better! Here are just some of the positions we are hoping for help with:

Volunteer Coordinator: This person would keep track of and correspond with the volunteers for our conferences and hold the volunteer coordinator's email address. They would also help with pre-conference packet stuffing and day-of conference volunteer coordinating.

Fundraising Committee Chair and Members: The fundraising committee exists to ensure that MAWS secures adequate funding to pursue its mission. The chair would collaborate with it's members to brainstorm fundraising events and other fundraising activities. Members would be required to be active participants in the committee.

Call for Abstracts for 2016 Birth and Beyond Conference

In October 2016, the Birth and Beyond Conference returns to London Ontario for the 4th time. We opening a call for abstracts beginning now until further notice. Past Participants have included: Midwives, Doulas, Lactation Consultants, Childbirth Eductors, Perinatal Support Practitioners, Massage Therapists, Naturopaths, Social Workers, Nurses, Doctors, Obstetricians, Pediatricians and many other professionals that work with families within the childbearing year.

Abstract Format

Submissions can be in any of the following formats:

* 3 hour half-day session

* 90 minute session

* 60 minute session

* 30 minute session or panel participant

Identified High Priority Objectives:

* Business Coaching For Doulas

* Social media for professionals: including appropriate use and self promotion

* Relationship negotiations between support persons

* Hospital Doulas

* Advanced Maternal Age

* Self-Care Strategies for Caregivers (Strategies for continued inspiration, burn-out "proofing")

* Social Justice

* Access to Social Services

* Ethics

* Caring for low income, transient, immigrant and other socially challenged women and their families

* Research Evaluation

* Obesity in preconception health and pregnancy

* Breech vaginal birth

* Client/Practitioner relationship boundaries

* Newborn gut health

* Supporting Fathers (Partners) in transitions to parenthood

* Infant Sleep

* Current trends in parenting

* Feminism in relation to birth choices

* Bereavement

* Caesarean Birth

* Infertility

* Handing competition in perinatal fields

Abstract submissions need not exceed 250 words. Subject matter should ideally reflect an above objective, however we are not limited to this list. Only those applicants selected to proceed to the second round will be contacted.

Please submit to Shawn De Vree shawn@vestaparenting.ca

Abstracts will be reviewed by a panel of industry-related consultants.

Are You on Facebook?

"Like" the MAWS Page!

If you're on Facebook, visit us and "like" our page, and encourage your friends to "like" us, too. This is a great way to get the word out on MAWS' legislative work and events.

Screening and Management of Maternal HIV Infection Guide

The long awaited updated Screening and Management of Maternal HIV Infection: Implications for Mother and Infant best practice guide is now posted! It is well worth the wait. We want to express many thanks to Drs. Jane Hitti and Ann Melvin for their thorough editing.

HERE record:

http://here.doh.wa.gov/materials/maternal-hiv-infection/

I also want to mention that the other two best practice guides recently revised:

Substance Abuse During Pregnancy: guidelines for Screening and Management (Jan 2015) - many thanks to Dr. Abigail Plawman for working on this guide to update this and expand the management information.

http://here.doh.wa.gov/materials/guidelines-substance-abuse-pregnancy

Smoking Cessation During Pregnancy: Guidelines for Intervention. (Feb 2015)

http://here.doh.wa.gov/materials/guidelines-smoking-pregnancy

Please note: it is best to use the link to the record then click on the PDF as the record page tells you when it was revised and that link will not change with each new version.

Please help us spread the word to clinicians and other health professionals.

New Master's Degree for Experienced Midwives

Are you looking to expand your expertise in maternal-child health beyond personal service delivery? Interested in earning a relevant master's degree that builds on your experience to influence positive change in maternity care?

Bastyr University's Department of Midwifery now offers an accredited Master of Arts in Maternal-Child Health Systems degree specifically for birth professionals. The one-year program, delivered primarily online, provides skills to those who want to be part of maternity care systems change -- in education, research and policy-making.

The program begins fall 2015 and applications are now being accepted. There is a part-time option and financial aid is available. There are many ways we can deepen our leadership skills to impact birth-related care in this country. Learn more about this new opportunity!

CPMs! Attend NARM Item-Writing Workshop Thursday and Friday June 11-12, 2015

Bastyr University Department of Midwifery is hosting a NARM Item-Writing Workshop with Ida Darragh, Chair of NARM Board June 11-12, 8:30 AM - 5 PM both days.

The purpose of this workshop is to aid in the development of new and reliable test questions for the NARM national exam, an important professional contribution.

To be eligible, you must be a CPM (jf you are an LM who is not yet a CPM, please consider becoming a CPM - consult the requirements at www.narm.org) and you must be available to attend both full days.

For your attendance you will receive 14 CEUs, with morning coffee/snacks and lunch both days provided by Department of Midwifery. There is no cost to you!

Bastyr has inexpensive rooms on campus for overnight guests who live at a distance. You can get more information and reserve a room with Conference Services here:

http://www.bastyr.edu/public/event-hosting-weddings/meeting-spaces#Overnight-Rooms

Space is limited so register as soon as possible at the brown paper ticket event link below:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1331495

Continuing Education and Upcoming Events

Welcoming Black and Native Families to Your Practice

Explore the perinatal needs of Black and Native families to benefit your clients and your practice in a one-day interactive workshop, team-taught by expert instructors. Friday May 29, 2015 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM $159 Registration by 4pm Thursday, April 29 $179 Registration after April 29 Instructors: Sherry Payne BSN, MN, IBCLC and Camie Jae Goldhammer MSW, LICSW, IBCLC

You'll gain knowledge and skills:

� Understand the historical context for Black and Native maternity and breastfeeding experiences

� Learn the Impact of inequities on birth and breastfeeding outcomes

� Take away new perspectives and skills to understand the flip side of inequity - white privilege

� Gain strategies to provide culturally respectful education, care and support

� Normalize physiologic birth and breastfeeding for Black and Native clients

� Explore case studies for culturally congruent care

� Solidify your skills with game and role play opportunities

� Learning activities, discussion and interaction with your colleagues to advance

Audience: designed for anyone who works with pregnant families, including doulas, childbirth educators, lactation educators, nurses, social workers, community health workers, midwives, pregnancy massage therapists, psychotherapists, prenatal yoga instructors and physicians. Register here!

2015 WithinReach Healthy Connections Luncheon

Join us Thursday, April 30, 2015, and make it possible for every Washington child and family to be healthy!

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director/CEO and Co-Founder of MomsRising, will be our keynote speaker, and Margaret Larson of KING 5 will be joining us again as the Master of Ceremonies! We hope to see you there.

When: Thursday, April 30, 2015, Noon -1:15 p.m. Check-in starts at 11:30 a.m.

Where: The Westin Seattle, 1900 5th Avenue, Seattle, Washington, 98101

To Help: Build healthy communities together.

A $150.00 donation is requested. We invite guests to give as generously as possible to support the health and well-being of children and families in our communities. All gifts are welcomed and appreciated. Learn more about how your gifts make a difference to families in Washington State. Register here!

Address Update!

Please note that MAWS' address has changed. Please send all MAWS related mail to:

MAWS

PO BOX 605

Roslyn, WA 98941

For all other ways of getting in contact with us, please visit our website's contact page by clicking here

This is your newsletter. Please send any feedback or suggestions to Amanda Anderson. We welcome suggestions for future topics, popular articles or research to include.

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