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California Nurse-Midwives Association
OCTOBER 2019 | Newsletter
2019 Midwifery Week is September 29th- October 5th
2019 CNMA Annual Meeting on October 5th in DTLA
We are excited to see many of you at the 2019 Annual Meeting, being held in Los Angeles this year on October 5th. October 1st is the LAST DAY TO REGISTER!
There will be an opportunity for up to 4 CEUs, incredible guest speakers, including Dr Karen A Scott from UCSF, and many exciting updates about this year’s accomplishments and upcoming plans for a new bill.
On Friday, October 4th, we will have our annual fundraiser for CNMA. Tickets are only $20 and are also available on the event page. Even if you can’t attend, purchasing a ticket or participating in the online silent auction are great ways to contribute and support CNMA for 2020!
Visit the event page at cnma.org/2019 to register!
Silent Auction and Annual Fundraiser October 4th in DTLA
Hello fellow Midwives! Online bidding for silent auction items will begin Monday morning at 8am and continue through Thursday night at 9pm. The auction will remain LIVE through the fundraiser and our conference on Saturday, save certain items which will end on Friday night at our wine and cheese social.
There are some AMAZING items, so I encourage you to take a look and keep checking back. If you don't see anything that interests you but you still want to help out, you can make a donation through this site as well. Funds will go towards helping us meet our goals of moving forward legislation for midwives, and improving access to midwives throughout the state of California.
Auction link: www.32auctions.com/CNMA
Tickets for the annual fundraiser ($20) available here: cnma.org/2019
Membership Drive
Hello California Midwives! CNMA is happy to announce our 2019 Fall membership drive!
We will be offering a 20% discount to the CNMA portion of your ACNM dues when you join during the months of October and November!
Increasing our membership numbers is critical as we begin planning for future legislation!! We are now only one of four states that still has physician supervision. We will not give up until we change this because until we change this, there will remain often insurmountable barriers to women accessing midwifery care. Under the current system, there are huge barriers to CNMs setting up and maintaining independent practices. Physician supervision is truly translated to physician permission to allow CNMs to practice, and determine how and where they may practice. CNM practices can be shut down on a whim by the hospitals and physicians that back them up. This is not theoretical, it is happening to CNMs now. Please help us in our struggle to change this so we can address access issues and improve the disparities in maternal health that exist for women of color and women from marginalized communities. Your membership is an invaluable way to contribute your time, attention, and professionalism to CNMA as we fight for all of our rights to improve practice laws bring down barriers for patient care in California!
SB 464
SB 464 (Mitchell) – Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act
SB 464 (Mitchell), also known as the Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act, has passed every hurdle and is now on Governor Newsom's desk. This bill was co-sponsored by CNMA, ACT for Women and Girls, Black Women for Wellness, NARAL Pro Choice California, and Western Center on Law and Poverty. SB 464 will require all hospitals and alternative birth centers in California to provide evidence-based implicit bias training to all healthcare providers involved in perinatal services. The bill will also require the California Department of Public Health to track and publish maternal mortality and morbidity rates, including information about the underlying causes and the racial or ethnic demographics of patients. Finally, the bill will adopt the U.S. standard death certificate format regarding pregnancy to better capture information about maternal mortality.
Find updated information on the bill here.
Find the actual bill language here.
If you have questions, please contact Holly Smith, CNM, Health Policy Chair, at advocacy@cnma.org or hollyMsmith77@gmail.com
Message from ACNM re: CNMs and Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), September 5, 2019
"Today, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced that they are now accepting applications from Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs) interested in applying to become DATA-waived prescribers of medication assisted treatment (MAT) in office-based settings. Click here to apply now!
Signed into law on October 24, 2018, The Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act (SUPPORT Act) expands prescriptive authority of MAT to CNMs for a period of five years through October 1, 2023.
For CNMs to be eligible to apply for a MAT waiver from the SAMHSA they must complete 24 hours of required training that covers the following topics: opioid maintenance and detoxification; clinical use of all Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs for MAT; patient assessment; treatment planning; psychosocial services; staff roles; and diversion control. CNMs who complete the required training will receive CE/CME credits and will have the ability to prescribe MAT to up to 30 patients for the first year.
CNMs may prescribe MAT in states where they have prescriptive authority for schedule III drugs, consistent with state law. A CNM must provide MAT in accordance with their professional state specific scope of practice, state laws and regulations, and the policies of their respective institution/ facility. Additionally, if a CNM practices in a state that requires a supervisory or collaborative practice agreement with a physician the physician must be a SAMHSA DATA-waived provider and the practice agreement must indicate that the physician has authorized a CNM to provide MAT per the supervisory or collaborative practice agreement.
The SUPPORT Act expands the ability CNMs to treat up to 30 patients in the first year of waiver receipt if they demonstrate the ability to provide medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in a "qualified practice setting." A qualified practice setting is a practice setting that:
provides professional coverage for patient medical emergencies during hours when the practitioner's practice is closed;
provides access to case-management services for patients including referral and follow-up services for programs that provide, or financially support, the provision of services such as medical, behavioral, social, housing, employment, educational, or other related services;
uses health information technology systems such as electronic health records;
is registered for their State prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) where operational and in accordance with Federal and State law; and
accepts third-party payment for costs in providing health services, including written billing, credit, and collection policies and procedures, or Federal health benefits.
After one year at the 30-patient limit CNMs may apply to increase their patient limit to 100. To apply for patient waiver, go to https://www.samhsa.gov/medication-assisted-treatment/buprenorphine-waiver-management/apply-for-practitioner-waiver.
Please contact Amy Kohl, ACNM's Director of Government Affairs, at akohl@ACNM.org with any questions or for additional information."
Anti-Racism and Reproductive Justice Committee
At the end of 2018, we officially launched our Reproductive Justice/Anti-Racism Advisory Group. It began as a small group under the leadership of Lisa Davis, CNM. Over the past many months, we reached out to CNMAs membership to engage interested individuals. The current group is a robust group of dedicated and passionate individuals who are doing this work in their communities already and many of whom also have lived experience as midwives of color. The RJ/Anti-Racism Group just had our 2nd meeting and we continue to develop and further our mission and goals. One of the main focuses of the last year was putting together an Implicit Bias Training for CNMA leadership. This will take place in LA the day before the Annual meeting and the facilitator will be Elephant Circle. The majority of attendees midwives involved in CNMA leadership including the CNMA BOD, local chapter leadership, the Nurse Midwifery Advisory Committee to the BRN (NMAC), the APRN Advisory Committee to the BRN, CNMA RJ/AR members, and some interested students. We are exploring ways we can offer a similar workshop to all our membership in the future.
Lisa Davis, the chair, had to step down due to personal reasons earlier this month. We are in deep gratitude to Lisa’s contributions and are eager to continue this important work. The group is in the process of determining the best manner to fill the vacancy. If you have an interest in taking a leadership role within CNMA RJ/AR please send a note to cnma_rj_ar@googlegroups.com
CNMA Welcomes the Newest Board Members
Thank you to all who took the time to vote for our new Board members to CNMA! We appreciate that the open positions were uncontested but we are still very grateful for you engagement!! We look forward to a productive year with our new President Elect, Secretary, Student Rep, and continuing Regional Reps.
Congratulations and welcome to our new incoming BOD members!
President Elect; Paris Maloof-Bury
Secretary: Alison Young
Northern Regional Rep: Jillian Cauley
Southern Regional Rep: Betsy Jenkins
Student Rep: To be announced at the Annual Meeting.
CNMA Bylaws
CNMA was due to renew our bylaws this year. In doing so, we wanted to make changes that incorporate the issues of diversity and equity. Thus, it became a large project with a lot of energy going into actually re-writing portions of the bylaws. We are including the whole document, but I am providing a synopsis of the main changes as these have now been approved by ACNMs bylaws committee and we will be voting on them at our Annual Meeting in LA on Oct 5th. Please read so you will be aware of the changes. You can view the updated bylaws HERE.
Synopsis of changes:
Gender neutral language throughout
Under "Specific Purposes” we added:
Strive to increase access to Nurse-Midwives.
Work to reduce race-associated disparities in maternal health outcomes.
Work to address disparities in representation and prioritize diversity, inclusion and equity within the profession of midwifery and the CNMA.
Strive to identify and improve the representation of midwives from communities who historically have suffered from disparities including but not limited to Black, Indigenous and People of Color, members of the LGBTQ community, as well as midwives with disabilities and/or those who have experienced poverty.
Lowering the membership dues for those who are retired and give us more flexibility with student and associate dues levels ( for ease of lowering them in the future).
Create BOD positions from underrepresented groups of CNMs and women in the state instead of having only geographic Regional Reps.
Deleted archaic language about mail-in ballots and a nonexistent nominating committees; and turned these responsibilities over to the Secretary and BOD Reps.
Thank you,
Kathleen Belzer, CNM
CNMA President
CNMA’s Project Meet the Midwives
Hello, Midwives!
Earlier this year, CNMA launched a project on our new website (cnma.org) called Meet the Midwives.
It’s a page dedicated to featuring all the midwives in practice in California. We wanted to create a place for patients, community members, and legislators to find California midwives, especially as we move forward into 2020 with hopefully a new bill to remove physician supervision. Much of our website is dedicated to teaching the public about midwifery and to expand community between the midwives in California.
We invite you to use this FREE resource by visiting us at cnma.org/addmybio. This will generate a searchable link for your profile, a unique URL for you or your practice, and will help us build our online presence and online community for patients and the like.
You can view a sample bio here: cnma.org/elizabethkicko
Or view the whole page at cnma.org/mtm
Questions? News? Want to get involved?
Email us at info@cnma.org
That's all for this month's issue. Catch you next time!
-CNMA MEDIA TEAM
Visit us at cnma.org
This newsletter will be archived on our website at cnma.org/news