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THIS MONTH'S ISSUE:
A LETER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF CNMA
CNMA.ORG IS LIVE!
CNMA'S PULSE CHECK SURVEY ENDS JAN 25TH
CNMA RESPONDS TO ACNM RE:LGBTQ STATEMENT
CURES 2.0 UPDATE
CNMA IS JOINING FORCES WITH CHCF'S "MY BIRTH MATTERS" CAMPAIGN
NEW PUBLICLY REPORTED CNM STATISTIC/BIRTH CERTIFICATE ACCURACY
CANNABIS AND PREGNANCY, A SURVEY
A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF CNMA
Happy New Year from your CNMA Board of Directors!
We hope you were able to spend time with your family and friends over the Holidays and we wish you all the best in 2019. This year brings many new directions that your Board of Directors is hoping to pursue! Based on our strategic plan developed in October 2018, we will NOT be running a major scope bill this year. Instead, we will be focusing on many things to strengthen our organization.
Some of the important items we will focus on are initiating a membership drive, starting an advisory group on diversification and structural racism, and continuing to build alliances with like-minded organizations who have similar goals and missions, including working to develop a strong presence within the California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom.
We will be working hard to build alliances with legislators and organizations involved in the legislative process so we can work on important issues in women's health including improving access to midwifery care. In addition, we hope to build a healthy working relationship with ACOG District IX. Although there are some issues that divide us, we will focus on the many issues in women's health that can bring us together.
We are developing a new website and updating our communication platforms. In addition, we will be starting an initiative to ensure CNMs are getting credit for the births they are attending.
We will continue our work to ensure our organization is fiscally strong by developing a sound fiscal budget; and we hope to begin fundraising projects. We also hope to begin the process of engaging with payors to ensure CNMs are visible to them and to their clients.
As you can see, CNMA has a lot on its plate for the New Year! We will be very busy at work with these exciting new challenges, and hope to continue to build our organization so we can best support the wonderful work of CNMs throughout the State, whether it is in the home, birth center, or hospital setting.
Please reach out to your colleagues and encourage them to join!! If you would like to get involved or if you have issues you think we should be addressing, please reach out to me or your regional representative.
I am filled with gratitude to each and every one of you for the indelible mark you leave every day on the lives of women and families of California.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Belzer, CNM
CNMA President
CNMA's NEW WEBSITE IS LIVE!
Visit your new home for CNMA to keep track of important events, stay updated on Health Policy and News, and more!
Our merchandise store is now open! cnma.org/store
Students have a home at CNMA.ORG! cnma.org/students
Encourage your friends to donate to CNMA! cnma.org/donate
CNMA’s SURVEY ends Jan 25, 2019
Thank you to everyone who has taken our survey so far. We are learning so much from our participants! If you haven’t yet taken the survey, please do so by clicking HERE or by going to https://goo.gl/forms/eUXFySCxiRdgrpP43
Don’t forget, the survey ends on Jan 25, 2019!
CNMA RESPONDS TO ACNM RE: LGBTQ STATEMENT
CNMA recently sent a letter to ACNM regarding their internal processes in addressing the care of LGBTQ/TGNC (Transgender & Gender Nonconforming) individuals. There are many on our Board and in our membership who identify as LGBTQ/TGNC and/or have great concern for this community and their current lack of sensitive and available care. We have asked ACNM as they update their policy statements to be inclusive and incorporate the care of this community into our scope of practice. The CNMA BOD felt it was imperative that ACNM be appraised of the importance of this issue from the perspective of CA Nurse-Midwives.
CURES UPDATE
TO: ALL CURES USERS
The California Department of Justice is pleased to provide webinars on the CURES 2.0 system for prescribers and dispensers. Attendees will learn about new system features, such as Patient Safety Alerts, Compacts, and Peer Messaging. Additionally, step-by-step instruction will be provided on how to access CURES Patient Activity Reports, as well as resetting user passwords.
Live webinar scheduled on the following date and time (PDT):
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information and instruction about joining the webinar.
Additionally, you may view a recording of the webinar at any time by going to the webpage:
https://oag.ca.gov/cures/publications and click on “CURES 2.0 Webinar – September 12, 2018.”
For questions on webinar registration or to request in-person CURES training, please contact the CURES HelpDesk at CURES@doj.ca.gov or (916) 210-3187.
CNMA IS JOINING FORCES WITH CHCF’s MY BIRTH MATTERS CAMPAIGN
The California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC), and Consumer Reports have partnered to develop and launch My Birth Matters, an educational campaign aimed at informing expectant mothers about cesarean delivery. Cesarean delivery accounts for 1/3 of births in California and the U.S. It is now the most common hospital surgery, carrying significant health risks for moms and babies. The goal of our involvement is to support the statewide effort to reduce unnecessary cesarean by educating women about the overuse of cesareans and encouraging meaningful conversations between patients and their care team. We are partnering with this initiative to get the word to patients and families that these valuable resources exist.
What can you do?
First, visit www.mybirthmatters.org to see for yourself the information available to patients and families.
Here are some other ideas, can you do all or most of them?
1. Talk with your CPSP provider and encourage them to incorporate the videos and educational tools into their practice
2. Talk with your WIC providers and encourage them to incorporate into their prenatal education plans
3. Play the videos in your waiting rooms
4. Put the handouts//posters into your prenatal education packets
5. Place the posters at clinic check-in areas
6. Talk with the people who administer your hospital tour and make sure they know how they can place this info into their own education packets
7. Talk to your leadership about imbedding the mybirthmatters link into your patient portals or prenatal apps
8. Here's an easy way to inform women of this new resource: change your work email signature (or electronic signature on the platform used to return patient messages) to include your name followed by: "check out the valuable information on cesarean reduction at www.mybirthmatters.org"
Thank you for your willingness to support the effort to reduce unnecessary cesarean in California. We are leading other states in this effort, and your involvement is critical for our success!
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact Holly Smith, CNM at hollyMsmith77@gmail.com
NEW PUBLICLY REPORTED CNM STATISTIC/BIRTH CERTIFICATE ACCURACY
Starting in June 2019, the "Percent Deliveries by CNMs" at your facility will begin to be publicly reported to CalHospitalCompare.org !!
This data will come directly from the birth certificate. Is your hospital accurately reporting CNMs as the delivering provider on the birth certificate?
If your hospital is a member of the CMQCC Maternal Data Center (MDC), we are inviting all interested CNMs, especially CNM leads and CNMs who currently use the MDC at their facility, to an informational webinar on this new publicly reportable CNM statistic. This webinar will be Wednesday January 16th from 12-1:30pm PST. Registration is required here: https://stanford.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Q_Z67_HOQP6q7nAUSoUnpA (note that the first 20 minutes will include non-CNM related topics as this is an MDC update webinar; please remain on the call to hear about the CNM statistic).
We are thrilled that we have a chance to accurately reflect the proportion of hospital births by CNMs for all of California! Please join the CMQCC webinar on Wednesday December 16th!
If you have questions please email hollyMsmith77@gmail.com
CANNABIS AND PREGNANCY, A SURVEY
Hi my name is Sydney Selzer and I am an anesthesiologist currently doing a fellowship in obstetric anesthesiology at Cedars Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. I am doing a research project survey and am hoping to include responses from all obstetric caregivers including anesthesiologists, obstetric physicians, and midwives. I am particularly interested in providers in California.
About the study:
In general, “marijuana” refers to cannabis that has high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the cannabinoid that is responsible for the “high” associated with cannabis use. However, there is another cannabinoid in cannabis called cannabidiol (CBD), which lacks this “high” and has many potential therapeutic roles. Due to its potential therapeutic roles, non-intoxicating properties, and the ability to extract it from industrial hemp, CBD has become widely available. While studies have examined attitudes toward marijuana use during pregnancy, no studies to date have looked at attitudes toward CBD specifically.
Sydney Selzer, M.D.
Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellow
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
(301) 807-4420
sydney.selzer@cshs.org
That’s all for this month’s newsletter!
See you next month,
CNMA Social Media Team