Colorado Affiliate Meeting Minutes 2021
ACNM CO Affiliate Meeting
8/7/21 @6:00p.m. hosted in Denver (sadly rescheduled from Glenwood Springs)
+ Zoom option
People in attendance: 10
Attendees: Jennifera Matera; Heather Scott; Jessica Dacic; Karen Ruby Brown; Lorell Erwin (and Velda), JEDI representative; Kala Kluender, member at large; Kelsey Magnuson, student representative; Gillian Brautigam, secretary; Elisa Patterson, vice president; Jeanne Bair, president
Symposium:
Thurs 10/8/21, 5 speakers have been confirmed, will be virtual on-line via Zoom, register through Auctria, registration is up via Connect and on the website
Speakers: Preventative Health Care in woman from a Primary Care Perspective-Pamela Swendseid, FNP, MA-MHC; Genetic screening- Current Trends, Standards of Care and Guidelines; Joy Stern, MS; Perinatal Pelvic Floor Considerations for Minimizing Birth Injury and Supporting Postpartum Goals-Krystyna Holland, PT; Pearls and Pitfalls of Limited First Trimester OB US-Katlynn Adkins, MD; JEDI Speaker The Cost to Labor: Implicit Bias In Obstetrics-Katrina Little MS, BSN
Using Auctria to register instead of Eventbrite
Pioneer midwives - need a videographer, maybe Lorell’s sister, she will connect with Kristen Bair to understand what she did last year
Will reach out to the pioneer midwives once we have a videographer nailed down
Treasurer Report
In future - Denise not present
Kala is getting refund back from Hotel Colorado due to needing to cancel for mudslides
Legislation: state and federal
State: very busy year at state level, rule making bill to give DEMs ability to treat for GBS and also a piece around education, equity bills-to be legislated
Summer is a big time for legislation. New Bills will be coming.
Federal level: MOMs bill. Watch out for email from Amy Kohl and you can send a canned email to your own legislator. Very easy to participate!
Privileging: put it into Medicare statute so then APNs would have full medical staff privileges. Should be released some time in the Fall. Keep an eye out for that,.
On the hill day: via zoom. Easy to do. Second week in Jan. Look out for connect message from Elisa. Everyone visits legislators in the same week - via ZOOM.
JEDI (Justice, equity, diversity and inclusion committee):
Awarded first BIPOC scholarship. Goal: to dismantle systematic racism in midwifery and women's health in general. Want to improve access for all students of color. She lives in El Paso, TX. Wants to eventually practice in CO. Amount: $3,000. Limited # of candidates this year.
Ultimately scholarship will be endowed so if we have $25,000 within 5 yrs then it will grow and we will be able to give more to the recipient. Get the word out to anyone who is interested in applying.
Ideally will find BIPOC artist to create a T-shirt for fundraiser. Very informal 5k. Have the meeting point be Sloans Lake. Want to create a T-shirt with BIPOC as central. Need to raise more $$ to endow the scholarship. Denver Health midwives piloted this last year and wanted to make it bigger. Link up with AWHONN. Maybe create more groups and themes for people to join around if they are an individual and don’t have their own team.
Project Cure
From Chris Coombs: Seasons is doing Aug and CU students are doing Sept.
Affiliate Updates
Need nomination committee for officers - Jeanne will reach out to Carolyn Bottone-Post to see if she will help with this and help with the Symposium.
Midwifery Board in CO
Jeanne suggests a board to make CMs legal in CO.
This year, people who have an interest in women's Healthcare but didn’t have a good understanding what different midwives do, took this on. Don't get to talk to stakeholders or interest groups.
Never actually get to the issue of actually solving the issues and solving midwifery deserts.
NY and PA have midwifery boards. WA is probably the best model. We can get the conversation going now, for next [legislative] year. Then interest groups can join our effort rather than us trying to steer their efforts.
Started with ACNM state government person for where to start. Amy Kohl, ACNM Director, Advocacy & Government Affairs. This is where the CMs come in.
CPMs: In CO, they are registered and not licensed, minimal fee associated with registration, it is so that people who have complaints have a place to complain. Can't address licensure without a separate legislation piece, for the next 7 years. We want to be a division of what's already there (separate program) of midwifery and cover all levels of midwives. Start now so if someone is else is going after licensure, then they join us rather than us joining them. We invite legislators.
Colorado Midwives Association (CMA) did not want to be the spearhead of this.
Their fees would go up, they'd have to be licensed and then be regulated so they would have to be monitored more closely
We DO NOT want to inhibit anyone’s ability to practice, accountability of all midwives is what we are looking for
Start by look at other states for example: NY, WA
we don't want to make the same mistake as NY, making CPMs illegal. Put together the best of everything for something that could work best.
New Mexico: their regulation happens in the health dept and they are no longer linked with nursing. We do not want that to happen here.
Mental health is the best analogy: lcsw, psychologist, counselor
NY: community midwife delivers outside of the hospital, different rules and regs based upon training and background and terminology
Where do we put this board of midwifery together? Give up having to explain what kind of midwife you are. Joyce Roberts- was working on "do you really need to be a nurse to be a midwife?"
Very important for BIPOC community; come full circle and bring back the women of color who were pushed out due to being CMs
currently 62 CPMs in CO and would not be putting anyone out of a job by regulating this-that is our very clear goal, to help and not hinder access to midwifery. We want their voice to be heard and be a part of this conversation
Need more people on board and people to join the conversation. Broader spectrum of our workforce.
Get physicians on board to see that it is licensure and regulation
ACNM has a handout about the different types of midwives (CM, CPM, CNM) - LINK HERE
Next CO Affiliate meeting - 10/8/21 at the Symposium!