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Writer's pictureGillian Brautigam

Colorado Affiliate Meeting Minutes: March 2022

Updated: Oct 18, 2022

ACNM CO Affiliate Meeting

3/2/22 @6:30p.m. hosted at CU Anschutz campus + Zoom option


Attendees:

Jeanne Bair, CNM, President; Jolene Hamann- CNM, VP; Gillian Brautigam - CNM, secretary; Denise Smith, CNM, treasurer; Kala Kluender - CNM, member-at-large; Carolyn Bottone-Post, CNM, member-at large; Kelsey Magnuson, SNM, student rep

Shannon Pirrie, CNM; Jane Avery - CNM; Claire Rundell - CNM; Jessica Cumley-SNM, Danielle DiSalvo Pavone-SNM, Elizabeth Diaz Ordaz-SNM, Jenny DuFour - SNM, Miriam Chengo - SNM, Talia Page - SNM, Shanica McIntosh - SNM, Alexandra Griffith - SNM, Terra Rhodes - CNM, Ashley Character - CNM, Kris Hall, CNM, Lyndsay Lev, SNM, Torey Skaar, SNM, Talia Page, SNM, Lorell Erwin, CNM, Paige Swales, CNM, Jessica Anderson, CNM


Guests: from CMAC - committee of midwife advocates for certified midwives

Marian Seliquini, MS, CM - Chair of CMAC

Karen Kelly, MS, CM - chair of CMAC, VA

Shara Frederick, MS, CM - committee of CMAC


CMAC: an ACNM committee, division of advocacy and affiliate support

  • Mission: advocate for CM’s to be able to work to their full scope of practice in all 50 states

  • Like CNMS, they believe there should be a midwife for every woman

  • To increase diversity and the number of midwives

  • Over 50% of U.S. counties have no maternity care providers - so there is a healthcare and provider shortage

  • Midwives are underutilized - only ~10% of births in the U.S. are attended by midwives

  • Multiple pathways to midwifery education - starts with increasing the diversity and # of midwives, broaden the base of who is looking into becoming a midwife - people from diverse backgrounds; finding their way to midwifery through their own positive experience with a midwife and later in their life cycle of education (post-college)

  • Be part of the solution - scale up midwifery; increase access to high quality care, improve outcomes and reduce costs. Licensure of certified midwives grows the sexual and reproductive health workforce and increases access to high quality perinatal, gynecologic and primary care

  • CMs are the same type of midwife that CNMs are

  • Established in 1994. 2 programs: SUNY Downstate and Jefferson (distance based) - CNMs and CMs are working together through skills, clinical and class

  • Aim of creating CM pathway: address national provider shortage and expand routes of entry to midwifery

  • ~130 total CMs, AMCB does not track those who complete post-grad RN licensure and change to a CNM designation, not a good use of time for midwives going back to get associate’s degrees to earn CNM designation

  • CMs educated in midwifery; CNMs educated in midwifery and nursing

    • However the principles that ground CMs are identical

    • Similarities: certifying body (AMCB), certification exam, provider scope of practice, core graduate education requirements, educational program accreditation (ACME)

    • Bachelor degree with certain requirements, graduate degree (accredited by ACME), state licensing exam, licensed by AMCB

  • AWHONN, ACOG, March of Dimes all wrote statements in support of CNM/CMs addressing maternal care shortage

  • As of October 2021 → these states license CMs - OK, VA, HI, NY, ME, NJ, DE, MD, DC, RI

New York: CMs and CNMs are both licensed midwives in the state, with the same privileges and scope of practice

Minnesota: has a bill that will be in this session

PA: drafting language to improve CNM scope of practice and license CMs

OR & CA - starting to look at CM licensure

  • Sustainability and making midwifery more accessible, how can we make more midwives that can start working as midwives, and not take up seats in a nursing program

  • Questions? Comments? Ideas?

    • Marian Seliquini: marian@seliquini.net

    • Karen Kelly: karenkellycm@gmail.com

    • https://www.midwife.org/certified-midwife-credential

  • Access in 2 CM programs: need more programs, more funding, more clinical site placements - that is the limiting factor; looking at ways to diversify midwifery, people want to enter midwifery through non-nursing backgrounds due to a history of racism in nursing, programs in VA and MN are looking at adding a CM program

Context Around CM Legislation Initiative in Colorado

  • CPMs were invited to a meeting and did not express interest in licensure

  • Adding CMs to the NY law bumped out CPMs and made them illegal

  • Sunrise proposal - law has to go to the state; the state has until Oct 15th to review the sunrise and decide if they want to proceed with it → if they do then we need sponsors → then would go to legislature the next year; they came back for information a couple times but have not heard much otherwise

  • Want to put CMs into the nurse practice act as an exception - putting CNMs into the medical act sets a precedent (later went and added CNMs to nurse practice act)

  • It would have to be an amendment to our law to drop CPMs - they would have to open their sunset (really hard to do)

  • NY used “licensed midwife” and defined that as an ACNM-licensed midwife, but the way we have set forth the law in CO - we are trying not to impact CPMs, the goal is to open up to CMs without negatively impacting CPMs

  • In the application sent to DORA - DEMs were not mentioned specifically as this is meant to expand midwifery and not encumber any practicing midwives


Annual Meeting:

  • Registration is open, virtual or in-person option, Chicago - May 22-26, 2022


Legislative Committee Update: Elisa Patterson (in lieu of our lobbyist Diana Protopopa who is sick)

  • Anyone can join, email Elisa to join - it is a Zoom meeting

  • 3 or 4 committees; 1. Birth control for undocumented women 2. Transfer from home/birth center to hospital (smooth transitions) 3. Advanced payment model for Medicaid (value-based payment program for Medicaid) - very diverse group

  • Colorado session: January to May

    • Offering to pay for pads/tampons/diapers

    • 3 bills to abolish abortion - all were cut down

    • All insurance programs would have to have some kind of infertility coverage

    • CDPHE: would have to collect data on LGBTQI individuals on how many constituents there are

  • National GAC:

    • Midwives for Moms Bill: HB 3352; Senate Bill 1697

    • Likely to come in early Summer - privileging bill would add the language the hospitals need to give midwives full staff privileges; there is not an official

    • ACNM Meeting - PAC Rally every year with silent auction and they raise money - goes to legislators so they really know we want them to support our bills

    • As an Affiliate, we usually donate $1,000 to the PAC rally and something for the auction (that is CO-based)

  • SGAC: State Government Affairs Committee

    • Helping ACNM pull up scope of practice across the country, scopes are defined very differently, various states do it very differently

Treasurer Report: Denise Smith

  • Total funds at this time ~$25,042.66

  • Dues are the primary source of income, down about $500 from previous - in case you didn't get an ACNM notification - check and see whether your membership is still active

  • Lobbyist: $18,000/yr

  • Deficit of $2,500 in terms of income: expense ratio

  • There is a reserve of money in CODs (emergency reserve funds)

CO Affiliate topic - Ways to fundraise: Jeanne Bair

  • Fewer than half the CNMs in the state are members

  • Pretty unanimous vote that people do not want to support a symposium and do not want to help put on a symposium

  • Jolene has put together a postcard to send out via snail mail

    • To try to revive a listserv - QR code people can scan to ask to rejoin a new Google group

    • QR code to donate to lobbyist

  • Do a fundraiser at various locations around the state - last week in August - breweries or distilleries and some proceeds go toward the Affiliate and lobbyist

Region VI Board Representative - ACNM National Update: Jessica Anderson

  • Changes to Connect - putting a pause on TownHall to revisit what is the purpose of larger groups on Connect - there is now a bulletin board to post to ACNM members in lieu of Connect

  • Region VI Meeting at the National Meeting - location and date/time TBD

  • New task force: Rural Midwifery Task Force

We are setting up a task force to evaluate needs of midwives practicing in the rural setting. The goal is to identify opportunities and strategies to support patients and midwives living and/or working in rural communities.

The application deadline is March 11, 2022. Please contact executiveoffice@acnm.org with any questions.

  • Student Sale - 20% off student memberships

Student Membership Sale: https://www.midwife.org/default.aspx?bid=3233

  • If people have items that they want to put forth to board - Jessica can bring it forward

JEDI Committee: Elisa Patteson and Lorelle Erwin

  • Last year raised ~$8,000 for the BIPOC scholarship

  • Working toward an endowed scholarship for a BIPOC SNM who is interested in working in CO, it is a $3,000 scholarship

  • Awaiting applications

  • Meet monthly the last Tues of the month - anyone can join - Email Lorell lorell.erwin@gmail.com to join the JEDI committee

  • Ellen Brodrick: brodrick.ellen@gmail.com - has t-shirts if anyone wants to donate and get a t-shirt, she will mail them to you!

  • She is the CNM representative to the diversity team at DH, let her know if you are interested in this framework and what this position looks like

Project Cure is back up and running: Jeanne Bair

  • Will be beginning assembly of the Birth Kits again in April. There are still 3 months open – June, September, October. To sign up : (commitment is for 2 hours on a Sunday of their choosing from 1-3 ~ minimum of 10 volunteers needed)

1. Choose a month

2. Contact Kris Combs, Krismidwife@gmail.com , Cell: 720-934-9100 (text is best)



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