Region 1 (Far North)

Representative: Carrie Blake, Athol: 

Just when we thought Spring was upon us, winter returned with a vengence!  

Womancare Midwives (Barb Rawlings, CPM, LM and Kendra Scarlett, LM) in Bonners Ferry eagerly awaits springtime.  In the meantime, Kendra and Barb are enjoying winter travels.  Kendra is off exploring SE Asia and Barb has visited Boise as her most recent destination. Womancare clients are happy that Hearing Screening for their newborns is now offered and Barb and Kendra remain grateful for the beautiful births and healthy babies with whom they continue to be blessed.

Lavender and Roses Birth and Mothering Center (Sherry Bushnell, CPM, LM) in Libby, Montana, is up and running.  Sherry Bushnell had an open house on March 2 with a presentation about Casa Compasive, Lavender and Roses' sister birth center in Oaxaca, Mexico. Oaxaca women have an 85% c-section rate, plus thousands of unattended births in that city each year!  March 16th is a midwife, doula, birth assistant (everyone invited) mini-conference in Libby, with Barb doing a charting class and Dr. Camber spending an evening with us working with the life-size manikin practicing emergency birth skills for breech, twins, and shoulder dystocia.  Also, Dr. Camber will discuss transporting and relaying information in a quick, succinct, manner, that is professional and impresses the medical staff.  CEUs available if needed. Sherry also offers childbirth classes every Tuesday at 7:00PM.

Pend O'Reille Midwifery (Denise Midstokke, CPM, LM) in Sandpoint reports snow, cold wind, rain, slop, grey ice, and more snow. But, in regards to midwifery, "It's all good!" After a quiet January, the year is filling up with a March full of multip due dates, most of whom are repeat clients, so it should be great fun. Emily is still in Thailand awaiting the birth of her sister's babies. Lisa has started the "Midwife to Be" correspondance course and is working toward becoming a Licensed Midwife. The birth center has been a joy to work in and Denise and Lisa are getting out the kinks of "where should we put this or where DID we put that?" and finally figuring out the flow of the space.

The community is enjoying the center and families often stop by just to take a look around. More than ever, Denise is seeing families in need of financial assistance, so she is especially interested to see what transpires with the Medicaid legislation. Last, but not least, here's to wishing everyone the best and let's join together to pray in Spring!

Dayspring Midwifery (Inga Arts, CPM, LM and Carrie Blake, CPM, LM) in Hayden continues to be honored to bring the out-of-hospital birthing choice to women in Kootenai County.  Our birth center is always busy and we continue to do about 30% homebirths. We recently replaced our ultrasound with a new "laptop" version that can be transported easily from place to place and we are looking forward to helping other midwives in our area with their ultrasound needs. Inga, Carrie, Susie, and Kim (our student) are looking forward to Barb coming to help us with births and prenatals in April. 2011 is a year full of repeat clients thus far and we are really enjoying catching up with everyone and seeing how those little babies have grown! We wholeheartedly agree with Denise: let's get together, ladies, and pray for Spring to head our way!

Merrilyn Reeves, LM, CPM, just returned from Meridian where she welcomed a new grandchild with the assistance of The Baby Place midwives.  Grandmas make great postpartum doulas!!

Region 2 (Middle Idaho) 

Representative: Nancy Draznin, Genesee: 

No report.

Region 3 (Southwest) 

Representative: Coleen Goodwin, Meridian

Vicki Penwell, www.mercyinaction.org:  We had a wonderful NARM Study Retreat here in Boise with 13 midwives from all over...the Philippines, Peru, Canada, and Texas, Virginia, Colorado, California, Mississippi, and right here in Boise, where 5 midwives tested for the NARM last Wed.

Over the week-end we had a seminar on Midwifery Volunteerism in Developing Countries, with several local Idaho midwives attending who are planning to travel overseas to third world nations in the near future to volunteer their services. I am so proud of the Idaho midwives who want to help make the world a better place through sharing midwifery in countries where half of all women still do not have access to a skilled birth attendant.

Jill Henggeler:  Greetings from Treasure Valley Midwives!  We are pleased to welcome Erin McCarter to our practice.  Erin, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and RN, is providing breastfeeding support to new mothers in our community.  She has taught a breastfeeding class at the birth center for several years and now has an office downstairs where she sees mothers who need help with breastfeeding.  She also does a breastfeeding-focused home visit for our moms during the first week postpartum.  We have learned so much from her already!

In mid-February, Teresa, Paula and Jen attended a two-day seminar called Midwifery Volunteerism in Developing Countries.  Boise’s Vicki Penwell was a fabulous instructor and expertly described the state of maternal and neonatal health in the developing world….truly a global tragedy….and the role that midwifery care plays in preventing many unnecessary deaths.  It is such an overwhelming problem that it is hard to know how to help, although I certainly encourage everyone to support Vicki’s work in the Philippines (www.mercyinaction.com).  Teresa is going to Haiti in April for a couple of weeks, followed by Brittany this summer,  and Jen, Paula and hopefully Jill plan to be in the Philippines in January to do our part to help.  Closer to home, we are all looking forward to some spring weather!

Region 4 (Southeast)

Representative: Valerie Hall, Ammon

Winter is almost over even if it’s hard to tell.  In spite of the cold weather Region 4 has been busy as always. We had several holiday births, including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Michelle has made several trips to Wyoming to help get the Board of Midwifery up and going there, and also made a trip to South Dakota at the request of midwives trying to pass legislation in that state. She testified before the legislature there about the training and skills of CPMs.

Agape’ Birth Center has a new addition to the facilities, and is much more spacious and convenient to work in. We will be having a Grand Re-Opening in May. We also started a Post-Partum Doula service and have several women trained to provide it. This is a much-needed service in this area and we plan to spread the word as much as possible.

Michelle was able to participate in the process of getting Medicaid coverage for licenced midwives in Idaho, and that bill has passed the house. This will be new for all of us and may take some work to get things running smoothly, but we hope that will be a boon for women who need that help.

In February Agape’ hosted a peer review which was attended by all the Agape’ staff as well as by Annette Lewis and Coleen Goodwin. It was great to meet with them and share midwife stories. We are few on this side of the state and love getting together when we can and especially spending time with our sister midwives from other parts of the state.

Like all of you, we’re looking forward to warmer weather, blue skies, and a busy spring.

Membership Report    

Legislative Update

 As of the March 1, 2011, the legislation to allow LM’ s a designation to become Medicaid providers has passed through the House Health & Welfare committee and the full House of Representatives, each time with a unanimous vote.  Now the bill is headed for the Senate, where we will hopefully meet with the same success.  We thank Michelle Bartlett for all her work, Kris Ellis & Larry Benton (our wonderful hard working lobbyists), as well as all of you who continue to contact your clients and legislators to move the process along.  Hopefully, by the time you receive this newsletter we will have more good news to share!

Upcoming Events

Licensure Classes, hosted by Yalad Birthing Center, Region 2

Shock/IV        Sunday, June 5, 1 – 9 p.m.
Suturing            Monday, June 6, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Pharmacology   Monday, June 6, 3 – 9 p.m.

Cost:  $200 per class
Location:  Yalad Birthing Center, Cottonwood, Idaho
Register:  Contact Barbara Rawlings at 208-267-0936 or rawlings@nidaho.net.

Idaho Midwifery Council Annual Conference, hosted by Region 2

Theme:  Building Bridges
When:  June 7 – 9, 2011
Where:  St. Gertrude’s Monastery, Cottonwood
Cost:  $250 for IMC members; $285 for non-members
Included are meals and lodging; extra charge for single room
Keynote speakers:  Suzy Myers, Seattle Midwifery School (Bastyr College) and Lori Schneider, Idaho Perinatal Project liaison
Instructors and classes:  herbal pharmacology, STDs, charting and more
Further info and registration form:  http://idahomidwives.org/2011_conference.htm

 
Neonatal Resuscitation Class Scheduled, Region 1

This class is scheduled for Friday, May 20, from 10 am to 4 pm at Dayspring in Hayden.  Marge Mansfield will be here from Seattle to update us on our NRP education & skills for out of hospital.

If you are interested in attending this excellent class, contact Barbara Rawlings for further information.  rawlings@nidaho.net or 208-267-0936.