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Fall 2005 President's Message

Greetings fellow midwives!  It is with high hopes and great anticipation that I welcome you to the newly reinstated Idaho Midwifery Council (IMC) newsletter.  I feel very excited at the prospect of communicating with each other statewide again, including all the new and aspiring midwives, doulas and childbirth educators who have moved here in the past few years while we were quietly catching babies and going on about our lives.  My name is Barbara Rawlings and I have been a practicing midwife in Idaho since 1976, living and working in Bonners Ferry since 1978.  I am a founding member of the IMC and have remained active, fulfilling numerous board positions since we began in 1980.  I truly believe that a strong professional organization is an essential component to the ongoing growth and safety of independent midwifery and I will continue to work to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

The IMC desires a fresh start.  It is time to set aside our differences and focus on all we have in common, create unity within our diversity.  We all need each other, we have so much to share and learn together, we take the same risks, fill the same roles and have the same goals for families--healthy moms and babies.  Certain issues have always divided us and although we will never agree on some things, it is time we reopen our discussions and move forward.  In an IMC newsletter from 1990 I said "We need to focus our strengths and power as an organization.  The most important and beneficial aspect of our organization is unity.  It is our gift to ourselves and each other, so that we can stand tall rather than crumble in the face of adversity.  This sense of unity begins in our practice, extends to our community, to out state, and then radiates to our planet."  We need that unity again.

Education, communication, networking and advocacy are what we are about.  I hope you will join us so together we can further these goals.  Challenges and decisions lie in our path.  Your input and participation is vital if we are to represent your views.  There is much work to do, many things to share and learn, and lots of fun to be had.

I invite you to contact me or any of the IMC board members listed in the newsletter.  We welcome your questions, comments, ideas, opinions, energy, and good jokes!  Welcome to the IMC.  Let's get acquainted.

Yours truly,
Barbara Rawlings

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