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Region 1 (Far North)

Representative: Carrie Blake, Athol

Region 1 welcomes Linda Morgan and Beth Morrill (Spokane Midwives) and Sarah Andrews (Ancient Paths Midwifery) to the ranks of Idaho Licensed Midwives.

Womancare (Barb Rawlings, CPM, LM and Kendra Scarlett, LM):

This summer we had the pleasure of welcoming Ashley Howell, CPM into our practice. Ashley recently graduated from Maternidad La Luz, in El Paso, Texas. She has been back in the area visiting family and friends for the summer, and has been attending births with us. It has been great to have another skilled midwife with us. We will miss her when she leaves! It must also be noted that Barb was at Ashley's birth, and Barb and Kendra were at her sister’s birth! ☻

We are moving into a "quiet" time in our practice. During this time, Barb will be heading back to Boise to work at Treasure Valley Midwives for a few weeks. Kendra will be holding down the fort, while she is gone. We also recently set up a booth at our local Farmers Market and weighed babies. It was a fun "weigh" to spend the morning.

Lavender and Roses Birth and Mothering Center (Sherry Bushnell, CPM, LM):

I was in Mexico end of May through July 10h.  I am looking for a window to head back. Perhaps in November.  I keep getting clients filling up my windows in my practice, so I guess that is a good thing! 

I am continuing education with the physician, and midwives-to-be in Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido with an on-line nutrition/exercise course I am writing.  Nothing official.  Just working through Anne Frye's 1st volume, Holistic Midwifery, a couple books like Good Carbs, Bad Carbs by Gary Taubes, a few cookbooks, and my own experience.

They don't have any books in Spanish like this, of course.  So they are craving resources.  Another really good resource they could use is a good step-by-step guide to teaching childbirth education from a natural point of view.  I am looking at Penny Simpkin's handouts to send them.  Anyone else with a good idea?  They have about 40 women per childbirth class, once a week.

It is so sweet to see the upturned faces, hungry for information, of the mothers longing for a chance to not have to be cut to get their baby out.  They are faithful with the information they do receive.  Already now, after the 7 weeks I have been gone, Casa Compasiva is seeing better birth outcomes.

I think that is due to a couple things.  One is the pretty tight Assessment Tool that we made, giving them some really good information to refer to in looking for a transport in the making.  Second, eating a lower carb diet really does work to keep the weight off the babies (and mamas too). They are exercising (walking) and understanding more about how to keep baby in a good position for labor.

Pend Orielle Midwifery (Denise Midstokke, CPM, LM and Emily Baker, CPM, LM)

Pend Oreille Midwifery had a busy August with 9 births (including 5 primips), one who was able to push out a persistent posterior baby and another our very own dear Emily had her baby boy, Julien Khalil Baker, who weighed 9lbs 4 oz. As her preceptor and then her partner as she became a CPM and now a licensed midwife I had great interest in watching her experience her very own first birth! She was wonderful! She told us how she felt along the way, she swayed and swiveled her hips with deep throaty moans, she exclaimed how afraid she was as second stage initiated the reality of being a mom and then she pushed with every fiber of her body! I had to laugh when I would try to encourage her by saying she was making progress with each push and she would say, "Really Denise? Your not just saying that?"  It's harder when your birthing mom knows all the tricks! After but an hour she pushed out a beautiful baby boy! Having worked with Emily for over 7 years I can say, "I have never seen her happier!"

Dayspring Midwifery (Inga Arts, CPM, LM and Carrie Blake, CPM, LM)

We have been so blessed with a beautiful summer of births. The moms and babies have all been precious, strong, and amazing. Dayspring is expecting to see about a 20% increase in the number of births we do this year versus the past two years and we are gearing up our team to be able to serve this increased number of families well. In August, we welcomed Lindsay Novingwer to our team as an apprentice. Lindsay is from Calgary and will spend two weeks each month with us. We are still interviewing for our second apprentice position, which will involve spending two weeks each month in Hayden, working in clinic and attending births. If you know of any students who have this sort of availability, send them our way for an interview!

Spokane Midwives  (Linda Morgan, LM, and Beth Morrill, LM)

We are happy to join the ranks of Idaho midwives.  We have had a busy summer and the fall will be the busiest ever.  It seems the low economy hasn't slowed the number of births and maybe has facilitated an actual increase.  Beth will be going to Vanautu for several weeks with Amber to a high volume site so Amber can finish getting her numbers to become licensed.  Three days after she returns she will be going to Ecuador to assist at the birth of a client of ours who moved there.  Mid November I will be taking a midwifery student from Montana to Kiribati to get numbers and experience.  It is so nice to be in a practice with a partner so we can travel and go mission work.  Terri Young is working feverishly to get her schooling completed so she can join the practice and Beth and I are anticipating some long needed help.

New Beginnings Midwifery  (Merrilyn Reeves, LM, CPM)  Fall is upon us.  The garden is nearly done and everything else is taking a deep breath preparing for the winter.  We are happy to report that we enjoyed a busy pottery summer and are looking forward to a busy “baby” fall.  All is well at the very southern end of Region 1.

Region 2 (Middle Idaho)

Representative: Nancy Draznin, Genessee

Sherry Riener: We are very busy, and I have a student from Bastyr College that is doing her clinicals with both Cathy Ward and I.  LeAnna is a great student and I am really enjoying her.  I am going to be opening an office in Lewiston this fall where I will see midwifery clients as well as doing wellness care.  My daughter, Kashia will be receiving her certificate in Wholistic Nutrition specializing in pregnancy, lactation and postpartum and will be joining my practice.  Seems summer has just really arrived here a week ago and it's already on its way out.  I am praying for a nice long warm fall! 

Noel Leithart and Nancy Draznin:  Meanwhile, in the northern part of the region we are expecting quite a few babies this fall. The rush should begin any day now. Noel and Nancy are busily looking for a bigger office space. Nancy will be teaching a midwifery assistant training in Spokane November 7-9. Please let everyone know. Interested parties are welcome to call 208-310-3252 for more information. Nancy continues to teach prenatal yoga every Saturday which she enjoys immensely. It seems like we are all continuing to be busier than before.

We are happy to welcome Sherry Riener as our new regional representative as Nancy Draznin moves on to serving as IMC vice-president.

Region 3 (Southwest)

Representative: Coleen Goodwin, Meridian

Treasure Valley Midwives:  We would like to congratulate all the student midwives who recently sat for their NARM test in August. Taking the test is a huge accomplishment and we are sure you are all anxiously awaiting your results. We wish you well and hope to celebrate with you in some way!

Treasure Valley Midwives is very excited to be adding a new midwife to our staff. Kelly Mckittrick, CNM will be joining us in September. She is moving here from Seattle and recently graduated from the University of Washington School of Nursing. Kelly is passionate about women, families and out-of-hospital birth. We believe that Kelly will be a wonderful addition to our staff and to our state's midwifery and natural birth community. We hope you will all get a chance to meet her.

Paula is hiking the famous John Muir trail in California with her friend Marge Mansfield, a midwife in the Seattle area. This hike will take 4 weeks. We hope she is having a great time! She will return mid-September.

 We have had some challenging experiences recently, all of them piling up, one right after another. Most notably and with the biggest impact, Teresa's mother fell and suffered a very dangerous neck injury in July. This forced Teresa to take a sudden and indefinite leave of absence from the practice to care for her. We wish Teresa's mother a full recovery. It will be a very long process for her. 

We want to extend our most sincere gratitude to Janice Cook, Rose Penwell, Barb Rawlings, Donna Holmes and Annette Lewis for heeding our call for help. Janice helped us for nearly 5 weeks from mid-July to mid-August, working at clinic, taking call and attending births. All this even though she had a few at-a-distance clients of her own to care for! Rose arrived just in time to cover until the end of August at which time Barb will come and spend the first two weeks of September with us. Donna and Annette have both been able to take some back-up call for the primary midwives which is extremely helpful. Hopefully we will begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel and some resemblance of normalcy here at our birth center.

I want to offer up special thanks to Brittany for working so hard for the families of TVM. Brittany has either been on primary call or back-up call for many weeks now. Her responsibility, reliability, steadfastness and willingness to do the right thing for TVM families is such an asset. Thanks to her family as well, for supporting her in her work. Brittany's desire is to stick to her regular schedule during the summer months to be with her school age children. That did not happen this summer, in fact I think everyone got a summer vacation this year accept for Brittany. Thank you, Brittany and the Hiller family!

Our students, Violet and Kristen are doing well, developing skills and putting all their bookwork into action. They are a wonderful part of our team and our clients seem to be really enjoying them. One challenge is realizing what the life of a midwife really means. It's something you cannot ever know until you experience it. We feel like Violet and Kristen are making a wonderful transition into the world of midwifery, each bringing with them and using their own life experiences to care for our clients.                              Page 3

Our community lactation service is experiencing some slow growth. Erin, our IBCLC lactation consultant attended the annual La Leche League picnic in Meridian Saturday 8/27/11. She had a table there with information about the services she provides. Her services are open to the community, so if you have a mother-baby unit that needs help, give her a call. She offers free telephone consultation, office consults and home consults. Her services are affordable and are cash-only. Erin McCarter: 208.484.1899 erinmccarter@gmail.com.

That is some of the news from TVM. We hope the advent of fall will bring you happy harvests! My personal desire is for a long Indian summer...after the cold and wet spring that dragged out for longer than I am used to!                            – Jill Henggeler

Brenda Grogan:  We are having our 1 year anniversary of the Healthy way Inc and birth center.  It has been a very successful year and lots of babies.  Rachel will soon be getting her CPM and will be eligible for licensing.  Looking forward to a long partnership with her.  I enjoy her very much as a partner and friend. 

Rachel Miller:  Well, I am really close to getting my associates of science degree with MCU, and  planning to take the NARM  exam here in the near future.  In the meantime I have been apprenticing with a wonderful midwife and a good friend, Brenda Grogan, for almost 2 years now.  I know Brenda longer than 2 years since she got to deliver my youngest son at our home. I am looking forward to working with her for many more years to come.  

Vicki Penwell, CNM, LM:  Honoring Elizabeth Gilmore 

Mothers and babies the world over have lost a champion with the death of  Elizabeth Gilmore on Aug 7th. For those who do not know, Elizabeth founded the National College of Midwifery, and co-founded the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC).  She also founded the Northern New Mexico Midwifery Center in Taos, where I trained with her 30 years ago when I came there from Alaska to get my first midwifery license. After I graduated, Elizabeth was always my biggest fan as I worked in midwifery in Alaska, then the Philippines, and all over the world. She championed the various birth centers and schools I started, and we worked together on many projects. It is not a stretch to say that Elizabeth came up with some brilliant ideas for midwifery education and then had the energy, tenacity and far-reaching vision to see them through to reality. Elizabeth suffered from an inoperable brain tumor with humor, grace and thankfulness to all who reached out to help her during her 2 year long illness.  I would like to ask anyone who was in any way impacted by the National College of Midwifery, or any MEAC accredited program, to write a card to Elizabeth’s family to express your appreciation for her life’s work. Please address your cards to Carl Gilmore and Anna, Ezra and Jan in care of  National College of Midwifery, 209 State Road 240, Taos, NM 87571 USA

A memorial celebration of Elizabeth Gilmore's life is scheduled for 1-4 p.m. Sept. 24 in Taos, New Mexico. 

Region 4 (Southeast)

Representative: Valerie Hall, Ammon

It’s been a quiet summer in Region 4. Not that we haven’t been catching babies; there’s been plenty of that going on. In fact, we figure that this business is pretty much recession-proof. Julie Harker-Buck has attended three births as doula and is working as postpartum doula for one client currently while also teaching Lamaze classes and her classes at BYU-Idaho. She has just been accepted as a graduate student working toward a Ph.D in education through University of Idaho. It doesn’t seem that things will be slowing down for her anytime soon.

Krista Nichols has all her NARM skills signed off and has finished her clinical numbers so she’s submitting her application to take the NARM exam in February. Valerie Hall has graduated from Midwives College of Utah; she is waiting for her CPM certificate from NARM so that she can apply for licensing in Idaho and Wyoming.

Agape’ Birth Center is having a record year with numbers of clients increasing rapidly. It’s easy to see that out-of-hospital birth is becoming much more of a mainstream option. Across the country home births are up 20% from a couple of years ago and Idaho seems to be following the national trend. On October 22, Agape’ will celebrate a Grand Re-Opening of the birth center with all of the new addition completed and the decorating done. They’ve been working hard to finish up the details in preparation for that.

Election Report    

Barb Rawlings has the official election report.

2011 IMC Board Elections

39 ballots were mailed out to our voting members, 25 ballots were returned.  Results:

Vice President
Nancy Draznin  - 19
Brenda Grogan -   6

Reg. 2 representative
Sherry Riener - 25

Reg. 4 representative
Valerie Hall – 25

Membership Report    

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