Quickening Summer 2013 Vol 44, No 3

Volume 44 Number 3 Summer 2013 Official Newsletter of the American College of Nurse-Midwives

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Midwives, Other Clinicians Honored for Significant Service to Midwifery and Women

New Consumer Document, Web Site Promote Physiologic Birth

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by Melissa Garvey, ACNM Senior Writer-Editor

Tekoa L. King, winner of the Hattie Hemschemeyer Award

Terrah Stroda, winner of the Kitty Ernst Award

ast year, US midwifery organizations worked together to release the nation’s first ever consensus statement on supporting healthy and normal physiologic childbirth. After the statement’s release, ACNM convened a task force to use this historic document to maximize the opportunity for promoting physiologic birth. The resulting Physiologic Birth Task Force consists of 3 subcommittees: • The Toolkit Subcommittee charged with creating practical tools for clinicians to initiate change at the grassroots level, • The Consumer Subcommittee working on materials to promote physiologic birth among women and their families, and • The Maternity Care System Subcommittee looking for national indicators and quality markers to measure the current status and rate of change in the US maternity care system. Released at the ACNM 58th Annual Meeting & Exhibition in Nashville, the first outcome from the task force’s work is a consumer handout entitled Normal, Healthy Childbirth for Women & Families: What You Need to Know. The new handout takes the original physiologic birth consensus statement and explains what women and families need to know in plain English. If you missed the release at the Annual Meeting, you can access the handout any time from the scrolling images on www.ourmomentoftruth.com—home to ACNM’s consumer initiative Our Moment of Truth™: A New Understanding of Midwifery Care. “A lot of work and expertise went into developing the new consumer handout,” said Tanya Tanner, CNM, co-chair of the Consumer Subcommittee. “We’re thrilled to finally have a clear, evidence-based

Susan Sizemore and Victoria H. Burslem, winners of the Dorothea M. Lang Pioneer Award

See all award winners on page 16

Midwives Have Perfect Pitch in Nashville

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ith 1930 participants and a sold-out exhibit hall, 2013 was a record-breaking year for the ACNM Annual Meeting & Exhibition. The energy on-site and on social media communities was palpable, bolstered by the more than 400 students in attendance— double the amount of previous years’ averages. Nashville drew midwifery icons, including Ina May Gaskin and the Continued on page 20
Quickening Summer 2013

resource on normal physiologic birth designed especially for women and families.” Judy Lothian, RN, PhD, co-chair of the Consumer Subcommittee agrees. “This new document is endorsed by all the major midwifery organizations in the United States, including ACNM, the Midwives Alliance of North America, and the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives. We hope to add more endorsing agencies soon.” Also unveiled in a special session at the ACNM 58th Annual Meeting was a preview of the work of the Toolkit Subcommittee. This group has been working on a new Web site called BirthTOOLS—an acronym that stands for Tools for Optimizing Outcomes of Labor Safely— slated for launch in fall 2013. “BirthTOOLS is intended to reach clinicians and health care staff looking to make an impact at the grassroots level,” said Lisa Kane Low, CNM, chair of the Toolkit Subcommittee. “As we develop the Web site, we are incorporating real, pragmatic resources and case studies designed to help staff implement change in their own facilities.” The new site will be hosted on its own domain, independent of any organizational Web site, to maximize its influence on the health care community beyond just midwives. Continued on page 36

What’s Inside
Track Legislation Online.................. 9 Redefining “Term”.......................... 11 Our Moment of TruthTM................... 14 Benchmarking................................ 22 Diversification and Inclusion.......... 24 Region Realignment...................... 29 Listening to Mothers....................... 35
www.midwife.org

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