Happy Holidays from Across the PushNation!

As 2021 comes to a close, we just want to share a note of deep gratitude for your support of the Big Push for Midwives, the campaign to secure regulation and license laws for Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 U.S. States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.

Thanks to your generous hearts that carry the flame of our collective dream of a safer, less-costly model of maternity care in the U.S, we are making big strides!

ICYMI, Illinois just became the 37th legal state in the U.S. for CPMs! We are STILL feeling the ripple effects and hearing the shouts of JOY! As one grassroots advocate on the ground in Illinois said of their herculean efforts, "So much like birth! Over 40 years gestating, laboring and then pushing forever, and then swish it was out." Forty years! Let that sink in. The good folks in Illinois still have work to do to create their rules and regulations, and they'd love any end-of-year donations! (Heck, so would Iowa, Georgia, Ohio, and Massachusetts!) 

(For you history buffs, the Big Push for Midwives Campaign was conceived in Illinois in November 2007 and born in January 2008 in Chicago, at a news conference that we deliberately sited around the corner from the HQ of the AMA, historic and ongoing source of anti-midwife defamation. Boo!)

To all of you who push so hard in the Make Way For Midwives Movement, we absolutely SEE YOU. Your huge hearts and perseverance fill us with awe and humility. We know that communities that support birth license CPMs, and you are the heartbeat of our state coalitions pushing for increased access to CPMs, and community and out-of-hospital birth. You are the midwives and consumers who are the foremost change agents in the U.S. birth community, and we are so very fortunate you are in our Big Push community of heroes!

Thanks to all of our supporters for holding us up through this time as we continue to develop, advance, and support this incredible ecosystem of courageous leaders. We could not push on without you!

If you have not donated yet this year, there is still time to empower parents and families with increased access to out-of-hospital birth options. Thanks to the Uncle Sam, most taxpayers are entitled to a deduction of up to $300 on charitable donations made in 2021. (Note: married couples filing jointly can claim up to $600 in 2021.)

CLICK TO DONATE

---

The Big Push for Midwives Campaign holds a new vision of U.S. maternity care: better outcomes for moms and babies, and greatly expanded access in the nation to Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) and the full range of birth options. We work to bring CPMs out from underground economies in some states and fully integrate them into the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (RMNCH) Continuum of Care in other states.

Give a little. Push a lot.

The Big Push for Midwives
https://pushformidwives.org

          

---

PUSHING FOR CPM REGULATION + INTEGRATION

Your tax-deductible, year-end gift will help the Big Push advance the national, grassroots movement for Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) by:

• Providing and maintaining a forum for our state organizations to come together, share ideas, strategize, and develop education and advocacy material for use by all PushStates.
• Drafting timely news releases and distributing to media sources nationwide for positive stories, and providing responses to combat negative stories.
• Being the biggest cheerleader for weary and discouraged state leaders!
• Checking, upon request, our partner organizations' proposed bill language for any errors or mistakes and providing strategy for specific, on-the-ground situations.
• Providing critiques, upon request, of our organizations' methods, websites, newsletters, and action alerts, for increased effectiveness.
• Regularly updating the Big Push for Midwives website and social media, as well as the new Where's My Midwife? crowdmap, website, and podcast, in order to keep the public informed about what is happening in the various states and on the national level.
• Providing safe space so the PushNation can get together, share, strategize, and be refreshed in the work, often described as Sisyphean.
  
  

---

Stay Connected

The Big Push for Midwives Campaign is fiscally sponsored by Sustainable Markets Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The Big Push works to increase access to Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), the only U.S. healthcare providers with required training in out-of-hospital maternity care. If you haven’t already, please sign-up for PushAlerts here.