AZDHS Archives - Phoenix Arizona Homebirth Midwife Freedom and the Seed Midwifery

So much gratitude!

November 25, 2015 by Freedom and the Seed

This year I have SO much to be grateful for!

LOVE is number one. I have so much love in my life I can hardly believe my luck. Family, Friends, Mamas, Papas, Babies, Midwives and the list grows… Especially with all the events of the last year, the outpouring of LOVE was mind-blowing!

May love surround you and hold you and sustain you!

Health. The older I get the more grateful I am for the body I was given. I am exceedingly grateful for the healers surrounding me. Each one has effected my life is huge ways. I desire to be a whole person – body, heart and spirit.

May your health grow stronger everyday!

Midwifery. My passion. My profession. I love what I do everyday for every family. It is a joy and a privilege to bear witness of each life crossing the veil. It is a privilege to witness women and men transformed to mothers and fathers. It is a privilege to be let in to the intimate spaces of so many lives.

May you find your passion and privilege!

Challenges. I am eternally grateful for the challenges in my life because that is when growth will occur. AzDHS, my biggest challenge, I am grateful for you.

May you see your challenges as your biggest blessing!

Possibilities. The future is so bright. I sit and wonder everyday what is next? what is possible? Life is full and rich and exciting!

May all your possibilities be at the forefront of your mind, exciting your very being!

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!!

And the AzDHS beat goes on…

November 16, 2015 by Freedom and the Seed

The out pouring of love and support over the last week has been humbling to say the least! Thank you to all who called, texted, face booked, drew pictures, wrote poems. I felt protected and loved. I never once felt alone.

The update you all have been waiting for…

The case is not closed, so I can not say much. Sorry for the disappointment. I wish I could tell you every beautiful, amazing, difficult, painful, victorious moment but we had to continue for another day due to the length of the witness list and the testimonies given.

What I will say is my lawyer is F*cking awesome!!! Julie is a true barer of justice and fairness. She is eloquent and wise. She is posed and polished. I can not sing her praises enough. She has given and given and given to our cause. Not just to me and other midwives individually but to our very movement. COUNTLESS HOURS! Any other lawyer would have charged us literally $10’s of thousands of dollars. Julie discounts and pro-bonos whenever and however she can. But she still needs paid. There are still court costs. There are still filing fees and transcriptions and court reporters and and and…. It is unbelievable how much it cost to fight for justice. The Dept of Health is using your tax dollars to pay for their lawyers to fight against your midwives. It churns my stomach to think about it. And your midwives, who make pennies have to start campaigns and beg for pro bono work to have defense. THE INJUSTICE!!!

I say all this because going to another day means more money. I am asking for your help now. We have 2 fundraisers going on that you can give through or you can give directly to me or my lawyer. Here are the two online ways… Gofundme Crowdrise

My promise to you is to keep you posted. I promise to let you know when the continuing trial is set for.

Thank you again for all the love! ~ Wendi

Today’s Court Battle

November 13, 2015 by Freedom and the Seed

I go to court today to fight for each and every woman, mother, family. Hands tied

I go to court today to say women have the right to bodily autonomy.

I go to court today to fight for mother’s rights to make sound decisions for their body and their baby.

I go to court today to stand up the AZDHS and their stance that woman can not decline certain tests.

I go to court today to say I will not force or coerce my clients into taking tests and receiving treatments THEY DO NOT NEED OR WANT!

I go to court today so women can say no when they mean no.

I go to court today to say I will not abandon my healthy client.

I go to court today to demand continuity of care be the standard of care.
I go to court today for you.

I go to court today for me.

I go to court today for every midwife in this state.

Enough is enough.

Do no harm but take no shit.

Stand with me, and with our collective energy, we can make a powerful change!

And the Battle still continues with AZDHS…

November 11, 2015 by Freedom and the Seed

I am sure you have heard a lot of buzz around the Arizona Association of Midwives filing a lawsuit against the AZ Dept of Health Services. If you haven’t, read my last post to catch up!

Did you know that individual midwives continue their own private battle in the court room? In the last several months we have seen 3 midwives in court fighting to keep their licenses to practice midwifery.

This Friday Nov. 13th I go to court AGAIN to fight to keep mine. The reason: I did not abandon care and leave my client without a care provider.

It has been almost a year to the date of the last time I was in court defending my license. If you have not read about that crazy case please go back to my post Battle with AZDHS. We are seriously talking crazy pants here.

If you read the first go round then you can almost press repeat in the scenario that will unfold again this Friday.

Not only is this a waste of everyone’s time and resources, this is a waste of YOUR TAX MONEY!!! You should be outraged!

The last time in court, about a month ago, there were 3-4 attorney from the Attorney General’s office present. ALL of them paid by for your tax dollars. All to help defend the dept stance on mandatory testing. 4 lawyers for 4 hours, plus the 3-4 people present from DHS. That’s a lot of money spent to defend the departments stance on not allowing patient autonomy.

I wonder how many will show up to my case??? I will keep you posted…

The Battle with AzDHS Continues…

November 10, 2015 by Freedom and the Seed

Last week we saw a landmark event take place among the midwives of AZ and the Dept of Health.

After years of watching AZ midwives try SO hard and without much success to create change by working with the AZ Department of Health, we have finally stood our ground and said that we will no longer stand for their inappropriate and illegal management of midwifery regulation. Thank you so much to the midwives, student midwives, doulas, and consumers that stood bravely on the steps of AzDHS as we made this historic announcement.

I am sure the news and social media buzz has already reached you, but just in case you’ve been hibernating here is the scoop! You can check out the following news sources – 3TV Cronkite KJZZ NewTimes News12

On Thursday, November 5th, with support of midwife members and unanimous vote by the board, AAM filed legal action against AzDHS/Cara Christ. The decision to take this action was a serious one and was not considered lightly. We understand the potential pitfalls but firmly believe the positives that may come out of this action are worth the risk. This legal action, called a declaratory judgement, seeks to to four main things.

Stop the illegal investigation into midwives charts that contain private health information.

Stop the aggressive enforcement of new rules that illegally reduced the midwives’ scope of practice.

Relieve midwives of the increased administrative burden.

Stop the enforcement of unconstitutional midwifery laws that violate the right to refuse vaginal exams, STI testing, and medical treatment.

There is a LOT of work to be done as we wait for the legal process to unfold. It is expected tha
t it will be months before we see the results of this lawsuit.

—Facebook group Unite AZ Midwives Hands We will be posting updates and future actions

—Contact Dir. Cara Christ, AG Mark Brnovich and Gov. Doug Ducey with your views on the points above

—Watch for media coverage, share news stories and comment on the media’s pages referencing the lawsuit whenever you see a story about midwives

—Watch online for blogs and comment to correct any errors, refer people to Unite AZ Midwives Hands for further action

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