Midwifery Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Phoenix Arizona Homebirth Midwife Freedom and the Seed Midwifery

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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Calling all lovers of midwives – Rally at AZDHS!!!

November 4, 2015 by Freedom and the Seed

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Arizona Association of Midwives (AAM), with the support of community members and everyday families of Arizona will rally in front of the Arizona Department of Health Services, at 11am Thursday, November 5, 2015 to demand that the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), along with the State of Arizona elected officials, including Governor Ducey, stop the bureaucratic persecution of, and instead, publicly support the Midwives of Arizona in providing safe preconception, prenatal, labor and birth, and postpartum care to the families of Arizona. The rally will coincide with a special announcement by AAM.

Arizona midwives want to provide safe and ethical, evidence-based care to the growing families in our state. ADHS has said they just want compliance with their rules. ADHS relies on said rules to coerce and force people into mandatory medical care, mandatory testing, and mandatory vaginal exams, mandatory hospital transports for non-emergent or contained emergency situations.
IF a midwifery client declines any of these, they are no longer legally allowed to be cared for by an Arizona Licensed Midwife. Not in that moment and not for the rest of their pregnancy or postpartum. Midwives have protecting their clients from these mandates and the response from ADHS has been to threaten, harass and persecute.

Midwives are being persecuted and harassed for providing safe, evidenced-based and consensual care to their clients. Since the new rules and regulations for Licensed Midwives came into effect in 2013, 22 midwives of the 74 currently licensed in AZ have been sanctioned by the ADHS for any number of “offenses.” These offenses include respecting their client’s ability to opt out of testing, procedures, hospital transfers or for continuing to see their clients after resolved complications.

ADHS current interpretation and enforcement of midwifery rules is in direct conflict with the midwifery model of respecting clients rights to low intervention practices and informed choice.

This is shameful and illegal!

AZDHS and the State of Arizona need to stop persecuting midwives and need to start embracing them as a means to reduce infant and maternal mortality in the state by way of providing thorough and professional maternity care at home and outside of the hospital.

The Arizona Association of Midwives is taking action on behalf of all growing families in the state to ensure that their healing hands are not tied with red tape when it comes time to welcome new life into this world.

Please join us at the rally, come hear the announcement, stay informed!

See our FaceBook invite for more details!

To read my personal account visit blog post Battle with AZDHS.

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Our Birth Stories

November 2, 2015 by Freedom and the Seed

Our stories are one of the most powerful things we own. It is the essence of who we are.

What our stories say.

What we learn from our stories.

How we tell our stories.

Who we tell our stories to.

We are impacted.

Others are impacted.

Our birth stories, even more. In a culture that is terrified of birth, we hold the power of life. In every birth story you hold the ability to empower yourself and others.

Births that did not play out the story we were hoping are especially important to tell and process in safe spaces.

FATS Mama Circles (both Gilbert and PHX) will be holding a safe space this week to process and tell your story. ALL stories are welcome in our circle. We will use the tool of art to help us process and work through our births.

For the Mamas who have not yet birthed. You have heard countless stories and have a story in your head that is playing continually as to how your birth will go. You are welcome in this circle. Come explore the stories you have been told. Come dig into the story you are playing in your head of the dreams of your birth.

Gilbert FATS Mama Circle is Nov 3 12-2 See the event on Facebook.

Phoenix FATS Mama Circle is Nov 6 10-12 See the event on Facebook.

If you are interested in more birth stories this is a great site!