Making "My Birth, My Choice" A Reality For All Women
By Christine Cupaiuolo — May 14, 2009
Today at RH Reality Check, there will be a live chat about critical access issues to homebirth for all women. The discussion starts at 12 noon (EST).
Join Feministing blogger, radical doula and RH Reality Check contributor Miriam Perez; JayVon Muhammad, certified professional midwife; and Steff Hedenkamp with The Big Push for Midwives campaign for a discussion on childbirth, midwifery and homebirth access in the United States.
Readers are welcome to join the conversation — you can ask a question or post a comment — or just read what others have to say. The chat will remain at this page, so if you miss taking part you can still read the conversation later.
Plus: U.S. Reps. Susan Davis (D-CA) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) have introduced the Medicaid Birth Center Reimbursement Act to ensure Medicaid birth center facility fee payments to states. Now is the time to ask your representatives to co-sponsor H.R. 2358, and ask your senators to sponsor a Senate version.
“So many women and their newborns rely on these birth centers for the health care services,” said Davis in a statement released on her website. “This bill would ensure continued access for women for whom, in many cases, this is their only access to these health care services.”
Earlier this month, OBOS Executive Director Judy Norsigian explained why it’s so urgent for Congress to direct the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to cover birthing centers and what you can do to help. Learn more at the American Association of Birth Centers.
Thank you so much for telling your readers about our urgent need to get birth centers covered by Medicaid. A huge number of women already depend on birth centers, especially in rural areas, for their care. More women all the time are discovering that the “program” at their local hospital results all too often in long labors that end in cesarean surgery instead of the shorter, empowering, and joyful events that routinely occur at birth centers. *Please* contact your Senators and Representatives and ask for them to sign on to bill, HR 2358. Congresspeople are hearing lots of “squeaky wheels” these days, but not enough from people who care about women and babies. We appreciate your support!
Cynthia Flynn, CNM, PhD
President, American Association of Birth Centers