I just got this news from CA Families for Access to Midwifery (CFAM). What great news for midwives and all birthing families.
“We are delighted to announce that after hundreds of calls, emails, visits, and countless volunteer hours, Governor Brown has signed AB1308 into law!
Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, who authored the bill, deserves much thanks and credit for her responsiveness and her unwavering commitment to involving families in the evolution of this new law. We’d also like to thank her amazing staff for their diligence!
With Assemblywoman Bonilla’s leadership, the tireless advocacy of California Association of Midwives’ Constance Rock and Sarah Davis, and YOUR resounding and relentless support, we have managed to #freeourmidwives!
Thanks to YOU, California has broken through a 20-year stalemate with the medical establishment, and our state now recognizes licensed midwives as autonomous providers for the first time in history! Break out the champagne!
On a practical level, this means that California will now:
- Eliminate the requirement for licensed midwives to have physician supervision, thus removing the primary legal impediment to accessing out-of-hospital maternity care for Medi-Cal recipient families.
- Authorize state licensure for alternative birth centers operated by licensed midwives. This will make it more difficult for private insurance companies to get out of paying for birth center delivery.
- Authorize licensed midwives to obtain and administer necessary drugs and diagnostic tests that are an important part of comprehensive care.
- Provide a definition of normal birth that preserves access to midwifery care for over 90% of pregnant women.
- Protect midwives from being prosecuted for DOING THEIR JOB and providing the care families deserve!
We still have more work to do, and we’ll continue to rely on you for support as we move forward. The regulatory process needs to be monitored; Medi-Cal needs to be guided through the process of complying with the new law; and the public needs to be made aware of their new options for care. But before we do that, please take a moment to congratulate yourself and the women in your life—your sister, your daughter, the random pregnant lady at the farmer’s market—on this historic victory for midwifery care in California!
We are planning several celebrations across the state in the next few weeks, so stay tuned! In the meantime, please give us a boost by making a donation of $25 or more in celebration of this victory! Your financial support is the fuel in our engine, and we can only go as far as you push us!
Thank you for everything. CFAM did not exist at all until six months ago, and look at what we have accomplished together! Let’s keep moving this train forward!
With sincere gratitude (and joy!),
Adeola Adeseun
Treesa Mclean
Jennifer Heystek
Tanya Smith-Johnson”
