Organization:

Arizona Birth Network

Location:

Greater Phoenix and Flagstaff, Arizona

Cause:

The Arizona Birth Network is a non-profit organization committed to helping women and families have safe and fulfilling pregnancy and birth experiences while empowering them in their role as health care consumers. We promote an awareness of evidence-based care and informed decision-making through advocacy, education and support via monthly meetings throughout the valley, moderating an e-mail community open to all, and providing a forum for families to access local birth professionals.

How Funds Would Be Used:

We expect funds to be used in a way that directly benefits birthing families; The Arizona Birth Network is an all-volunteer organization.  We achieve this by holding monthly meetings and workshops where birthing professionals and local women are able to openly discuss issues within a trusted network of support.  We publish a free quarterly newsletter, which contains researched articles, evidence-based information, community events, information on women-centered practitioners and general education opportunities for childbirth professionals, helping to connect women with valuable health care services.  By utilizing current information, updated resources, and a united community, we aspire to provide support to all women and families seeking optimal birth experiences.

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Organization:

Arizona Association of Midwives

Location:

Phoenix, Arizona

Cause:

There are over 50 licensed midwives serving the communities of Arizona (according to the Az. Dept. of Health Assurance and Licensure Services). In 1995, the licensed midwives began the Arizona Association of Midwives with 8 goals...

1. To encourage communication between midwives.

2. To develop educational programs and support for midwives, related to professionals and consumers.

3. To educate the public and other professionals regarding midwifery and home birth as a safe alternative in maternity care.

4. To support legislation in favor of midwifery, childbirth alternatives and the rights of the childbearing family.

5. To enhance dialogue between midwives and other health professionals.

6. To continue to improve the standards of care midwives uphold.

7. To facilitate the peer review process among midwives as an action which demonstrates the responsibility we take for the quality of care we provide.

8. To work in collaboration with other maternity care providers in an effort to improve the overall perinatal outcomes in Arizona.

How Funds Would Be Used:

AAM would like to use the funds for our legal fund.  Currently, AAM is in the process of trying to get AHCCS to include Licensed Midives in their contracted plans for re-imbursment.  Currently, 85% of AZ mothers delivered under an AHCCS plan.  These same mothers are not able to choose to have a homebirth with a licensed midwife under these plans.  AAM upholds the right of every pregnant mother to choose her care provider and where she gives birth.  To this end, this includes mothers with ACHHS provided health insurance.

Website:

Organization:

Robin Lim's "Yayasan Bumi Sehat" Foundation

Location:

Bali and Aceh

Cause:

Robin Lim's "Yayasan Bumi Sehat" (Healthy Mother Earth) foundation is an Indonesian non-profit organization, which gives gentle birth services to villages in Bali (and now also in the tsunami-ravaged Aceh province).

In many areas of Indonesia, gentle birth is essentially unknown. "Brutal" is the word that Robin uses.  Hospital services leave something to be desired, and hospital costs remain so high that the average village family cannot afford them.

Local midwives also use less than optimal methods. In addition to the lack of a clean birthing environment and invasive procedures, breast feeding is not supported and questionable population control methods (IUD, contraceptive implant, etc.)  are enforced.

Robin and her foundation provides gentle and culturally sensitive birth at home or at her clinic, breast feeding support, and family choice family planning.  She provides prenatal care and education, prenatal vitamins, labor support, delivery, and post partum care. She is training Indonesian midwives in gentle birth protocols, how not to spread disease, including universal AIDS prevention.

How Funds Would Be Used:

“Ibu” (grandmother) Robin Lim is a Certified Professional Midwife, a respected author and a world-class poet, with a passion for delivering babies with modern methods while at the same time respecting ancient rituals and traditions.

Her Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Health Mother Earth) Foundation has for years operated a birthing and mother-baby health clinic in Bali, Indonesia.

In 2004 her organization responded to the Indian Ocean tsunami, which inundated the coastal regions of Aceh province in Indonesia, which was one of the worst natural disasters of all time.

Since then, she runs two mother/baby and emergency medical clinics, 1,000 miles apart. She has received regional and global recognition, and remains committed to changing the world through the gentle birth of one baby at a time.

 Donating to her organization will help provide supplies to Robin Lim and all the mother's she serves.

Website:

Organization:

Midwives for International Research and Aid (MIRA)

Location:

U.S./Arizona/Chiapas Mexico

Cause:

Midwives for International Research and Aid sponsors midwives to work in countries with high rates of maternal mortality. MIRA sponsors student midwives of color in educational activities to better enable them to study and serve their communities as well as projects aimed specifically at studies of maternal health and midwifery laws in Arizona and the rest of the United States. Currently, MIRA is working with Luna Maya Casa de Partos in Chiapas, Mexico to assist in sponsorship of women who are homeless and living at a local organization (La Hogar Communitario). MIRA is also working in Chiapas, Mexico sponsoring training programs for the traditional midwives and local health care workers in emergency procedures with an aim to lower the high rate of maternal mortality in the indigenous community of Tenejapa, Chiapas Mexico.

How Funds Would Be Used:

MIRA wants to keep alive that tradition of natural birth and education for mothers. Part of that tradition is global awareness of maternal health in other countries and how to help improve outcomes as well as adequate training of midwives to ensure that midwifery care remains the best care that a woman can obtain during her pregnancy. National midwifery organizations such as MANA and NARM have demonstrated conclusively that professional midwives are trained in the mother-friendly model. Midwives find themselves to be unable to often secure funding for necessary training and education. As part of the mother-friendly initiative, we believe that options for birthing mothers is a fundamental human right. This option should include midwives who are trained in emergency procedures and testable skills.

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Organization:

Arizona Postpartum Wellness Coalition

Location:

Phoenix/Tucson

Cause:

We are a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about perinatal mood disorders and to reducing negative outcomes through support, information and education.  We provide a FREE Warmline for mothers and professionals to access resources and to receive peer support over the phone.  We hold a biannual professional training on perinatal mood disorders to teach health care professionals about the illness and how to treat it. We also produce, print and provide a brochure about perinatal mood disorders to health care providers and families.

How Funds Would Be Used:

Several ongoing expenses can be met with funding:

The cost of printing and disbursing the perinatal mood disorders brochure: "What Every New Parent Should Know"

To support the cast and production of "In the Shadow of My Son" by Nadine Bernard.  This play was produced twice in Tucson and is a moving story about he playwrights own postpartum depression.  Our organization would like to provide this play in concert with a Postpartum Depression conference in the Phoenix area.

Additionally, a Coalition in Tucson received funding from Pima County to provide free doula care to moms with postpartum depression.  This program has been very well received and successful.  The APWC would like the opportunity to offer such free care in Maricopa County.  Many of our calls for support on the  Warmline come from Maricopa.  Providing FREE in home doula care would be a wonderful adjunct to support and treatment for postpartum depression.  Our program also offers an annual (and sometimes biannuall) 2-day professional training on perinatal depression (the next one will be in the fall of 2008). Although there is a fee to attend, and also continuing education credits are granted, we provide complementary tuition to providers (like doulas) who will provide the FREE doula care to postpartum depressed women.  We want them to be armed with all the information they will need on perinatal mood disorders when they go to the homes of women postpartum.

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