Check out this letter in the Argus Leader. South Dakota advocates have been working for midwifery licensure for years. It looks like their persistance is paying off — and what a great example of an effective letter!

Dear Editors:

In response to “Home-birth advocates press pro-midwife campaign” on January 28, I am surprised that Ohio has yet to formally recognize the Certified Professional Midwife license as a standard for direct-entry midwives.

Licensed midwives provide the majority maternity care for low-risk births in many industrialized countries – all of which have better infant and maternal health rates than the United States.

Nearly all Ohioans have been born in hospitals, so it is natural for hospitalized childbirth to seem like the safest possible option. Yet, decades of research point to out-of-hospital alternatives for safe, healthy maternity care. Recently, a 2005 British Journal of Medicine study concluded that out-of-hospital births supported by midwives with clinical training have lower rates of medical intervention and equal rates of neonatal mortality as low risk births in hospital settings.

The best maternity outcomes occur when midwives, nurses, primary care doctors, and obstetricians work collaboratively to support all families through the entire range of pregnancies and deliveries.

We can begin developing this joint effort by working together to support a clear standard that recognizes the importance of clinically-trained, certified professional midwives in Ohio.

Ryan Foster

Columbus

The Cincinnati Enquirer, Dayton Daily News, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and other local papers are running an article on The Big Push for Midwives and the many states fighting the legislative battle for recognition of Certified Professional Midwives. Look for it in your paper tomorrow or online tonight!

This is a fantastic opportunity to write a letter to the editor and keep this issue in the public eye in your community.

To be most effective, and most likely to be printed your letter needs to be BRIEF (250 words or less), CLEAR, and CONCISE. Choose one main point to address, use short sentences and short paragraphs for easy reading in a newspaper column. If your letter is too long, it may be edited down before printing: it’s much better to edit it yourself first so that you choose what gets cut!

A great starting point would be one or two short sentences on why midwifery care and home birth are important to you. Then choose ONE talking point, and stick to your message:

• the economic angle - health care costs are on everyone’s mind right now, and midwives are a great money-saver
• the safety angle - despite ACOG’s position - which is not evidence-based - research shows that home birth is a safe choice for healthy women with qualified midwives
• the access angle - Ohio families are having home births — over 1000 last year — but Ohio is one of the 25 states that does NOT recognize Certified Professional Midwives. If you are in Cincinnati, you could mention the closing of Midwives’ Care as indicative of our access problem

Things to avoid:

• spending too much time talking about your birth story - the “opposition” regularly stereotypes home birth families as putting experience over safety
• criticism of doctors and hospitals - we want to put out a positive message, not a negative one

Please send us a copy of your letter to the editor at safebirthohio@gmail.com - even if your paper doesn’t print it, we’ll put it on the Safe Birth Blog!