ACTION ALERTS: BUILDING THE OFSB DATABASE
Thought for the month: A campaign is not the same as an organization. A campaign is formed with the goal of winning. A campaign must move forward every day, closer to the goal.
Introducing OFSB’s Monthly Action Alert!
Action Alerts are for everyone you know who supports Ohio families’ right to choose out-of-hospital, midwifery care. It’s for those who don’t have the time or inclination to be part of the behind-the-scenes strategizing, but DO want to know what simple steps they can take to help make midwifery licensure a reality in Ohio. Every month, we will send out an Action Alert email to everyone in our database. It will include instructions for a quick (ten minutes or less), easy action that everyone can do to help move our licensure campaign forward. We will also use our database to organize targeted action alerts when grassroots support must be mobilized in particular legislative districts.
To effectively lobby for a midwifery licensure bill, we first need to grow our grassroots network. Midwifery supporters in every legislative district in Ohio must join forces so that we can effectively coordinate our campaign for licensure.
Our first goal: 10,000 names in our database by the end of the year.
To kick off our database drive, the August Action Alert is 8 in 8/08 - we’re asking everyone to take ten minutes this month to invite at least eight people to support the CPM licensure campaign by signing up for OFSB Action Alerts. If each of them also signs up eight people, we’ll reach our goal in no time! There will be regular progress updates on the website and prizes for refering the most new supporters to our database.
It’s easy to sign up for OFSB Action Alerts. Just fill in the form on the OFSB website.
Please take a few minutes to think of at least eight people who might be willing to write a short letter to their legislator or make a brief phone call in support of a midwifery licensure bill. Remember that we need to recruit friends and family who support Ohio families’ continued access to out-of-hospital midwifery care even if they did not choose home birth themselves.
Consider using the text below in the letter to your eight friends and family members. The task will be too much for us unless we open our arms wide and invite in all those who care about us and care about choosing their own best care providers.
In Ohio, 1000 mothers a year choose to give birth at home. Families choose home birth for many reasons. Home birth with a trained midwife is a safe choice for healthy, low-risk pregnancies. A pregnant woman’s choice of place of birth and care provider is a fundamental right.
Currently, Ohio has no regulation for direct-entry, home birth midwives. Midwives have served Ohio families for years without regulation. But recently, due to pressure from physician groups, the legal climate has changed. Midwives providing home birth care in Ohio are being prosecuted and forced out of practice.
Ohio Families for Safe Birth wants to change that. We need to protect women’s access to out-of-hospital maternity care by licensing Certified Professional Midwives.
Join us and help make sure that every woman in Ohio who chooses home birth can have access to a licensed Certified Professional Midwife.
For more information: www.safebirthohio.org


