At a key moment when maternal/child health, morbidities, and mortalities are being discussed in national health care arenas, birthing people and midwives are not being included in those discussions.
Portland, Maine is the home of MANA’s 36th Annual Midwives Conference! Mark your calendars now for Oct. 11 - 14, the height of the Fall Foliage Season, and come enjoy all that this coastal community has to offer for #MANA18!
It was 1982. I was unexpectedly pregnant with my first child (why it was unexpected I don’t really know… the diaphragm was in the drawer instead of where it belonged). I came across Spiritual Midwifery and heard the word midwife for the first time in my life. A midwife cost $500 and a doctor $3,000. It wasn’t such a hard decision really for someone with very little money and no insurance. Paying off that midwife and birth center took two years, AND, I was privileged enough to be able to access this care when so many others couldn’t or didn’t even know it existed.
MANA is honored to represent midwives and the women and people that we serve. We are deeply committed to having meaningful conversation within the midwifery community about how we can begin to repair our collective wounds, address glaring disparities impacting our membership, recognize our history as an organization, and move forward.
MANA is a national midwifery organization that recognizes and represents ALL midwives regardless of credential and pathway; MANA is working hard to make midwifery more inclusive. MANA conferences are designed to encourage mutual solidarity, respect, and learning.
Do you have an opinion about the best way to care for people during pregnancy and birth? Does it concern you that one in three US births are by cesarean section? Are you horrified at the knowledge that the US is the only country in the entire world with a rising maternal death rate, and that those statistics are driven by a black maternal death rate quadruple that of white women? Do you have an opinion? Of course you do, you’re a midwife!
It is beautiful to watch the extreme generosity of midwives in Texas and Louisiana toward each other and most especially toward birthing families. No one is asking, “What kind of midwife are you?” Midwives, regardless of credential, are working together to provide care to displaced families.
The state of Texas has temporarily lifted licensure requirements for those who are licensed in other states to come to help with disaster relief. Learn more here.
