Spring is the perfect time for renewal and budding ideas. The Midwives Alliance Board of Directors took advantage of this fertile time to hold our annual spring board meeting. Together, we narrowed down our 2015-16 initiatives, including:

• US MERA. The United States Midwifery Education, Regulation and Association meeting was held the weekend before our Spring board meeting. Our delegates who attended came back optimistic and full of good news for the future of US MERA and collaboration between the 7 organizations. The work of coming together and finding common ground is always challenging and rewarding in equal measure, and there is still much work to be done. MANA will continue to communicate with members about our work with US MERA as we move forward.
• Our recent decision to make the official policy of MANA to require voting members to be credentialed midwives. MANA has received a warm response to this change and a recognition that this is a celebration of the CPM, honoring the many founders of MANA and the midwives who envisioned and created a credential that would validate the apprenticeship model. MANA is deeply committed to advancing midwifery and moving the CPM forward.
• The challenges of being a board of working midwives who volunteer by putting many unpaid hours into MANA. The joy of the Midwives Alliance is that it is based on community and grassroots work. Our founders did (and still do, many of them!) so many hours of work that we have found ourselves to be quite a force - many good things have come from MANA since we were born in 1982. We work on behalf of midwives who are an invaluable resource for our society and for change in maternity care, and we take great pride in giving of ourselves to the community. We also recognize, unfortunately, the risk of burn out. While we also recognize the privilege involved with being able to give many volunteer hours, the majority of us actually are NOT privileged enough to stop working to do full time volunteer work. And yet we truly want the voice of ALL midwives to be at the MANA table. As the Midwives Alliance faces the competition of corporate interests that may be better funded, we want to continue our work in advocating for quality research and recognition of ALL midwives. In order to do this, we truly need YOUR help.

There is an opening right now on the MANA Board of Directors! The position of Secretary will be filled by appointment as we accept letters of interest, conduct interviews and strive to find a member midwife with appropriate skills and enthusiasm for the future of the Midwives Alliance. Download the MANA Board Job Descriptions here, and contact Sarita if you are interested. 

MANA strategic directions for 2015-2017

We identified the following areas as key initiatives for the Midwives Alliance, and are working to plan the actions needed for implementation, to be initiated at our Fall 2015 board meeting in October.This is exciting work! Among the directions are:

• The Division of Research. Funding and furthering the ability of the Research committee members in their organizational capacity. 
• Organizational development for MANA. Reaching out to membership and working on skill-based board positions as the new board structure of MANA.
• Professional development for our students and midwives. More webinars and conference/networking opportunities. 
• Policy. MANA continues planning for training and outreach in the arenas of policy, advocacy, and legislation. By partnering with Elephant Circle for training in legislation and equity work and the creation of a specific board position for policy and advocacy, MANA is working on a vision for how we can better represent midwives at state and national levels and in collaborative endeavors with other organizations. 
• Conference. MANA conferences are a touchstone for midwives. We are growing into the new age of technology and will be implementing better registration, a new director position that uniquely focuses on conference and events, and coordinated effort between all the MANA Board of Directors to make the annual MANA conferences accessible and full of opportunity (we can't wait to see you in Albuquerque in October!). 
• Communications. MANA has a stellar communications team that wants to reach out to YOU, our members and friends, to ensure that you are always involved in our work, aware of new research or midwives in the news, and to disseminate the information of policy work or other MANA initiatives. The communications team also ensures that our Division of Research has a voice of advocacy in the face of enormous public pressure. MANA communications is doing great work.

Access and Equity - the overarching umbrella

Finally, and as we have done since MANA was envisioned in 1982, we continue discussion around the necessity of working for inclusion and equity for all midwives to feel at home as members of MANA. The MANA board has come to realize that we are finally at a place where our framework has shifted, and an understanding that social justice is not one unique place in the organization, but is the lens through which we do all of our work. It includes thoughtful consideration of how better to help midwives in states that are not legal, students who don't have access to education, midwives who are in the margins or from vulnerable populations who desire more equity in the profession of midwifery, and midwives who aren't able to make fair wages. MANA has worked hard and shifted more than we ever thought we could to make this happen. 

We are justly proud of more than 30 years of work on recognition for all midwives, with inspired midwives who grew the Midwives Alliance to this place where we can say that midwives have created innovative education and associations while protecting and promoting Normal Physiologic Birth and Breastfeeding. We continue to be innovative and progressive and stay attuned to the times. MANA has been diligently rebuilding our structure to be more efficient with our resources, to meet the needs of a younger generation that is wanting more technological access to information, to continue the data collection that is used DAILY by midwives working on legislation, to recognize that the issues of inequities in midwifery (both in access to the profession as well as the families we serve) must be addressed NOW, and also to continue to be the voice at national tables that is thoughtful to the needs of all midwives.

MANA is here to serve you, and we are tenderly reaching out in the spirit of unity and friendship. As the current President of the Midwives Alliance I reaffirm our commitment to you, and ask that you consider joining MANA in our efforts – join as a member, join the board, our committees, volunteer or intern with us. I hope that you will support the initiatives you care about the most in whatever way you can, and in particular recognize that our Division of Research needs your support to continue their dedicated work in data collection and compelling research. As more and more midwives participate in MANA Stats and other organizations wish to collaborate on larger data collectives, I must appeal for your generosity on behalf of MANA's Division of Research to meet the goal of expanding their capacity so that midwives can continue to prove their competence and expertise in natural birth. Please send a donation earmarked for the DOR today.

Thank you for your friendship. With your help we will continue the work of research and advocacy for Every Midwife.

The Midwives Alliance: Unifying Midwives since 1982.

Thank you,

Marinah Farrell