Midwives Alliance: Celebrating What YOU Bring To Midwifery

Midwives are NOT all the same, and MANA celebrates their difference. 

This drives our strategic priorities for 2015:

• Support for midwives who wish to continue their fight for autonomous practice

• Legalization of the CPM in all states

• Access to training for all midwives to meet the unique needs of their communities

• Equity in the profession and calling that is birth work.

We are proud that our volunteer board is composed of: CPMs, LMs, CNMs, a CM, and a DO, midwives from every educational pathway. We are working hard in a consensus model to help midwives have a stronger national voice and presence. 

Here’s how we want to work with you and for you in 2015.

Deeper connections to our membership.

We are planning many new ways for members to stay connected to MANA’s work in 2015!

• Online workshops and webinars with CEUs,

• Virtual Town Hall meetings to talk about issues of concern to midwives and to hear the voices of our members

• Division of Research updates to share the exciting work of the DOR and to encourage everyone to learn about and contribute to data collection.

• Ongoing improvements in our website to better reflect your interest in technology and social media as a tool for sharing information

• Updating our essential documents and preparing more position papers on topics and issues of interest to midwives and clients, including waterbirth.

Representing YOUR voice at the national level.

The Midwives Alliance amplifies YOUR voice at national midwifery and public health conferences and in coalitions that bring partner midwifery organizations together such as US MERA and the Allied Midwifery Organization. To better represent you, I want to hear what matters to you! I personally would love to travel to your state and visit with your local organization and hear your concerns as we move into this year – the more we form a communication web the better we can address the hard repercussions of midwives in states where they are on the ground working for change.

Bringing together midwives from across the nation: MANA15!

Where else do ALL midwives come for nourishment, knowledge, skills and new perspectives? Please join us for YOUR midwifery gathering in Albuquerque October 15-18th, 2015: exciting speakers, gathering of indigenous midwives, free pre-conference skills workshops for students, trips in the glorious New Mexico landscape, fabulous merchants, and so much more! 

We have a dedicated local crew working hard to help make this year an enriching and memorable experience. In this time of ever expanding internet conferences and virtual meetings, MANA wants to remain a welcome place for midwives, birth workers, consumers and activists to come together and share their voices in person. We hope you will always think of the Midwives Alliance as your home, so we are working diligently to make sure you have a lovely fall gathering this year.

Welcoming YOU, your voice, and your skills to MANA.

I invite you to join the Midwives Alliance as a volunteer and as a member. It may seem impossibly daunting to work within a national organization, but I want to assure you that NEW voices are what we are looking for in 2015. MANA cannot be your voice unless you participate and we are dedicated to helping new voices become strong voices, so consider joining us as we hold the ground for "all midwives."

Tell me what matters most to you.

I hope you will feel free to contact me, any time, at president@mana.org. I want to hear from you and care deeply about your rights, as does the entire board of MANA. We need greater autonomy and justice within the profession, and as we move into 2015, The Midwives Alliance wants to continue to be the progressive organization that has always defended the rights of midwives to be distinct and autonomous practitioners. Midwives are THE solution to our maternity care crises in the United States and the world.

Thank you and Happy New Year!!

Marinah V. Farrell, CPM

President, Midwives Alliance of North America