Who, What, & Why of the California College

The California College of Midwives represents the legal and legislative issues of California licensed midwives. The word 'college' in the title refers to formalized relationship between professional colleagues, not to an educational institution with buildings and a teaching staff. You must already be a professionally licensed direct-entry midwife to qualify for membership.

Legally the CCM is the professional state chapter the American College of Domiciliary Midwives (*see ACDM mission statement on back) which is a 501-C4 non-profit organization composed of midwifery practitioners (Division One - midwives and physicians) and non-practitioners, parents and other interested consumers (Division Two). The ACDM also holds the master policy for the Community Midwives Professional Liability Consortium which currently covers 37 midwives in three states. You must be a member of the ADCM to apply or qualify.

The purpose of the California College of Midwives is to unify and professionalize community-based midwifery as licensed by the Medical Board of California under the Licensed Midwifery Practice Act of 1993. The California College is specifically configured to complement other midwifery organizations such as California Association of Midwives, MANA and Citizens for Midwifery. Membership in the ACDM/CCM is a one time fee of $65. Those with adequate monetary resources are asked to contribute financially to specific projects (such as AB 1418) or make an annual pledge. We welcome and depend on the volunteer efforts of each and every person.

Whys and Wherefores

Seventeen percent of all US births occur in our state, so one can assume that California is a leader in setting policy for the nation. To achieve the lofty goal of unity and professionalization, we must together draw the various different (and at times opposing) philosophies and diverse practice styles and birth settings represented by California licensed direct-entry midwives and create a unified profession that is in step with both the science and the politics of our time. In particular, the legal parameters of licensed midwifery must be defined by licensed midwives, rather than lawyers employed by the Medical Board! We also must get the supervisory clause of our law replaced by one that defines the professional relationships between midwives and physicians as collaborative. Currently AB1418 is slated to do this for both licensed and certified nurse midwives.

The other important project of the CCM is to achieve consensus on a definition of the midwifery model of care, philosophy of practice, code of ethics, normal scope & standards of practice and the characteristics of clinical competency for licensed midwives. Within the same context we must simultaneously identify the moral and ethical right of the parents to make elemental decisions about their care, including the right to decline standardized procedures and non-emergency interventions or make medically unpopular decisions.

It is hoped that the finished product will be an integration of the best of the oral tradition of midwifery with the best of evidenced-based practice parameters. Currently this document is entitled "California College of Midwives -- Characteristics of Clinical Competency". It is available on our Internet site in its draft version for review and feedback. When critiqued and completed, it will be put to a super-majority vote of the membership (60% required). It will be updated every 3-6 months and re-rarified every 3 years thereafter.

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Who is "we" ? -- currently there are six volunteer directors of the CCM -- Faith Gibson, Donna Driscoll, Connie Latinen, Susan Claypool, Tosi Marcelene and Brenda Rambler. Faith is currently functioning as the executive director and works full time in furthering the legal and legislative activities of professional midwives. As soon as our legal structure gets in place with all the proper by-laws and the like, the membership will be invited to elect officers and a board of directors. It will eventually be necessary to have one part-time paid secretarial position for the administration of the CCM.

Membership is open to all California Licensed Midwives. If you are interested, return the membership form with a check for $65 to the address noted. We recommend that you visit our web site for updates on state midwifery politics and valuable information on evidence-based practice.

ACDM Mission Statement

As an professional organization the ACDM is committed to:

* Promoting domiciliary midwifery as a specialized form of maternity care with a curriculum and scope of practice that is distinct from hospital-based medical education & practice

** Preserving lawful access by childbearing families to non-medical, home-based maternity services provided by midwives and family-practice physicians

*** Fostering a variety of educational pathways leading to practitioner-status

**** Advocating the integration of midwifery principles into the training of medical careproviders, including experience with domiciliary midwifery as a facet of obstetrical training

**** Educating the public in regard to the issues of home-base maternity services and other forms of non-medical healthcare such as domiciliary hospice care

**©** WE RESOLVE: That the historic definition of midwifery -- the care of healthy childbearing women and their babies during the normal & spontaneous events of physiological childbearing -- be preserved and the term 'midwifery' be universally applied to all caregivers engaged in providing normal maternity services during the ante, intra, postpartum and neonatal/postnatal period, regardless of the educational background of the individual -- direct-entry midwives (CMs, LMs, CPMs), certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) or physicians practicing within the midwifery model of care.

This definition is to distinguish the maternity care of normal, healthy mothers -- including palliative treatment of minor deviations and the capacity for emergency-response by the practitioner -- from the high-technology, hospital-based practice of the art and science of obstetrics which is a recognized as a medical- surgical specialty that addresses the diseases, dysfunctions and disabilities of reproduction and fertility.

DOMICILIARY SETTING:

**©** As defined by the World Health Organization, "Domiciliary" includes all non-institutional locations and non-medical settings, usually the home (domicile) of the childbearing family, friend or relative OR a maternity clinic or free-standing birth center. The common element is recognition and respect for the non-medical nature of the location and restriction of caregivers (medical or other) to assisting at spontaneous labors and normal birth and use of time-honored domestic remedies, palliative treatments and emergency-response capacity. The safety of domiciliary care benefits both from the absence of medical ministrations and the presence of healthy mothers with normal pregnancies. On the North American continent, the word 'domiciliary' usually refers to the parental residence.

Family Domain, Parental Autonomy

**©** In a broader social sense, home is both the family's residence and the legal domain of the parents. "Domain" refers to the place where they are the lawful decision maker AND the responsible party. Mothers laboring at home are self-selected (not forced), self-directed (not required to follow institutional protocols) and self-responsible (can't sue themselves if they slip in their own bathtub). Medical careproviders and non-medical caregivers alike are guests in the parents domain. Professionals render care based on the direct & voluntary invitation of the parent's to do so. The mother remains the primary careprovider for her baby, both before and after it is born. Except for the rarest of emergency situations, it is only at her discretion and direction that others are invited to assist her in carrying out those responsibilities.

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CCM Statement of Purpose

The California College of Midwives represents the legal and legislative issues of California licensed midwives. Our purpose is to create a unified profession that is in step with both the science and the politics of our time. Our goal is to see that the profession of midwifery in California practices independently in collaboration with physicians and other healthcare providers and to insure that licensed midwifery practice is defined by licensed midwives themselves. Midwifery is not the practice of Medicine.

 California College of Midwives --
© Application for Membership ©

Practitioner Division (I) Membership Fee: $65// Student Division (2) $45

Name __________________________________ Phone #s - Hm ( ) ____ - _______

Work ________________ Email __________________ URL ___________________

Street Address _____________________________City/State Zip _____________

Practitioner Status / Professional Titles ___________________________________

Area of Interest &/or special talent: _____________________________________

Time available for volunteering: _________________________________________

Able to make contribution to legislative or legal projects: ____________________

Willing to make an annual Pledge to cover operating costs: ___________________

Comments on CCM or Characteristics of Clinical Competency:

_________________________________________________________________________

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_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

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Print out application and mail with a check for $65 to

CCM -- 3889 Middlefiled Rd, Palo Alto, CA 943030