As one of the founders of SDSCO, Inc. and a main force behind every midwifery bill brought before the South Dakota legislature in the past 13 years, Judy Jones has a unique perspective on this year’s midwifery legislation. “I am really excited about our legislative efforts for this upcoming session. I truly believe that things are different this year. For one thing, we have done more preparation than we have ever done before. Just check out our website or the files section of our chat group and you will see all the fact sheets that have been put together to help us have the facts on hand to share with our legislators and anyone else. (A big thank you goes out to Mary Nelson & Debbie Pease for all their hard work!)

“Our legislation will have a totally different approach than we have ever used in the past. Legislators are much more receptive to licensing nationally certified midwives than they were with registering anyone who wanted to practice as a midwife. We have done much groundwork already with many legislators. There are many new legislators this year who are open to listening and learning the truth about home birth and midwifery. We have an experienced excited prime sponsor and a new lobbyist who is willing to work hard.

“I pray that each of you are as excited as I am. Several years ago, at one of our Healthy Birth Conferences, Dr. Raymond De Vries spoke. One thing he said has stuck with me. We asked how they had been able to succeed in gaining more home birth freedom in other places. He said that the combination of circumstances needs to be just right for it to happen. I truly believe that this year is our time – that the combination of circumstances is just right for us to see significant
change! So, please, work with all of us on the SDSCO Board and do your part to contact legislators and spread the word! Please make the sacrifice to be in Pierre when our bill is being debated, so that the legislators can see that this issue is important to lots of South Dakotans. If we all work together, I truly believe that THIS WILL BE OUR YEAR!!!”