We welcome all the new supporters who signed up for our newsletter at the Wholistic Health Expo in Rapid City & the Healthy Living Seminar in Sioux Falls in June, and the Sioux Empire Fair in August. We appreciate very much your interest in learning more about birth services in SD. As you can see from the graphic on the back page, there are very few midwives of any kind practicing in our state. This is a tragedy for mothers who know that the midwives model of care has been proven to reduce the incidence of birth injury, trauma, and cesarean section. We should have nurse midwives working in every hospital with birth services and CPMs (nationally certified midwives specializing in home birth) scattered throughout the state. Then the families of our state would truly have some options in birth services. Please share the graphic on the back page with the legislative candidates in your district, then let your district contact person know about it (see page 2 for more info).

SDSCO is part of the National Birth Policy Coalition and their Big Push for Midwives campaign that is working to license Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states. Since our last newsletter in April, Missouri and Maine have joined the ranks of states where CPMs are recognized in statute (currently 24 states). Home birth has been prominent in the national news most of the summer thanks to states like SD that are fighting for CPM licensure and a resolution adopted by the American Medical Association stating that the hospital is the safest place to deliver a baby. The resolution calls for the AMA to work for legislation that promotes this idea even though they have no referenced studies to back it up. Already the insurance companies in the state of Delaware have instructed doctors in that state that they will lose their malpractice insurance if they see a woman who is planning to have a home birth. According to the midwives working there, the doctors who used to back up their births, no longer will.

Home birth families in our state and across the nation are caught in a major battle over who will control where a woman has her child and who will help her. Will it be doctors and insurance companies or will it be mothers and fathers? We have a powerful opponent in this fight for our freedom, but we have truth on our side, and I know that with God’s help we can not fail. The main stream media is picking up on our plight and the general public and many legislators are beginning to see that the strategies of the medical association are more about protecting their turf than making birth safer.

We received some excellent local media coverage this summer. KELO TV interviewed Alaina Kerkhove and Shawna Petty on July 5th about the CNM law that went into effect on July 1st. The story made both the six and ten o’clock news and focused on reasons families choose home births and the need for more home birth midwives in the state. Debbie was a guest for a 30 minute spot on Forum which aired on KELO AM/FM at 7:30 am on Sunday August 10th. The host, Jon Michaels, was very supportive of our cause and invited us to come back during the legislative session.

Please take the time to read through this newsletter and find ways you can get involved. Just attending one of our events really, really helps and we have some great events coming up in the near future. If you are in the Sioux Falls area, join us on Labor Day for a potluck picnic or September 5th for our BOLD Red Tent (see page 3). If you live near Rapid City, I encourage you to take in The Business of Being Born event which includes a meet & greet with area legislators, the eye-opening film about birth in the US, followed by a panel discussion (more on page 5). Our whole family is excited to attend the Birth Conference at Crazy Horse Monument on October 10th & 11th, and our older girls will be available to provide childcare for those of you with little ones. We are so grateful to our many supporters who are working tirelessly behind the scenes helping with events, talking with legislators, donating their time and finances, and keeping our cause in their prayers. There is still a lot of work to do, but with your help, we will get it done. May God continue to bless us and guide us on our journey to provide safe birth options in our state and beyond.