National Midwifery Week: Midwives Alliance Conference in California

Oct. 8, 2009 - PRLog -- SAN FRANCISCO- The Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) presents its 27th annual midwifery conference with the theme “Rising Tide: Women, Midwives and the Future”.  Hundreds of international and American midwives and health care professionals with gather at Asilomar in Monterey, California on October 22-25, 2009.  
In 2009, the tide of health care change has been rising as debate on health care policy heightens at the national level.  Midwives are proving to be leaders in the maternal-child healthcare movement by providing evidence-based and cost-effective maternity care.  
The Midwives Alliance, which is a non-profit, has the goal of unifying and strengthening the profession of midwifery, thereby improving the quality of health care for women, babies, and communities.  During National Midwifery Week, which is October 4-11, midwives and midwifery organization are showcasing the profession of midwifery throughout the United States.  
The conference will feature global maternity care experts who will present new research discoveries and models for midwifery care.  Over thirty renowned authors, midwives, physicians and epidemiologists including Ina May Gaskin, Eugene Declerq, Suzanne Arms and Simone Buitendijk will address four hundred midwives and allied maternity care professionals during the conference.  

Telephone interviews before the conference with any of the following maternal-child health and midwifery experts who will present at the conference can be arranged by contacting Sharon Economides.  
•   Geradine Simkins, CNM, MSN, President of the Midwives Alliance of North America
•   Melissa Cheyney, CPM, PhD.  Melissa is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Oregon State University and a practicing homebirth midwife. She is the Director of Research for MANA’s Division of Research. Her current research projects examine the effects of state licensure on the safety of out-of-hospital birth with a focus on the impact of the “provider effect” on maternal and infant health outcomes.
•   Eugene Declerq, PhD is a Professor of Maternal and Child Health, Assistant Dean at the Boston University School of Public Health, lead author of the two “Listening to Mothers” Surveys and technical advisor for The Business of Being Born.
•   Simone Buitendijk, MD, MPH, PHD has published  research studies on midwifery and homebirth.  The most recent study, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2009, compared perinatal mortality and morbidity in 529,688 low-risk women planning home and hospital births.  The study showed that “planning a home birth does not increase the risks of perinatal mortality and severe perinatal morbidity among low-risk women, provided the maternity care system facilitates this choice through the availability of well-trained midwives and through a good transportation and referral system.”

Full Press kits and press passes for access to the conference are available upon request.

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The Midwives Alliance, which is a non-profit, has the goal of unifying and strengthening the profession of midwifery, thereby improving the quality of health care for women, babies, and communities.