Sioux Falls

WOW!!!!

What an amazing experience this has been. The Sioux Falls Walk was awesome - great turnout and beautiful evening! Most of the people there I had never met before. Let me just tell you about a few folks:

Annie & Nathan are going to be married next week. Because of experiences their family has had, they know that they want to have their children out-of-hospital with a Certified Professional Midwife. They found our SDSCO website via Citizens for Midwifery. When they emailed me asking what they could do to help, I invited them to the Walk.

Rose just completed her Doula training and is planning to move to Oregon with her family in March to begin her training as a Certified Professional Midwife. She plans to move back to SD or MN when her training is complete depending on the law. I'm so thrilled that she is willing to share her story with legislators in her home district and at the Capitol next session. Rose found out about our Walk via Facebook.

Becky recently graduated as a Chiropractor and has started practicing in Sioux Falls. She is very willing to help us in any way she can. I first met Becky last year at our booth at the Sioux Empire Fair.

I feel so blessed for all the new folks and for all those who continue to faithfully help in this effort to provide midwives for the families who need them.

Dr. Ben Rall reminded me of the Margaret Mead quote as we were visiting last night after the Walk. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Changing birth options is a huge step in changing our world...and we have the thoughtful committed citizens to do it!

Thanks so much to all of you who participated in any way in the Walks. I still am in awe that we actually did this thing in such a big way. Thanks be to God!

Yankton & Dell Rapids

It was great having my family at both Walks today. I've enjoying all the beautiful families along the way and am so happy to be reunited with my own. The weather was perfect again today. I am so grateful for the way God has blessed these walks.

In Yankton we met at beautiful Memorial Park where the children enjoyed the wonderful playground. We were only a short walk to the busy main highway that runs through Yankton. Many, many people got to see our banner and our large crew sporting our midwives shirts. It was fun to receive the encouraging waves and honks from the passers by.

We were located next to the Little Sioux River in Dell Rapids at their city park. We are so grateful that Senator Dan Ahlers took the time to walk and share the beautiful scenery with us. The sky was absolutely magnificent as the sun began setting in the West. It reminded me who is really in charge of all this!

These walks are a wonderful opportunity to share with my children how our government works. We are blessed to have the freedom to gather and voice our opinions in our country. By doing little things like taking part in a walk, we can influence public opinion and the laws of our state and the whole country.

Because of the Walks, I had the opportunity to meet with 2 legislators today and share with them the progress that has been made since the last legislative session. I love telling them about how the Idaho bill to license Certified Professional Midwives passed the House & Senate with only 2 dissenting votes and was signed into law by their Governor in April this year. And how North Carolina flew through their House committee hearing and floor vote and are now awaiting their hearing in the Senate.

What is it going to take in South Dakota to achieve this kind of success? The SD Safe Childbirth Options Board of Directors is trying to figure that out. We have a meeting coming up on Monday, August 31st, where we will be discussing what are next move should be. Please pray that God will bless us with His wisdom.

I am greatly looking forward to our last walk in Sioux Falls this evening. This has been a wonderful experience for me, but I'm getting a bit weary. It will be nice to get back to the reality of my daily life.

We have had great media coverage all along the way and we are expecting KSFY to show up to cover the event tonight. I am praying that a large group of supporters will join us. Please come if you can!

Watertown & Brookings

It was another gorgeous day and more fantastic people. I got to meet so many new people today both in Watertown and Brookings. We actually had a woman show up in Watertown whose husband heard me during a call in radio show that morning.

They were discussing the town hall meeting that Senator Thune had held the night before on healthcare reform. I called in and said I knew a solution that would save billions of dollars a year and not cost the government a thing. I went on to explain the cost effectiveness of home birth with a Certified Professional Midwife, and how we are trying to make this option available to the families of South Dakota. Then I plugged our Walk at McKinley Park.

The women of the Watertown area have always greatly impressed me for a number of reasons. They are some of the sweetest, hardest working, kindest people I know. Yesterday I found out they also have incredible stamina. I could hardly keep up with them as they pushed strollers full of happy, well behaved children all around Watertown!

The Brookings Walk has been our most diverse group yet. Taylor and Suzanna did a marvelous job with publicity and we hosted many single college students as well as young families and even parents of midwives and future midwives. I was privileged to walk next to the mother of a young woman who just received her certification as a nurse midwife. This was the first walk that we carried our banner with us. It was such a large group that we needed to take our picture at a different site and we took our banner with us.

Because we had the banner we had some friendly honks from passers by. People even joined up with us as we were walking and came back to Cottonwood Coffeehouse and bought a T-shirt!

We are having a bit of a problem with T-shirts, but it is a good problem. We have run out of all the youth sizes except for the Youth Extra Large. We have sold over 100 T-shirts!!!! I'll have to check with Shelly at Elegant Mommy, she may have a few of the smaller sizes left at her store.

We have 3 walks left to go, Yankton and Dell Rapids today and Sioux Falls tomorrow. Already the numbers of supporters who have come out and the funds we have raised have far exceeded my expectations. Thanks be to God!

Ipswich & Huron

The Ipswich Walk was very special to me. My mom, who is battling cancer, came and walked the entire 4 miles with me. This is nothing new for her; she has walked 4 miles nearly every day since she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer over a year ago. She is my inspiration for doing this walk.

I was also greatly blessed to have many of my aunts and uncles join us for the walk. Most of them had been born at home, but didn't understand why someone would choose that option over a hospital birth today. They all agreed however, that families who want to have a home birth should have access to a midwife.

It was wonderful to have Nancy Dennert there who is 6 months pregnant and planning a home birth. She was able to explain to them the research that consistently shows how home births attended by skilled midwives are just as safe for babies and moms, but have far fewer interventions. The rates of birth injuries are actually way less in home births and breastfeeding rates are greatly increased.

Personally I think there are several reasons for this. The first is education. My midwife would spend at least an hour with me at each prenatal visit. She was wonderful at encouraging a healthier diet and lifestyle. She had a lending library of books, and encouraged me to read and discuss them with her. By the time I had the baby, I was prepared physically, emotionally and spiritually. I had a trusted friend who stayed with me from the moment I called her until after my baby and I were peacefully napping after the birth.

My baby and I were not exposed to hospital germs, people who didn't know us and our beliefs, or routine interventions. I was allowed to listen to the cues of my body, and it was amazing the difference that made in the ease of birth for me and my children.

My relatives left our discussion with a new appreciation for my passion to change our state laws. I explained how home birth is legal in South Dakota, but that the midwives who are specifically trained in out-of-hospital birth, Certified Professional Midwives, have no way to practice legally here. I told them how they are legally authorized to practice in 26 states and how 18 states including SD are working on updating our laws to include CPMs as part of the health care team. I was thrilled with their willingness to contact their legislators and let them know how important this law is to the home birth families in the state.

It was so nice to get together with old friends in Huron and walk the mile loop around beautiful Ravine Lake. Many of us have been working on legislation for a long time, and sometimes we get frustrated with the apparent lack of progress. We once thought that passing this legislation was a "no brainer". How could anyone vote against providing skilled, nationally certified midwives to assist home birth families? Perhaps the answer lies in our opposition. Year after year we are opposed by the powerful lobby representing institutionalized medicine, but more and more legislators are refusing to be swayed by their anecdotal evidence and bullying. More and more legislators are willing to explore this issue, to read the studies and listen to the voices of the families it effects. There is hope.

Chamberlain & Mitchell

Can I just say...I love South Dakota. Our laws concerning midwives need some work, but the beauty of the land and the people are truly amazing. I feel truly blessed to have this opportunity.

It was a great priveledge for me (and a whole lot of fun)to walk today at both walks with Miranda Chaney. I am so grateful that she chose to celebrate her 8th birthday by walking for midwives. Miranda and all her siblings were born out-of-hospital with the help of midwives. Her mother had to travel to another state for her little brother's birth last year in order to have the help of a Certified Professionl Midwife, because there is no way for them to be licensed in SD.

Putting this kind of stress on a family is so unnecessary. Certified Professional Midwives specialize in home birth and are legally authorized to practice in 26 states. 18 states like South Dakota are working on updating our laws. No state that licences CPMs has ever recinded its laws, because the midwives there are having excellent outcomes and saving families and the health care system a great deal of money. Some of these laws have been around for over 20 years. South Dakota families are just asking for what has already proven to be safe and cost-effective care in other states.

It was wonderful to have such a diverse group of walkers today. The young and the old enjoyed each other's company as we walked along the banks of the Missouri River in Chamberlain and right past the one and only Corn Palace in Mitchell. One young mother, who is preparing for the birth of her first child, was so enthusiastic about the great care that she is receiving from her midwife, that she convinced her 2 teenage brothers to walk with her. We were so pleased to have them!

Thanks so much to Len & LaLainya Lambright for hosting our Mitchell event at their Dakota Prairie Grocery. This is such a neat store! It has everything from locally grown produce to a deli and is located on Sanborn Ave, one of the busiest streets in Mitchell. In the three hours it was up, hundreds of folks saw our Walk for Midwives banner at this great location.


As our base of supporters keeps growing, so does my hope that soon South Dakota families will be able to hire a skilled midwife whether they want to give birth at home, in a hospital or in a birth center. We still have a ways to go, but we'll get there, because we won't give up. We'll just keep taking it one step at a time until we reach our destination...healthy moms & healthy babies thanks to the integration of Certified Professional Midwives into our healthcare system and an increase in the number of Nurse Midwives available.

Spearfish and Rapid City Walks

Thanks so much to everyone who has been praying for the Walk for Midwives. God is definitely blessing us! We had a great start with our first 2 Walks today. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and it was wonderful getting to meet with everyone.

There were almost a dozen of us in Spearfish where we were hosted by CNM, Jeanne Prentice at her WomanKind Midwifery clinic. We walked along some beautiful trails along Spearfish Creek and then up and down Main Street. The local paper, The Black Hills Pioneer sent a reporter who interviewed me and took a picture of some of us in front of our banner. Look for it in tomorrow's paper.

In Rapid City we had around 50 supporters including District 33 Representative Phil Jensen, who has been a champion for us in the state legislature. We so appreciate his taking the time out of his busy schedule to come and walk with us. It was such a blessing to see so many beautiful families who are concerned about this issue. Cassie took some great pictures. I'll post a couple here and get more put on our Walk For Midwives Facebook Page. They tell the story so much better than I can.

Cassie and I will be on the road by 5 am tomorrow morning in order to make our first walk in Chamberlain tomorrow at 9:30am. We are also really looking forward to our Walk in Mitchell that begins at 6pm.

Eve of the Walk

My daughter, Cassie, who just passed her driver’s test yesterday, drove me across the state this afternoon. This is our longest drive of the journey (381 miles) from our house to the Brinks just east of Rapid City. I googled all the locations last night and put together a little map book for us. I know that is rather anal…but I like to be prepared. If we don’t take any detours, we will have traveled 1500 miles by this time next week! Now that’s what I call mother / daughter bonding time!

Chandelle invited me to a Nursing Moms meeting in Rapid City where we explained the situation for home birth families. Home birth is legal in South Dakota, but there is only one midwife in the whole state who can legally assist in out-of-hospital births. The specialists in out-of-hospital births, Certified Professional Midwives are not allowed to practice here. Nurse midwives, who mostly work in hospitals, are greatly restricted and there are only 9 in the whole state who are doing maternity care (not counting those working for IHS). Five of those midwives are in Sioux Falls, leaving the rest of the state severely under served.

South Dakota families need more midwives and that’s what this Walk is all about. I’m looking forward to getting started. The Walks tomorrow are in Spearfish at 8am and Rapid City at 6:30pm. The website has all the details.

The Dell Rapids paper carried an article about our walk today thanks to Ronda Kvigne! The timing couldn’t be better on the eve of our first Walk.

Have Shirts, Will Travel!

My daughter, Cassie, and I are getting ready to head for the hills, the Black Hills that is. We will start our journey Thursday morning with our first Walk in Spearfish at 8am Friday morning. Get the complete schedule of Walks here.

That means that your last chance to pre-order T-shirts (and make sure your size is reserved for you) or get the pre-Walk price is this Wednesday, August 19^th, at 8pm CST. You will still be able to have shirts shipped to you via the website after that for a $5 shipping charge, but they change to regular prices which are $15 for adult shirts and $10 for children shirts after the 19^th. That’s still a bargain for such cool shirts. You can order them here.

Cassie & I will be spending our first two nights with Travis and Chandelle Brink in Box Elder. Travis is a complete techno nerd (I mean that in a good way!), so I’m sure we will be able to post from there…after that we will see. We are going to do our best to add pictures daily to the website and the blog for all of you out there walking in solidarity with us in your own corner of the world or maybe just in the corner of your mind.

Birthday Girl Walks for Birth Options

On August 22, Miranda Chaney from Platte, SD will turn 8 years old and she will be doing something a bit unusual to celebrate. She will be walking 8 miles with her mom and other midwife supporters to raise awareness of the need to change South Dakota's laws regarding Certified Professional Midwives.

Eight years ago, Miranda was born at home with the assistance of a skilled midwife. Last year her mom was forced to go out of state to receive the same care at her baby brother's birth, because Certified Professional Midwives are no longer allowed to practice in South Dakota. Miranda and her mom agree, South Dakota mothers should be able to have their babies in their own homes with the assistance of a CPM. They are definitely doing their part to make that a reality.

Miranda's mom, Tammi, has been working very hard to organize the Walk in Chamberlain that begins at 9:30 am on Miranda's birthday. But 4 miles isn't enough for Miranda! She is planning on attending the Walk in Mitchell that evening beginning at six. When the day is over, she will be able to say she walked 8 miles on her 8th birthday for midwives and the South Dakota families who so desperately need them.

So if you are wondering how you can fit one of these Walks into your hectic schedule, please think of Miranda and the sacrifices she is making to contribute. It will be a real privilege for me to be walking with her on her special day. Come join us if you can and don't forget to wish Miranda a Happy 8th Birthday!

Only One Week Away

It is hard to believe that the Walk starts next Friday. I am so grateful for the outpouring of support and all the efforts of the Coordinators at each location. They are working so hard to make each Walk a success.

Yesterday our media alert went out to all the local media outlets, and thanks to The Big Push for Midwives, all over the country. Today our Location Coordinators were busy doing follow-up calls and thanks to Ronda Kvigne, I got to visit with a reporter from the Dell Rapids paper. I also was able to deliver some T-shirts to Elegant Mommy in Sioux Falls.

Tonight I'll work on a letter to legislators inviting them to join a Walk for Midwives near them. I hope all of you will take the time to personally write or call your legislators and tell them about this event and why it is important to you that Certified Professional Midwives be able to practice legally in our state. If you need some help with talking points check out "Lobbying Lessons" under "Resources" on the South Dakota Safe Childbirth Options website.

Keep up the great work, everyone! Let's use this opportunity to reach out to the public, the press and legislators to the max!

Peace,
Debbie

What a fun day! DreamIt Designs delivered the "Midwives" T-shirts to our door (and we live way out in the country). Then our whole family donned the shirts, took the cool banner that had arrived on Friday, and headed to the park for a photo shoot. Here's a shot that didn't make the website.

A HUGE thank you to all of you who are working so hard to make this Walk a success. Now that the website is up, we can really start networking!