CALM Accomplishments and Ongoing Work 2022-2023
Every year during annual membership renewal season, new and veteran CALM members receive an email from me, reporting to you as President about what we’ve achieved together and how CALM represents and serves licensed midwives across our state.
Please be on the lookout for a follow-up emails about your membership status and renewal as well as how to access your membership benefits.
In the meantime, I thought I would let you hear from one of our members, who used the words “indescribably helpful” to talk about her experience with CALM’s Quality Improvement Program’s Incident Review Process, which we continue to pilot in 2023.
What word best captures this member’s experience as a member of CALM? Value. The value of membership in California’s only professional association for licensed midwives.
By value I don’t just mean financial savings.
By value I mean the multi-faceted benefits in what this member describes as “layers of support and guidance” as a newer midwife with “access to the perspective and experience of multiple midwives, which gave me an insight that has helped with this case and gave me tangible skills to improve my practice in the future. I hope that others access this tool to better outcomes for the collective families receiving Midwifery care.”
This hope has been shared by many of the CALM members who benefitted from our 2022 roster of Continuing Education (CEU) webinars on topics such as the Purpose and Necessity of VBAC Guidelines; Charting Best Practices; Sentinel Event Case Review; VBAC in Community Birth; and Specifics of Midwife Assistants.
Members who join our monthly Ask CALM Anything sessions enjoy the more informal but equally valuable benefits of hearing about the latest developments in our legislative, educational, Medi-Cal, and other policy-making work, as well as broad-ranging discussions on topics such as the growing use of underground regulations in disciplinary cases and how CALM offers support to midwives who’ve had a complaint filed with the medical board.
How has CALM been standing up for California’s midwifery community?
In 2022 the value of your CALM membership went to support our work on multiple new and ongoing initiatives. Our benchmark achievements for the year include:
Completed the first phase of the California Community College CCC Initiative for Licensed Midwives, with a Licensed Midwife Program feasibility study, Licensed Midwife Program proposal, and ongoing collaboration with strategic partners, including the California Healthcare Foundation.
Received a strategic planning grant from the California Health Care Foundation, as well as a CHCF grant for continued work on the CCC initiative.
Engaged with the California Department of Health Care Access and Information to raise awareness about licensed midwives, in preparation for applying for grant money to fund CCC Licensed Midwife Program start-up costs.
Collaborated as partners with other stakeholding groups in several multi-state initiatives, including: Smooth Transitions Work Group; Western State Midwifery Associations Quality Improvement Collaborative; Consensus Work Group on Intermittent Auscultation; California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative CMQCC Vaginal Birth Toolkit; and CMQCC Community Birth Partnership Initiative
Secured an author to introduce AB 1767 Boerner-Horvath, which creates the California Board of Licensed Midwives. Though the bill did not advance to a committee hearing and will need to be re-introduced, CALM has continued to testify at hearings and work with the Medical Board of California in maintaining ongoing support for a licensed midwife board.
Represented licensed midwives in multiple meetings with the Department of Health Care Services to hold the agency accountable for failing to meet its statutory responsibilities to reimburse for midwifery care in community settings. CALM has provided a comprehensive list of codes and recommended edits to the provider manual, which DHCS anticipates will be released this summer.
Participated in a three-year midwifery learning collaborative with the Institute for Medicaid Innovation, which joins stakeholders nationwide in developing an alternative payment model for midwifery services.
Partnered with the University of California San Francisco, with funding from CHCF, to develop a comprehensive Licensed Midwife Survey, which was implemented in 2022 with a report of findings to be released in 2023. The survey will assist the CCC initiative with comprehensive workforce data.
Collaborated with Purchasers Business Group on Health to increase awareness about the landscape and realities of licensed midwife managed birth centers and community birth transfers.
Completed updates for CALM’s Welcome Packet for New and New to California Licensed Midwives.
As always, I welcome any questions or suggestions from members, and I am grateful to everyone who joins and supports us in this work. You represent the true value in CALM’s mission, serving California’s birthing families while supporting your professional association so it can support you.
Warmly,
Rosanna Davis LM
President
California Association of Licensed Midwives