tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78058480551609856112024-03-12T21:56:52.481-07:00Lane County Friends of the Birth CenterLaneCoFBC is a volunteer-led advocacy organization. We support community access to an accredited, freestanding birth center.Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-47535029903797129682021-02-24T11:12:00.004-08:002021-02-24T17:25:43.027-08:00County Closes Prenatal Clinic / El condado cierra la clínica prenatal<h1 class="separator"><img alt="" data-original-height="164" data-original-width="611" height="164" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gppoqINe2fE/YDag2l6imtI/AAAAAAAAYw4/1weHwdY1dzorG081Ps8HpRBv7Xh2EsjPQCLcBGAsYHQ/w647-h164/image.png" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;" width="100%" /></h1>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-9299f957-7fff-6e06-1da7-f8c61bb0e61f"><p style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">County Closes Prenatal Clinic; New Birth Center Needed</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Closure of County Prenatal Clinic underscores need for autonomous, nonprofit birth center</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5b6670; font-family: "Nunito Sans", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 1px; text-align: start; white-space: normal;"><a href="https://www.ourcommunitybirthcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Comunicado_-Cambios-en-el-cuidado-prenatal-en-el-condado-de-Lane-febrero-2021.pdf">Espa<span lang="es" style="box-sizing: border-box;">ñ</span>ol: <span style="color: #66c9ba;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: color, background-color, border-color; transition-timing-function: linear;">Comunicado: Cambios en el cuidado prenatal en el condado de Lane, febrero 2021</span></span></a></span></span></p><br />
<p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lane County, OR – February 2021 – Community Health Centers of Lane County closed its Prenatal Clinic at the end of January. This clinic primarily provided Medicaid and uninsured clients with prenatal and postpartum midwifery care at the Charnelton Health Clinic (CHC) in downtown Eugene. Before the closure, pregnant people in Lane County often chose the Prenatal Clinic because of its wrap around services, easy access to care without discrimination, and integrated Spanish speaking staff throughout the clinic. The Prenatal Clinic recently transferred all clients’ care to private practices in the area. The closure of the Prenatal Clinic is a significant loss of health care access and support for our community.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What will be lost as a result of the CHC Prenatal Clinic closure?</span></p><ul style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A prenatal care safety net, more specifically, a clinic that doesn’t “fire” clients for missing appointments or not paying bills. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Integrated Spanish-speaking staff throughout services including a Spanish-speaking lactation consultant and care coordinator.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prenatal care integrated with other Lane County services such as primary care, mental health care, and WIC.</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">María Paz Aguirre</span><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Lati</span><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nx community member and facilitator of Our Community Birth Center’s recent Latinx focus group, says “There’s a real need of services in our native language. We prefer to have services in our native language because interpreters are not always the best. In hospitals and clinics we have seen that information in our native language is not always easy to find. Right now there’s almost no places where you can find that. Thinking about Our Community Birth Center, it is a place that can do that.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our Community Birth Center is developing an equitable and inclusive nonprofit community clinic that provides perinatal and general health care for people in Lane County. Our community needs and deserves accessible nonprofit community-based health care for pregnancy, birth, and beyond. The closure of the only Federally Qualified Health Center providing prenatal care in the Eugene-Springfield area makes this need more urgent, and Our Community Birth Center will fill the gap in care that was created when the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center closed in 2019, and which has now widened significantly as a result of the Lane County Prenatal Clinic closure.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Birth center care is proven to contribute to improved outcomes for parents and babies. These outcomes include: lower rates of cesarean birth and higher rates of healthy normal birth; lower rates of preterm birth and low birth weight babies; increased lactation success; high client satisfaction; and significantly lower costs to the health care system (</span><a href="https://innovation.cms.gov/innovation-models/strong-start" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strong Start for Mothers and Newborns</span></a><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 2018). Our Community Birth Center’s programs specialize in care of the childbearing person, and include pregnancy counseling, newborn care, lactation services, women’s and family health care, LGBTQIA+ health care, family planning, childbirth and lactation classes, peer support, and postpartum home-visits. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition, Our Community Birth Center will integrate Spanish-speaking staff, access to language interpretation, and support for those who do not have insurance or cannot afford to pay for care. Our Community Birth Center also has plans to add primary care services to ensure wrap around care and support for pregnancy and beyond. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"All of the midwives I had the honor to be treated by gave me the courage to trust my own body and ultimately they played an essential role in my ability to achieve a healthy, all natural birthing outcome. When I think about my daughter’s birth I don’t remember the pain. Instead, I remember the support I felt. I remember progressing through the experience on my own terms. I strongly feel that Our Community Birth Center will pick up where the CHC Prenatal Clinic and the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center left off and be able provide this much needed level of patient-centered care to future expecting mothers,”</span><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Ren McLemore, Prenatal Clinic and Birth Center parent and Lane County Friends of the Birth Center board member.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you have questions about prenatal health care options in Lane County? Our Community Birth Center offers free health care options counseling in Spanish and English. Contact us at </span><a href="mailto:OurCommunityBirthCenter@gmail.com" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OurCommunityBirthCenter@gmail.com</span></a><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to ask a question or schedule a phone call.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contacts</span></p><br /><div align="left" dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 0pt;"><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="315"></col><col width="309"></col></colgroup><tbody><tr style="height: 21pt;"><td colspan="2" rowspan="2" style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our Community Birth Center</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">AlexAnn Westlake, Executive Director & Certified Nurse Midwife</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">O</span><a href="mailto:ourcommunitybirthcenter@gmaill.com" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">urCommunityBirthCenter@gmail.com</span></a></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.ourcommunitybirthcenter.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ourcommunitybirthcenter.org</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ourcommunitybirthcenter" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">facebook.com/ourcommunitybirthcenter</span></a></p></li></ul></td></tr><tr style="height: 21pt;"></tr><tr style="height: 21pt;"><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1pt; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left: solid #000000 1pt; border-right: solid #000000 1pt; border-style: solid; border-top: solid #000000 1pt; border-width: 1pt; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Nunito, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lane County Friends of the Birth Center</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">lanecofbc@gmail.com </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">lanecofbc.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/lanecofbc" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">facebook.com/lanecofbc</span></a></p></li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p>Lynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02349383275519372962noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-10556579732027908412020-07-13T23:40:00.000-07:002020-07-13T23:40:20.093-07:00Stepping Into the Future with Our Community Birth Center<div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our community has spoken loud and clear about the demand for an </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px;">accredited, freestanding </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;">nurse midwifery birth center in Lane County. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We are absolutely thrilled </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;">that </span><a href="https://www.ourcommunitybirthcenter.org/" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">Our Community Birth Center</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;">, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;">a new nonprofit organization in Lane County </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;">is actively working to open one! </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YZsCbVEkrp8/Xw1MJKejWkI/AAAAAAAADA8/IUMQwwp_DEoiEPzxUX0U3xJ7m2VWXBBRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/birth%2Bcenter%2Bstones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YZsCbVEkrp8/Xw1MJKejWkI/AAAAAAAADA8/IUMQwwp_DEoiEPzxUX0U3xJ7m2VWXBBRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/birth%2Bcenter%2Bstones.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;">These mosaic stepstones were created by guests at the former birth center's farewell open house, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;">and will be gifted to the new birth center when it opens. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="color: #1c1e21;">Learn More:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"> </span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Watch the </span><a href="https://www.ourcommunitybirthcenter.org/press-conference-success-and-first-media-coverage/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Our Community Birth Center Press Conference</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> from November 2019 to hear the Executive Director, board members, and consumers present and answer questions.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Read more about <a href="https://www.ourcommunitybirthcenter.org/services/" target="_blank">current services and classes</a> offered through Our Community Birth Center</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Find <a href="https://www.ourcommunitybirthcenter.org/seeking-birth-center-services/">resources and referrals</a> for other midwifery care options while Our Community Birth Center is in development. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Be sure to <a href="https://www.ourcommunitybirthcenter.org/updates/" target="_blank">sign up for updates</a> and follow Our Community Birth Center on social media to keep up with the latest news and opportunities.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Website: </span><a href="https://www.ourcommunitybirthcenter.org/">https://www.ourcommunitybirthcenter.org/</a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Facebook: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ourcommunitybirthcenter</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Instagram: ourcommunitybirthcenter</span></li>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">How Can I Help?</span></b><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.ourcommunitybirthcenter.org/donate/" target="_blank">Donate to the fundraising campaign</a> and help restore birth center services to Lane County.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfMdR9LO4DxQBcp4RfbhCV225ZvyDkQ53Nf2NIjsZvIDkLo8Q/viewform" target="_blank">Volunteer your time and skills</a> to advocacy, fundraising, development, outreach, events, and more. </span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Help determine the future of midwifery birth center services in Lane County, Oregon by<a href="https://forms.gle/hV6zFrxArvRzxfGM6" target="_blank"> participating in a focus group</a></span></span></li>
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Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-38362669829669803462019-10-11T08:00:00.000-07:002019-10-11T09:15:33.554-07:00Birth Center Updates: Farewell Event, Doula Support, and the FutureIt is with sadness that we share there will be a farewell event for the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center in November. Despite a groundswell of community support and a strong campaign, PeaceHealth is closing the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center and repurposing the building. For the time being, women in our community will no longer have the option of a birth center birth. We won’t rehash the many arguments in support of the current birth center model here, but as we all know, this is a loss to our community.<br />
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Everyone who wishes to honor and say farewell to the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center please stay tuned for more information to follow. We are in communication with PeaceHealth regarding plans for this event and will announce the details as soon as they are available. If you are unable to attend, the Birth Center is also open during Baby Clinic hours every Tuesday from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm through November 22.<br />
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Because PeaceHealth has fired its staff midwives and now makes available only obstetricians and midwives employed by a private practice, there are not enough midwives to provide 24-7 midwifery services at RiverBend Hospital. This means that families who planned care with the birth center midwives may not receive midwifery care at RiverBend Hospital. We understand this is a very challenging time for families who will not be able to have the birth care they had planned and we want to support them as much as possible. <br />
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The Friends of the Birth Center are currently focused on supporting these families who have been forced to change care providers late in their pregnancy. This support includes answering questions we receive and creating a program to ensure that families who have lost their midwives have access to doula care. Birth Center families who are currently pregnant and due in October, November or December may contact The Friends of the Birth Center at lanecofbc@gmail.com for information about doulas. Scholarships are available to help families expecting babies this Fall access doula care, regardless of ability to pay. A doula is not a midwife and does not provide medical care; rather, doulas are trained and certified to provide support to birthing parents throughout every stage. Research shows that doula support improves birth outcomes (<a href="https://evidencebasedbirth.com/the-evidence-for-doulas/">https://evidencebasedbirth.com/the-evidence-for-doulas/</a>). <br />
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The Friends of the Birth Center remains committed to supporting a freestanding birth center in our community and will continue to advocate for this option. We are excited to share that plans are underway for a new community birth center in Lane County! This new organization will make a public announcement soon, which we look forward to sharing. We will continue to update all of you, Nurse Midwifery Birth Center families and the community, regarding where to find your midwives and your birth center in the future. Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-26545329202921819092019-09-13T08:00:00.000-07:002019-10-10T20:37:21.697-07:00Thank You to the Lane County Board of CommissionersHello Lane County Board of Commissioners,<br /><br />The Lane County Friends of the Birth Center would like to express our appreciation for your support of birth center care in our region. We are grateful for the opportunity to educate the Board of Commissioners and the public about the value of midwifery care for so many families across Lane County at the work session you convened. We look forward to your continued support as we pursue ways to ensure that this low-cost, high-quality form of community healthcare remains accessible.<br /><br />The demand for midwifery care in Lane County will not disappear simply because PeaceHealth has decided to close its Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. Women and families in Lane County continue to demand healthcare choice. October marks the beginning of the gap in care that we discussed during our work session. In October, there will be no local hospitals offering 24-7 access to midwife attended births. As of August 31, there is no longer an option for birthing in a freestanding birth center. PeaceHealth continues to staff the Community Health Clinic with midwives to provide prenatal and postpartum care only; those midwives will no longer be allowed to attend births at RiverBend Hospital starting October 1. In addition, we recently learned that the Community Health Clinic stopped accepting clients with private insurance this summer. This means there is nowhere in Lane County where a privately insured pregnant woman can schedule her initial pregnancy care appointment with a Certified Nurse Midwife. We respectfully request that the Board of Commissioners revise this policy so that privately insured women can receive care at the Lane County Prenatal Clinic at the Community Health Clinic. This would prevent loss of access to midwifery care in the clinic setting and would contribute to a healthy start for some of our newest citizens. <br /><br />We hope you agree that this is one concrete way to make midwifery care accessible to more people in Lane County. We look forward to your response. Please contact Lane County Friends of the Birth Center if we can provide more information or assistance.<br /><br />We appreciate your ongoing support as we work together to ensure access to midwifery care in Lane County!<br /><br />Thank you,<br /><br />Lane County Friends of the Birth CenterLane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-57313400037935149092019-08-27T07:00:00.000-07:002019-08-29T17:33:01.689-07:00An Open Letter To Our Community: PeaceHealth Ignores Community Concerns and Fails to Address Gaps in Care<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">August 27, 2019</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An Open Letter To Our Community: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We all desire safe, healthy, and supportive births for families in our community. We recognize the important role that hospitals and obstetricians play in helping our community achieve those goals and recognize the need for PeaceHealth and Women’s Care to improve and expand the services they offer. However, we also believe that families have the right to birth in a place and with a provider where they feel safest and most supported, which may </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> be a hospital or with an obstetrician. We are concerned that PeaceHealth’s </span><a href="https://www.peacehealth.org/sites/default/files/birth-center-fact-sheet.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">latest “fact” sheet</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is misleading, confusing, and does little to address community concerns about the elimination of a birth center option and the reduction of midwifery services. The “midwifery model of care” is a </span><a href="https://www.midwife.org/Our-Philosophy-of-care" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">specific model of care</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that has similarities to, but is not synonymous with “maternity care,” “women’s health,” or “obstetrical services.” In addition, a low-risk, in-hospital model does not fully replicate the unique attributes of a freestanding birth center. What PeaceHealth is proposing does not expand birth plan choices, nor does it allow all birth providers to practice fully and autonomously according to their unique scopes of practice. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the building itself may remain open, after August 31 there will be no more births at the NMBC, thus no more </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">birth </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">center. No new clients have been accepted for months, the dozens of prenatal clients due after August will have to make alternate plans, and gynecological clients will be forced to find new providers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The NMBC facility was not a pre-existing facility that was retrofitted to be a birth center. When nearly 200 donors gave $774,000 toward the project (PeaceHealth may quibble with this number, but </span><a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOMQyjwSEZni8xsrBBHMrEkcMpWiTVesK40ZDCVKH_pb7NqmvodGU_LFGLh8-Vj2A/photo/AF1QipM5kA9vFG7uhWpH81b_DGSYOZSxX6XDQN3B-q0f?key=ckpCc1o0NFJaWnY0TDhaR3JEUlhlQ1FoMHVkWl93" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it is public record</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), the building was constructed uniquely and purposefully as a birth center. Re-naming and re-purposing the birth center for anything else will diminish its value and is insulting to the donors, who </span><a href="https://www.peacehealth.org/foundation/sacred-heart/Pages/donor-bill-of-rights" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">have a right to expect</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that their gifts will be used according to the original vision.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PeaceHealth: We are committed to ensuring continuity of care as we transition services and do not anticipate gaps in care. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Birth center services are </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> transitioning. Birth center births are being </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">eliminated</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, all birth center midwives are being terminated, and PeaceHealth has no future plans to offer out-of-hospital births. No matter how home-like a hospital makes its labor and delivery rooms, a low-risk, in-hospital model will never be a free-standing birth center </span><a href="https://www.birthcenters.org/page/bce_what_is_a_bc" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as defined by the American Association of Birth Centers</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This results in a total gap in community birth center care, even as national and global public health initiatives are calling for the </span><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/birt.12430?fbclid=IwAR3D0Zbc5diw1Y7nkv379dcSmHAHVTCii2H7KS6r7SyljCt4CAUNhvewrF8&#.XNGDXPErXq8.facebook" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">scaling up of the birth center model</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the </span><a href="https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/topics/quality-of-care/midwifery/strengthening-midwifery-education/en/?fbclid=IwAR2QmhMKVPHs9hKyAfqO3TdMNuoGmmYswRRvH9NJBlTbjmb1BlgZ8Mw7chM" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">increase of midwifery services</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 2018 nearly 25% of all </span><a href="https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/BIRTHDEATHCERTIFICATES/VITALSTATISTICS/BIRTH/Documents/2018/facilcesarean18.pdf?fbclid=IwAR12ZTAEMwq1bc5Jyn7B7NZf2-DjkhIyYFIPOMEY5IUwOA8c2pvWnr8RT2c" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">vaginal births at RiverBend</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> were attended by NMBC midwives (in addition to the 70 birth center births). After September 30, 2019, it is fair to anticipate that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">there will be no guarantee of a CNM-attended birth at RiverBend for the foreseeable future</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This does little to ensure continuity of care, or the “smooth, seamless transition” PeaceHealth has promised to midwife clients.</span></div>
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<li><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the time being, clients on the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) will still be able to access midwifery services at the Community Health Prenatal Clinic, but this privilege is not available for women with any other insurance type. Furthermore, these OHP clients will no longer be able to birth with the midwives they have come to know and trust during their prenatal care, but will instead be assisted by whichever doctor is on call at the hospital when they arrive in labor.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">None of the current NMBC midwives are on-boarding to work at Women’s Care.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Women’s Care is in the process of hiring CNMs from out of the area, and hopes to have </span><a href="https://www.womenscare.com/midwifery/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">three in place by October 1</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. However, new Women’s Care clients will not be able to see a midwife until they have met first with an obstetrician, and the practice is unable to guarantee a midwife for deliveries. Even when a Women’s Care midwife </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> available, she will be partnered with an OB for the birth, as hospital by-laws require that new practitioners be closely proctored for several births, depending on their level of experience. While we wish these new CNMs all the best, there is no way that these three providers will be able to fulfill the promised seamless transition for the hundreds of midwifery patients who were formerly served by 11 established midwives at the NMBC. </span></li>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This will NOT be a midwife-led practice. This will be an physician-run, hospital-based practice. While there may be midwives, this is not a guarantee that clients will be truly experiencing the midwifery model of care, which is fundamentally different in scope and practice from a medical model. Furthermore, outside of home-based midwifery, for the first time in 40 years there will be NO out-of-hospital birth center option in Lane County.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PeaceHealth: PeaceHealth will continue to offer midwife-led, low-intervention deliveries.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In partnership with Women’s Care, our goal is to expand, not limit, these services including midwifery, overall well woman care, prenatal and postpartum care, including lactation support.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once the NMBC closes PeaceHealth will outsource midwifery care to Women’s Care, an independent physician group with its own business priorities, mission, and values. PeaceHealth will no longer be the employer for midwives at RiverBend, thus PeaceHealth cannot guarantee our community anything midwifery related. PeaceHealth ultimately has no control over whether or not midwifery-led, low-risk deliveries remain a top priority at RiverBend (as we have recently seen when Women’s Care decided not to renew its contract with the NMBC).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No matter how many “new” services are offered, eliminating a CNM out-of-hospital birth center option, and allowing one private practice to monopolize maternity care at RiverBend is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not giving women access to more birth plan choices</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While many wrap-around services will continue to be available to the community, they will </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">no longer be housed in one common space</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Rather than one location where women can access all of their health needs, clients will have to go to multiple locations (and possibly multiple providers and/or community organizations) to access prenatal care, labor and birth, postpartum support, and gynecological services. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">PeaceHealth’s promise in letters to current clients informing them of the impending closure: “This is a sacred time and we are committed to providing you with the most supportive and compassionate care possible. We look forward to keeping you informed and meeting your health needs well into the future.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Reality:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thus far, this “supportive and compassionate care” amounts to nothing more than sending out letters informing current clients of the dates by which they will need to find new providers. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Women’s Care was asked to extend its contract with the NMBC through the Fall so that current prenatal clients would not have to change providers in the middle of their pregnancy, but Women’s Care declined. Even if a client goes into labor on September 30, at midnight on October 1 the NMBC midwives will no longer be allowed to attend the birth at RiverBend.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is presumptuous for PeaceHealth or Women’s Care to think that women will readily transfer their care to a new practice and a new provider (as many </span><a href="https://nbc16.com/news/local/peacehealths-decision-to-close-midwifery-drastically-changes-several-local-mothers-plans" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">current clients</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> have already </span><a href="https://www.klcc.org/post/springfield-birth-center-closure-forces-moms-be-make-new-birth-plans-5" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">eloquently expressed</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). NMBC clients understand and value the nuances of midwifery care, and do not take lightly the fact that they are being stripped of their right to an informed choice about what is best for their own bodies and their family’s health. Pregnancy is not an illness and there are many reasons that families would prefer not to birth in a hospital. Many current clients have already made the decision to birth at home or at other accredited birth centers outside of Lane County in response to the NMBC closure. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PeaceHealth: PeaceHealth will continue to partner with community organizations to provide prenatal services to the underserved, including those on OHP, Medicaid, CAWEM or without coverage. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Reality: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We sincerely hope this is true, but have heard many stories from women on OHP who have difficulty transferring to independent providers. While hospitals can not lawfully turn away patients on Medicaid, private practice offices do not have this same restriction, and are known to reject these clients due to the lower Medicaid reimbursement rates. In other instances, while clients are waiting for their OHP or Medicaid to be approved, they must pay up front for initial services, which is a barrier to receiving vital prenatal care. Many private providers also establish expectations of patients that can be difficult to meet for women who face language barriers, childcare and transportation challenges, or financial hardship.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PeaceHealth has not given its 90-day notice of a change in contract to the Community Health Clinic, thus they continue to be responsible for providing care for these prenatal clients. Given that PeaceHealth has already demonstrated its willingness to renege on its commitments to midwifery clients at the NMBC, we sincerely hope they keep their commitment here.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Research by the </span><a href="https://innovation.cms.gov/Files/reports/strongstart-prenatal-fg-finalevalrpt.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Center for Medicaid and Medicare Improvement</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, in which our own NMBC participated, found that the birth center model of care, in particular, provides an important corrective to the challenges related to social determinants for the health of mothers and families in our community, and recommends birth centers play an </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">increasing</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> role, not a diminished one.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PeaceHealth: We’ve had numerous conversations with representatives of LaneCoFBC and have invited them on several occasions to work with us to help identify what our future model of obstetrics care will look like as part of our community advisory committee.</span></div>
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The Reality:</div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are the Lane County Friends of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Birth Center</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Our mission, which remains unchanged, is to represent the consumer voice in support of the unique services offered by a midwife-led, freestanding, accredited birth center. While we applaud PeaceHealth’s desire to improve birth experiences at the hospital for those who desire or need them, our role is to advocate for continued access to the birth center model of care, which pregnant people also have a right to choose. We have documented our interactions with PeaceHealth officials </span><a href="https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/2019/06/correcting-peacehealth-call-to-action-1.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The local community (including </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19wUeY09yBS6XY_B4OWHaCg9OKC4rodSd/view" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">birth center clients</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wgQnEHwdBBbmYYkl-7Mj2i7iJcts-b0-/view" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">midwives</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="http://docs.google.com/document/d/1WUgAhZ38J13fha0EWbtboZLlXx807ewA2tEcwE1aJC0/edit" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">elected</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q_EL4CD5l3LWA2PJC5nOjjpsgtLmMsbxyX8fkCqzm0g/edit" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">government </span></a><a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOSHVb8lJbBRFr7qFE7oIw_vvVMyZhR2XmRpiQ-UhySPWGYnRABd6itw95fkVykHQ/photo/AF1QipOGi-ganZRDrhTzrEtKX_TuNiGTXyFSeTlpeTxW?key=TTh6Qk5UWTBnU0RtWjJxdDdDdzlVd3hNam00b2l3" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">officials</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/2019/07/open-letter-by-28-physician-healthcare.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">physicians and providers</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QIRDJ7mTqvWKV87fcwVEz0hDVETYk2fl/view" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">non-profit organizations</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and </span><a href="https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/2019/07/65-donors-to-peacehealth-keep-nurse.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation donors</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) has already provided a great deal of input to PeaceHealth about the kind of birth choices our community desires and deserves, but PeaceHealth has chosen to ignore this input.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The current hospital work group organizational structure is heavily weighted towards obstetricians and hospital administrators, rather than CNMs and birth center staff--their own local experts on low-risk, physiologic birth who have been practicing a robust, evidence-based, fully-integrated model of care for many years within the PeaceHealth system. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But....are birth centers safe??? </span></div>
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<a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198912283212606" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two large-scale U.S. studies</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jmwh.12003" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">30 years apart</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (the second in which our own NMBC participated) both demonstrated that the birth center model of care is not only safe, but that it also consistently produces significantly lower rates of cesarean sections, premature birth, and low birth weights, as well as higher rates of breastfeeding success–all while saving the health care system millions of dollars. </span><a href="https://www.midwiferyjournal.com/article/S0266-6138(18)30097-4/pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Systemic reviews</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of studies on </span><a href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004667.pub5/full" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">birth center data</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> show maternal and fetal outcomes for low-risk women that are equivalent to or better than women who deliver in a hospital, with </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26773853" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">higher degrees of client satisfaction</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialists have </span><a href="https://www.acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/Obstetric-Care-Consensus-Series/Levels-of-Maternal-Care?IsMobileSet=false&fbclid=IwAR23us2ybTd6C6IYZNJ8-jg8L7YNwIX5n47ZtBLHpHfm3klq3W8mBrT3tdU" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">explicitly endorsed</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> accredited, freestanding birth centers as an “integral part of regionalized care” in their August 2019 levels of maternity care obstetric care consensus, and as part of the solution to improving maternal and fetal outcomes. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our NMBC has shown a commitment to excellence and safety from its inception as one of the oldest nationally-accredited birth centers in the country. Not only is the NMBC regularly reviewed by the </span><a href="https://www.birthcenteraccreditation.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to ensure it is adhering to best practices, outside consultants hired by PeaceHealth also praised the birth center as the “jewel” of PeaceHealth’s maternity system. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The NMBC is staffed by Certified Nurse Midwives, all of whom are recognized as licensed, </span><a href="https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/viewSingleRule.action?ruleVrsnRsn=216446" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fully independent practitioners under Oregon state law</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and who have exceeded the international standards for midwifery education and training, which have also been </span><a href="https://www.acog.org/About-ACOG/News-Room/Statements/2015/ACOG-Endorses-the-International-Confederation-of-Midwives-Standards-for-Midwifery-Education" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">endorsed by ACOG</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. While CNMs in Oregon consult with obstetricians as needed, they are recognized as autonomous providers with prescribing privileges, and do not need the supervision of physicians in order to practice safely or legally. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Planned hospital births also have </span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0091218292902404" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">inherent risks</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, including significantly </span><a href="https://www.mhtf.org/2017/01/24/the-global-epidemic-of-unnecessary-cesarean-sections-part-1/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">higher rates of cesarean birth</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and other obstetric interventions, which should also be communicated with clients as a matter of informed consent. Given that </span><a href="https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/maternal-infant-and-child-health/objectives" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">numerous</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://www.jointcommission.org/the_view_from_the_joint_commission/public_reporting_of_high_cesarean_rates_to_begin_in_july_2020/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">public</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)32113-5/fulltext" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">health initiatives</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> are prioritizing the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">lowering </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of non-medically indicated c-section rates, it is surprising that PeaceHealth would choose a private-practice model that </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26348175" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">recent</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25446697" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">studies</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> show is associated with an </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">increased</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> cesarean rate.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1501738?query=featured_home" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2015 OHSU study</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which PeaceHealth has </span><a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20190530/drs-robin-virgin-and-scott-foster-working-together-to-support-healthy-birth-choices" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">cited as evidence</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for the need to move all births to RiverBend, does not, in fact, conclude that community births be eliminated, but rather that “Oregon women are very likely to have a safe delivery in any setting." The authors of the study also acknowledge that a major limitation of their research was that the data did not distinguish between types of out-of-hospital birth (including birth center births, home births, and births unattended by any health care professional). Nor did the data distinguish between the varied levels of training among out-of-hospital providers. To improve safety further, the authors of the study do not propose moving all births to a hospital labor and delivery unit, but rather encourage better collaboration and communication between all types of providers. They also recommend looking to countries with better integrated maternity care systems, like the Netherlands or the United Kingdom, where </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">midwives are the lead care providers for healthy women. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Beyond preventing maternal and newborn deaths, quality midwifery care improves over 50 other health-related outcomes, including in sexual and reproductive health, immunization, breastfeeding, tobacco cessation in pregnancy, malaria, TB, HIV and obesity in pregnancy, early childhood development and postpartum depression.” </span></div>
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<a href="https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/topics/quality-of-care/midwifery/strengthening-midwifery-education/en/?fbclid=IwAR2QmhMKVPHs9hKyAfqO3TdMNuoGmmYswRRvH9NJBlTbjmb1BlgZ8Mw7chM" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">~The World Health Organization on why they declared </span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/topics/quality-of-care/midwifery/strengthening-midwifery-education/en/?fbclid=IwAR2QmhMKVPHs9hKyAfqO3TdMNuoGmmYswRRvH9NJBlTbjmb1BlgZ8Mw7chM" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2020 the Year of the Nurse and Midwife</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sincerely,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Lane County Friends of the Birth Center</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Board Members:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lynn Kane, PhD</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Co-Chair, Lane County Friends of the Birth Center</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Commissioner, Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mother of two birth center babies (born 2010, 2012)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ann Carney Nelson</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">COO, Inpria Corporation</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Co-Chair, Lane County Friends of the Birth Center</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mother of two birth center babies (born 2012, 2015)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Katharine Gallagher, MPP</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Founding member & Former Chair, Lane County Friends of the Birth Center</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Former Commissioner, Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Centro Latino Americano, Social Services</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mother of two babies, one VBAC baby at hospital cared for by the birth center midwives (born 2005, 2007)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Heather LeCompte, MA in Counseling</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mother of one birth center baby (born 2015)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jennifer Noyce, PhD</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mother of two birth center babies (born 2012, 2014)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teresa Roark, MPH</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mother of one birth center baby (born 2018)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lindsay Selser</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Communications and Policy Analyst--Planning and Development Department, City of Eugene</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Board of Directors, Sexual Assault Support Services</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mother of two birth center babies (born 2014, 2016)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rabbi Jacob Siegel</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Father of two birth center babies (born 2017, 2019)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kathy Lynn</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Matt Huston</span></div>
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Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-49019115293310847242019-08-15T09:51:00.001-07:002019-08-15T09:51:44.353-07:00Update on the July 31 Board of Commissioners Work Session<br /><div>
Thanks to the powerful voices of our community members,elected officials are responding to our insistence that we must continue to have a community Birth Center. As a result of our participation in Board of Commissioners’ public comment meetings, the Board convened a work session on July 31 to discuss and begin the necessary work to solve the challenges presented by PeaceHealth's abrupt decision to close the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. </div>
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<br />At the work session, stakeholders were invited to discuss ways to ensure that Lane County families have continued access to integrated Birth Center care. The invitees were Lane County Health & Human Services, PeaceHealth, the Oregon Health Authority, the governor's office, and Lane County Friends of the Birth Center. The Friends took a strong stance in the meeting, arguing that closing the Birth Center will create a gap in prenatal and maternity care that is harmful to our community, and that PeaceHealth's actions limit birth choice. <br /><br />PeaceHealth declined to attend the meeting. This is consistent with its ongoing refusal to engage with the community it purports to serve. PeaceHealth's refusal to work alongside other stakeholders toward solutions is revealing: PeaceHealth does not believe that it is accountable to the officials we have elected to represent our interests. PeaceHealth rejected an opportunity to engage in a process of problem-solving that could have resulted in a productive solution to the gap in care that our community is facing. Instead, PeaceHealth refused to answer for its actions, and left the other stakeholders in this fight to do the work of solving the problem.<br /><br />We were very well-received by our Board of Commissioners. Every commissioner agrees with Friends of the Birth Center that integrated midwifery care is an asset to our community, and understands that it is a low-cost, high-touch model of care that contributes to best outcomes for mothers and babies. The Friends of the Birth Center feels gratified that throughout this process we have been able to educate our elected officials and community members about the benefits of Birth Center care. <br /><br />Together, stakeholders explored a variety of ways that we can both ensure Birth Center care in Lane County and mitigate the immediate effects of the Birth Center's closure. While Commissioner Bozievich cautioned that it would be a mistake for the Board of Commissioners to offer false hope, the other four commissioners inquired about how the County might be able to help our community accomplish our goal of continuing access to a free-standing birth center in Lane County <br /><br />One potential outcome we explored is that PeaceHealth lease the Birth Center building to a group of midwives and nurses who are actively making plans for a new autonomous freestanding Birth Center. We also discussed how the Board of Commissioners can assist in lobbying our state congressional delegation to enact a bill that requires birth center care to be reimbursed at a rate that fairly covers the cost of the services. The passage of this bill would ensure the financial stability of Birth Center care. <br /><br />In terms of the more immediate needs of our community, Karen Gaffney, head of Health & Human Services, asserted that the Community Health Clinics, which are currently staffed by PeaceHealth midwives, will continue to provide care and has capacity for more patients. (Though Friends of the Birth Center believes this is a precarious solution, as PeaceHealth has shown its willingness to renege on its commitments to patients). The Commissioners' clear request was that we provide them with specific directives about what they can do to ensure that Birth Center care remains available in Lane County.<br /><br />So…Friends of the Birth Center are currently hard at work on developing these directives! Supporters please feel free to share your ideas and thoughts with us via comment to this blog post We will continue to engage our elected officials, on the County Commission, and at the state and federal levels. The Democratic Party of Lane County has adopted a resolution to support our cause, and will be a powerful ally in communicating our concerns to our senators and representatives. <br /><br />We aim to make insurance providers fairly reimburse in our state in the future, and we are also finding ways to support and advocate for those members of our community who are currently pregnant and will lose their midwifery care in the midst of the Birth Center's closure. <br /><br />Friends of the Birth Center’s mission remains the same and we will continue our efforts to ensure the existence of a freestanding accredited birth center in Lane County, and share the voice of consumers affected by the Birth Center closure. . <br /><br />Please contact us if you want to be part of this problem-solving process!: lanecofbc@gmail.com<br /><br />You can watch the webcast of the July 31 Board of Commissioners' work session here: <a href="https://lanecounty.org/how_do_i/view/webcasts">https://lanecounty.org/how_do_i/view/webcasts</a></div>
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Media Coverage can be found here:</div>
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<a href="https://nbc16.com/news/local/supporters-of-springfield-birthing-center-make-their-voices-heard-at-work-session-07-31-2019" target="_blank">KMTR/KVAL</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.registerguard.com/news/20190731/birth-center-advocates-get-moral-support-from-commissioners" target="_blank">Register Guard</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
Lynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02349383275519372962noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-91753770177613712712019-07-23T01:05:00.000-07:002019-07-27T15:56:55.873-07:00Open Letter by 30 Physician & Healthcare Providers: Keep the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center<div style="text-align: right;">
Background Materials:</div>
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/11QgUV9_PwzzOEm8Shx7LZuogbOkN-Ae4UfS6Gq42okI/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Press Release</a></div>
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScxHe_v5G2Q7uwtf17ksWwftOZ6-AUlxCMFuhIb091YlkyO6Q/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank">July 23 Board of Commissioners Meeting</a></div>
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<a href="https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/2019/07/65-donors-to-peacehealth-keep-nurse.html" target="_blank">65 Donors Unhappy with PeaceHealth</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On behalf of Lane County Friends of the Birth Center, Dr. Thomas N. Ewing has invited physician and provider colleagues in Lane County to add their name to an open letter addressed to the community. The letter voices support for the continued operation of the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center in its current form as a freestanding, outpatient facility offering the full complement of services women value. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are a Lane County physician or provider colleague, you are welcome to join letter. Click </span><a href="https://forms.gle/M5mJfNbMQEWFv5869" style="background-color: transparent; text-align: right; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">HERE</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to do so. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Ewing is a long-time supporter and advocate for the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. He played a critical leadership role, as PeaceHealth Chief Medical Group Officer, during the construction and 2010 re-opening of the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center in Springfield. A family physician for more than 30 years, he currently serves as the vice president of medical services for Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon. </span></div>
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July 23, 2019</div>
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An Open Letter to the Community:</div>
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We have had the collective privilege of practicing in Lane County for decades. The health and wellbeing of our patients and the larger community is of utmost importance to us. We do not support PeaceHealth’s plans to close the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. We are supporters for continued access by women and families to the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center in its current form as a freestanding, outpatient facility offering the full complement of services women value. <br />
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We agree with PeaceHealth Doctors Robin Virgin and Scott Foster in their editorial published May 30th that all Lane County women need to have access to a range of affordable, safe, birthing options. Equally important is the ability to make an informed choice about where and how to give birth and that the care received, regardless of setting, is empowering and respectful. Women in this community consistently demand out of hospital birth in the freestanding Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. For this reason, we urge PeaceHealth to not only keep the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center open but to look for ways to expand this evidence-based and fully integrated model of care.<br />
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The PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center is a nationally-accredited birth center staffed by Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs), who are registered nurses with masters or doctoral degrees. This model of care has been endorsed by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialists (source) and is associated with a wide variety of improved clinical outcomes including fewer cesarean births, and fewer infants born prematurely or with low birthweight source. As doctors Virgin and Foster point out many women today are making different choices about when to give birth than their mothers and grandmothers, including having babies later in life. Women can have healthy pregnancies and low-risk births well into their 30s or beyond. The average age of first birth in Lane County is 26 <span id="docs-internal-guid-616994ad-7fff-d590-2ba5-3ca45773da97"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(source </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/04/upshot/up-birth-age-gap.html?mtrref=undefined&gwh=585B51CF8A6843AB5D868AA6CECD7F0A&gwt=pay" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></span>, which is not associated with increased risk.<br />
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The Nurse Midwifery Birth Center midwifery program is fully integrative. The midwifery team practices at the Birth Center, the RiverBend Hospital, and the Lane County Community Health Clinic (CHC). The midwives provide outstanding bilingual and bicultural prenatal care at CHC. The midwives are the only practice in town providing both out-of-hospital and in-hospital birth and they do not limit the number of women served on the Oregon Health Plan.<br />
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In 2018 the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwives cared for hundreds of families providing over 3,500 clinic visits and attending 388 hospital births and 70 birth center births. The cesarean rate was 15% compared to 39.6% for Sacred Heart Medical Center – RiverBend when midwife assisted births are not included. Multiple national and international organizations including the World Health Organization and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have called for efforts to reduce the cesarean rate.<br />
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Studies done in the United States have not been able to differentiate between different types of planned out of hospital births (for example between births at a free-standing birth center vs home births) this is true for the study recently published by researchers at Oregon Health and Sciences University referenced by Doctors Virgin and Foster. The study authors recognized this limitation of their study. They concluded that, based on European research showing out-of-hospital birth can be a safe option, the U.S. health system could benefit, not from eliminating out-of-hospital options, but from improved integration between out-of-hospital and in-hospital providers. This sounds a lot like the current model of care at the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center which women and families in this community demand.<br />
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In addition to serving this community as physicians and other healthcare professionals, some of us were also donors to the capital campaign which built the current Nurse Midwifery Birth Center alongside Sacred Heart Medical Center – RiverBend. We remain committed to the long-term investment we made with PeaceHealth to ensure safe, evidence based birth options, including out of hospital, at the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center.<br />
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Sincerely,<br />
Thomas N. Ewing, M.D<br />
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And the 30 undersigned:<br />
AlexAnn Westlake CNM<br />
Annie Snyder DNP, CNM,NMNP<br />
Anonymous<br />
Anonymous<br />
Catherine B Kordesch MD<br />
Christine Heritage, CNM<br />
Cindy Kaufman, MS, CNM<br />
Debbie Fuerth, MD<br />
Debbie Jensen BSN, M.Ed., IBCLC<br />
Desiree Larson, RN<br />
Diana R Beck MS, CNM, FACNM<br />
Dorothy Shannon, CNM<br />
Dr John B Holtzapple III, RN, MD<br />
Hilary Prager NMNP MPH<br />
Holly Russell, RN, CLC<br />
Jeremy T Brown, MD<br />
Jimmy Unger, MD<br />
Jude Hales RN, IBCLC<br />
Kanya DelPozzo, CNM, IBCLC<br />
Kirsten Camerer<br />
Linda Frison, MD<br />
Maggie Muellner CNM/NP <br />
Mary Carpenter, CNM, FNP<br />
Matthew Calzia, BSN, RN<br />
Michele Peters-Carr, CNM<br />
Monique Carroll, DO<br />
Rana Halabi, PhD, RN, CPNP<br />
Victoria SkellCerf, MD<br />
Vern Katz, MD<br />
Wendy Lang FNP<br />
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<br />Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-66779352935389253592019-07-09T06:11:00.000-07:002019-07-09T06:11:30.885-07:0065 Donors to PeaceHealth: Keep Nurse Midwifery Birth Center or Return Donations<div style="text-align: right;">
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Background materials:</h4>
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T0TJ29kTb0Y5G7vWTRC76mEUGVbFhsWbnbqk2mmz6E8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Press Release</a></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mxk3QSqhBFit3wN59FtcbwmP217klh0Y/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Constituents appeal to Board of Commissioners</a></div>
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qjYyjbcB8QobTv_tLKlOU79G-xb2I8A1UNsD8xvbFjo/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qjYyjbcB8QobTv_tLKlOU79G-xb2I8A1UNsD8xvbFjo/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">What's the problem?</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">PUBLIC LETTER TO PEACEHEALTH </span></h2>
To:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W2Hzw6Focqg/XR6Qn5EXtMI/AAAAAAAACuY/FIhlPp3iUY4kCC70ubGfRVqfP8bovJlGACEwYBhgL/s1600/Donor%2BCollage_Fotor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" height="255" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W2Hzw6Focqg/XR6Qn5EXtMI/AAAAAAAACuY/FIhlPp3iUY4kCC70ubGfRVqfP8bovJlGACEwYBhgL/s320/Donor%2BCollage_Fotor.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;"><b>Donors are invited to add their name<br />to this letter. </b></span><b style="color: #444444; font-size: medium; text-align: right;">Click <a href="https://forms.gle/2TB5eFjL5RpszEiA8" target="_blank">here</a>. </b></td></tr>
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<li>PeaceHealth Foundation Board of Directors </li>
<li>Liz Dunne, President and CEO</li>
<li>Richard DeCarlo, EVP and COO</li>
<li>Mary Kingston, Chief Executive, PeaceHealth Oregon</li>
<li>Todd Salnas, COO, PeaceHealth Oregon</li>
<li>Mike Metcalf, Chief Executive, PeaceHealth Medical Group</li>
<li>Dr. Scott Foster, MPH, Chief Medical Executive, PeaceHealth Medical Group</li>
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Dear PeaceHealth Leadership:<br />
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We are donors to the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center and we are writing to ask you for our money back.</div>
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PeaceHealth's Nurse Midwifery Birth Center has been serving our community since the late 1970s. Nine years ago, we donated to help create a new home for the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center, adjacent to the RiverBend hospital location. This site is a crucial piece of the birth center model of care.</div>
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At that time, PeaceHealth made a commitment to us as donors, as well as to the broader community. It was a commitment based deeply in PeaceHealth mission and values. We believed we were investing in a long-term commitment to a sustainable care model by contributing building funds through the Sacred Heart Medical Foundation.</div>
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The Nurse Midwifery Birth Center is the only maternity care practice in town that attends births both in the hospital and in a free-standing birth center. This provides continuity of care for families who prefer an out-of-hospital birth. The Nurse Midwifery Birth Center does not restrict the number of women on Medicaid in their care as often happens in other practices. Closing the birth center would mean less equitable access to quality care and is in direct contradiction to PeaceHealth's stated value of the just distribution of resources.</div>
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Our Nurse Midwifery Birth Center provides a model of care that offers an important corrective to the challenges related to social determinants for the health of mothers and families in our community. The birth center contributes to significantly lower rates of pre-term birth, low birth weight, and cesarean sections. All three of these have been identified as key national objectives for increasing maternal, infant and child health. Closing the birth center would significantly under serve families in our community.</div>
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This is the third attempt by PeaceHealth to close the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. Every time the community speaks resolutely to ensure these threats are not realized. Breaking this commitment is a violation of PeaceHealth’s core value of ethical and responsible stewardship.</div>
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We realize that with significant turnover recently among senior leadership roles, some may not yet understand the legacy of the commitment PeaceHealth made to us as donors and to the community. We hope you will take the time to educate yourselves. Ultimately, we need a renewed commitment from PeaceHealth, one that respects the birth center model of care, empowers birthing mothers, and supports the midwives who serve them. When this happens, the whole community benefits.</div>
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In the meantime, please return our donations to us.</div>
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Sincerely,<br />
The Undersigned<br />
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Adam Bell<br />
Adam Hughes<br />
Angela Bradley, FNP<br />
Annie Hoag<br />
Austin Bailey<br />
Brian Bradely<br />
Bethel A Edens RN<br />
Bryan Weaver<br />
Charles Heritage<br />
Christine Heritage<br />
Cynthia Hunter, CNM<br />
David Wacks<br />
Debbie Jensen BSM, BSN, M.Ed., IBCLC<br />
Deborah Fuerth, MD<br />
Dennis Carr<br />
Desiree Nelson<br />
Deven Holmgren<br />
Diane Sage<br />
Dr. Catherine B. Kordesch<br />
Dr. David C. Fryefield<br />
Dr. John . Holtzapple<br />
Eden L. Cronk<br />
Eleanor Vandegrift<br />
Emerald Williams<br />
Eric Johnson -<br />
Ginny Dunphy<br />
Greg Jensen<br />
Helen Haberman<br />
Inger Fox-Huston<br />
Jacqueline Weaver<br />
James Stephen Edens ASCP<br />
Jena Price<br />
Jennifer Di Francesco, FNP<br />
Jett Nilprabhassom<br />
Jimmy Unger, MD<br />
John Dunphy<br />
John W. Larson, DMD<br />
Joshua Skov<br />
Joy Hatch<br />
Jude Hales<br />
Judith Eisen<br />
Julie Voelker-Morris<br />
Karen Guillemin<br />
Katharine Gallagher<br />
Kathy Lynn<br />
Keavy Cook<br />
Kirsten Hughes<br />
Linda D. Frison, MD<br />
Lisette Ewing<br />
Lucy B. Stroock<br />
Mary Carpenter, CNM<br />
Matt Huston<br />
Max Gimbel<br />
Michele Peters-Carr, CNM<br />
Mr. Victor Guillemin<br />
Mrs. Victor Guillemin<br />
Ms. Vicki Harkovitch<br />
Rand Kaplan<br />
Renee Bailey<br />
Robert Voelker-Morris<br />
Ryan Turner<br />
Shelly Bosworth<br />
Sylvia Garrett<br />
Todd Bosworth<br />
Tom Ewing<br />
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<br />Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-3025899627009149952019-06-27T08:29:00.000-07:002019-06-27T08:29:05.103-07:00Community member speaks to power and reach of NMBC practice <div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">#birthcentercalltoaction to </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">#SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">With special thanks to Melissa Wilberger, DVM, Lane County Friends of the Birth Center shares the following long version of a letter to the editor she has submitted locally. This letter is one of many actions local supporters of the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center practice are taking to communicate the value and importance of PeaceHealth reversing its plan to close the community's accredited, freestanding birth center which practices in three locations (Charnelton Community Health Clinic, the birth center, and RiverBend hospital). Integrated fully within our local healthcare system, the NMBC provides high quality, low intervention care. This full-spectrum care is supported by international and national imperatives to reverse outcomes - cesarean section, low birth weight, preterm birth, latation challenges - which undermine women and babies. Care at the NMBC serves women throughout their lives, i.e. is not limited to maternity care. Of special importance, too, is that NMBC care is also far (far) more affordable to consumers and insurers. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">See the most recent </span><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u4HXYv4JlK8gY_d3v3ER1RVBCdpuLqJwjhAVUqr9CO8/edit" target="_blank">Call to Action</a> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> for more ideas of how to join this community effort. Lane County Friends of the Birth Center remains committed to working with PeaceHealth leadership to correct course. Unfortunately, our multiple requests to begin this conversation have, so far, been fully dismissed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Melissa Wilberger, DVM's letter:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since hearing of the impending closure of the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center, I have had a lot of firsts. I’ve been participating in my first protesting of anything. I’ve attended my first protest rally. I’ve contacted my elected officials for the first time. My husband thinks I’ve gone crazy and I tell my friends I don’t know what has come over me. I walked into the birth center for a wellness visit (again, another first!) and I was overcome with emotions as I considered this seemingly sacred place being closed. This has led to some introspection. Why is it important? You see, I’m done having babies, so you would think I could let it go. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With my first pregnancy, I was seeing a gynecologist who I was quite comfortable with but didn’t do obstetrics. I requested a referral to midwifery because I had heard it was a good thing. He sent me to the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center with a high recommendation. It was love at first visit. The midwives I met exhibited compassion, a desire to educate, and a willingness to listen. The birth center was welcoming and I decided I wanted a birth there, where I wasn’t regulated or given routine, but unnecessary, procedures. The literature I received didn’t strike my heart with terror, unlike quite a few other obstetrician written books, but instead empowered me with knowledge. The birth classes were predictably awkward but a foundation for all 3 of my births. My birth plan failed as I went over 41 weeks and I was induced in the dreaded hospital. The midwives brought the birth center to me. When my baby came out and was swept away to the NICU, I had the midwife by my side picking out the hope. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After that first child’s scary start, I consented to my husband’s wishes to have hospital births but midwife-led with most my care at the birth center. I went into each birth confident because I had a midwife at my side. My point in sharing my story is to illustrate the birth center and midwives give an empowering, calm, assured experience to allow me to be confident and mentally relaxed during birth. I was able to focus on what was important. Never was a procedure done without requesting my consent in a non-threatening way. Over the years, I’ve also uncovered the many research articles establishing that birth center models of care are the best model for low risk pregnancies to decrease maternal and fetal death. I now rabidly preach to all my pregnant friends and family to go to the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center or find a Certified Nurse Midwife in their area.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In addition, the lactation care I received was amazing and much needed. I didn’t have to go to a foreign place to get help, it was at the birth center. I used their care for all 3 babies, the final one being the toughest. Because all their lactation consultants are certified, I was able to get the immediate care I desired for my baby’s surgical procedure to help nursing. They helped my lactation experience be the best it could be for both me and my babies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Finally, I was blown away with the quality of care during my wellness visit. I liked my gynecologist previously but his care was overshadowed. The midwife not only was thorough in her exam but listened intently to my concerns and addressed them all. I will be returning to the birth center for all my future gynecologic visits, or I’ll return to my lack of preventative health care.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I want all mothers to have access to this amazing, empowering way of approaching women’s health and birth. So, in closing, Peacehealth has sent a few requests for the Lane County Friends of the Birth Center to join in a discussion of how to improve in-hospital birth risks and a long term care model. I would say,”Peacehealth, you have one! It is the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center! So, please, stop being lazy and begin looking for more permanent options beyond contracting with an anti-midwifery practice of OB-GYNs who are threatened by the growing birth center model of care.”</span></div>
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Sincerely and with hope of the best outcome,</div>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Melissa Wilberger, DVM</span></div>
Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-68036657923253356822019-06-25T10:53:00.001-07:002019-06-25T10:53:54.458-07:00Response to "Low Risk Advisory Committee Structure" for in-hospital birth services<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Lane County Friends of the Birth Center has received and responded (see below or click </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NnfxCr1Gc7WGVQxajuZbaQPdvYmfN8QTHm1XccByIGg/edit?usp=sharing" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">) to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">PeaceHealth COO Oregon Region</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Todd Salnas' recent communication regarding an invitation to participate </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">in PeaceHealth's new or newly developing "Low Risk Advisory Committee Structure" plan for in-hospital birth services. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As a consumer advisory group, Lane County Friends of the Birth Center exists to support community access to an accredited, freestanding birth center. Accordingly, we continue to request the opportunity to work with PeaceHealth leadership. The birth center closure plan will remove affordable, high quality care that is both in demand and in line with public health and maternal health initiatives. The Nurse Midwifery Birth Center practice is well integrated within the healthcare system with excellent outcomes in three service locations (the Charnelton Community Health Clinic Prenatal Clinic, the birth center, the hospital). The birth center practice plays a critical role in the provision of excellent care to women insured through the Oregon Health Plan. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Copied on our response to PeaceHealth are the Lane County Board of Commissioners to whom we continue to look to for leadership and assistance. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Friends and supporters, our latest call to action is ready </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u4HXYv4JlK8gY_d3v3ER1RVBCdpuLqJwjhAVUqr9CO8/edit?usp=sharing" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">. </span></div>
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<br />Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-8022495186569712002019-06-17T10:55:00.002-07:002019-06-17T10:58:05.283-07:00Correcting PeaceHealth & Call to Action #1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In this, our twelfth post since PeaceHealth announced its misguided plan to take the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center away from the community, we offer supporters and interested parties a two parter. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">First, is a thoughtful, thorough, and needed response to <a href="https://www.kezi.com/content/news/Birth-center-supporters-rally-at-RiverBend-Hospital-to-protest-closure-510999401.html?fbclid=IwAR1ZJA5Vsf0RGJ6r0-0DSU07UDG9ikFE8N-tn6_DE2c5RCBLIMXK89Mls6k" target="_blank">PeaceHealths' June 7 statement</a> provided to KEZI in advance of our <a href="https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/2019/06/rally-review.html" target="_blank">Rally to #SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter</a>. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Second, is our first <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kInl3Zy522RS15casBFQYAWiHc4y6O46FEYm2xgvQTo/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Call to Action</a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, which invites our community together to speak out loudly and clearly about the importance of preserving our access to the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center for generations to come. Readers can always find the latest action by clicking on a version of this sign on the right margin of this blog. The specifics are also included </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">below. In addition to <span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"><span style="color: #222222;">#<b>S</b></span><b style="color: #222222;">aveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter </b></span><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">, w</b>e will use and encourage others to include <span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"> <b>#birthcentercalltoaction </b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> to amplify our collective grassroots presence online. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before reading, do be sure to look to the right side of this blog to see our growing list of <span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">support received thus far from Congressman DeFazio, Commissioners Sorenson and Berney, Rep. Marty Wilde, and Eugene City Councilor Semple as well as Centro Latino Americano, the Oregon Affiliate of the American College of Nurse Midwifery, and the American Association of Birth Centers. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: black;">1st: Correcting PeaceHealth’s June 7 Statement</span> </span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In advance of our Rally on June 7, PeaceHealth issued the following
statement:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">PeaceHealth’s Mission calls us to provide
safe, sustainable, high-quality care for mothers and families in Lane County.
As our decision to transition Birth Center deliveries to RiverBend has been
made, our focus now is on how to offer an integrated model at RiverBend that
continues midwifery services through partnerships and that preserves the valued
services including prenatal and postpartum care for Lane County women. We are
continuing to explore ways to repurpose the existing Birth Center facility to provide
enhanced family-centered services for our community.</span> </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Our invitation to the Lane County Friends of the
Birth Center leadership continues to be extended and we look forward to
including them in our planning process. We value their viewpoint and share their
desire to provide Lane County women with a spectrum of birth plan choices. It
is our sincere hope that we will work together to make sure all expectant
mothers enjoy safe, meaningful and empowering childbirth experiences today and
well into the future.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><b>We would like to respond to this statement to provide some clarifying
details.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">PeaceHealth has invited a representative from the Lane County Friend of
the Birth Center to participate in a Work Group that will be tasked with
defining and designing the new low risk in -hospital model of care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We first learned of this Work Group on May 7,
during our first conversation with a member of PeaceHealth’s administration,
Dr. Scott Foster, Chief Medical Executive for PeaceHealth Medical Group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We held three informal information-gathering
meetings with Dr. Foster on May 7, May 8, and May 15.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These meetings were held during the work day
at Coffee Plant Roasters and Friendly Street Market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To aid in our information gathering, over the
past few weeks we have also posed a number of questions via text to Dr. Foster
and have received his responses via text.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have appreciated his responsiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Additionally we have collectively had 5 brief and unscheduled phone
conversations with Todd Salnas, COO.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
first one was on May 15 around 11:30am when he called each of our co-chairs to
cancel our meeting at 3pm that afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This was shortly after we posted our statement about the birth center closure on the blog, as well as a post about meeting with Mr. Salnas, so the timing
appears to be more than coincidental.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When we pressed for an alternative meeting time he suggested he wouldn’t
be ready to meet with us for another two weeks or so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s unclear why he would have scheduled our
May 15 meeting if he was not in fact ready to meet with us, unless that had
been just for show.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Todd Salnas called us again on May 22. In this phone call we
specifically requested that he take a tour of the Birth Center (since, despite
already agreeing to close it, he had never actually been to the Birth
Center).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also clearly and
specifically requested a meeting in which our larger board could have the
opportunity to voice the concerns of our greater community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Todd Salnas caucused with his team and responded to us on May 23, via
phone, stating the PeaceHealth Administration “only wants to convene with
people who want to talk about the future.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We were frustrated and disappointed to hear this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We pushed for more details about the Work
Group and they still didn’t exist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">On Friday, May 31, Todd Salnas indicated via email that they were
working on draft charters for this Work Group and hoped to have something to
share with us in two weeks or less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
was 11 days ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">On Wednesday June 12, we called Todd Salnas to get an update on the
Work Group process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had heard there
was a meeting yesterday and wanted to understand the nature of it and the
status of our invitation to participate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The meeting was among the project leadership and they intend to send us
a copy of their draft project charter, participant structure, anticipated
project timeline and schedule, etc. early next week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this call we again expressed our
frustration with how PeaceHealth administration is handling this situation and
unlike their predecessors have not engaged directly in person with our
community in collaborative problem solving to discuss potential ways to keep
the Birth Center open beyond August 30.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">In our very first meeting with Scott Foster on May 7, he indicated a
desire to have the in-hospital low risk model plan all worked out by the end of
June in order to give PeaceHealth time to execute on the plan and be ready to
provide these services on Sept. 1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Considering
the current status of the Work Group it’s hard to imagine how a plan could be
finalized, let alone executed upon, by Sept. 1. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The PeaceHealth Oregon CEO has continued to refuse a direct meeting with
Lane County Friends of the Birth Center;</b> and while other staff members
have offered informal time, they have cancelled all formal meetings without
rescheduling. If PeaceHealth truly wants to 'include us in their planning
process,' they ought to meet with us, the official consumer group of the Nurse
Midwifery Birth Center and be prepared to hear our concerns as advocates for
the midwifery-led birth center model of care.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span>
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">2nd: Call to Action</span></span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Following is our first Call to Action correspondence with community members who want to take concrete steps toward ensuring we preserve access to our midwifery-led and freestanding birth center which, among many, many important services, also provides out of hospital birth to women and families. Supporters, any and all action matters and is appreciated. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Remember to use:</b></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><b>#birthcentercalltoaction </b></span><b style="background-color: white;"> </b><span style="background-color: white;">and</span><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"> #</span></span><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; color: #222222;"><b>S</b></span><b style="background-color: #f4cccc; color: #222222;">aveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter</b><b style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">when posting anywhere online. This way, each of our individual efforts can amplify the collective whole. </span></span><br />
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</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">June 15, 2019</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: white; color: black;">Dear Birth Center Supporter,</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">THANK YOU for your
participation in an amazing rally #SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter! </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Our vocal and visible presence
sent a clear message to leadership at PeaceHealth and to our larger community:
WE DESERVE A BIRTH CENTER! It was incredible to see our community come
out in force to insist that families in our region should have healthcare <b><span style="font-size: small;">CHOICE</span></b>,
that we are the decision-makers about where our healthcare <b>MONEY</b> goes,
and that current <b>DATA</b> supports our knowledge that birth center care
improves outcomes for mothers and babies. Friends of the Birth Center,
the consumer advisory board, is proud to advocate with and on behalf of this
vibrant and knowledgeable community!</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Now we appreciate and invite
YOU--our living, breathing, birthing, nursing, parenting community members--to
continue stepping in to keep this fight alive! PeaceHealth would like to
wait us out; they are betting that we will lose momentum and get quiet, at which
point they can close our Nurse Midwifery Birth Center without consequences to
them. But that’s not going to happen!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If we each take some time and effort over the coming weeks, we can
continue to keep our fight in the public eye, and therefore keep PeaceHealth
accountable to us and to the public it purports to serve.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">To that end, we will send a
WEEKLY CALL TO ACTION with specific requests. If our entire grassroots
community steps up to complete these tasks, we will keep our fight in the
public eye and force PeaceHealth to engage. We hope the WEEKLY CALL TO
ACTION will make it straightforward, concrete, and easy for Birth Center
supporters to participate; any effort you can make is appreciated, and the more
we can do the better!</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">For this week, our focus is on
keeping our fight visible to PeaceHealth administration and the media. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><b>WEEKLY ACTION #1: </b>Call Mary
Kingston, the PeaceHealth RiverBend CEO, and demand that she hold a formal
in-person meeting with the Friends of the Birth Center - as previous RiverBend
administrators have done - to discuss potential solutions and
alternatives to closing the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">PeaceHealth RiverBend
administration has refused to accommodate to our repeated meeting requests
unless we agree to only talk about the nebulous future in-hospital model.
So now we flood them with calls!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Call every day, if you like. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Here is Mary Kingston’s contact
information: </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">(541) 222-2159</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">You may find it useful to
reference this article, in which Mary Kingston discusses her role and values as
a healthcare administrator:</span><a href="https://www.registerguard.com/news/20180904/new-peacehealth-oregon-chief-excutive-mary-kingston-finds-call-to-serve-in-eugene"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; text-decoration: none;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc;">Mary Kingston RG article</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Take video of yourself making
your call! Post it to the Friends of the Birth Center Facebook page,Tweet
with .@PeaceHealth_Ore and .</span><a href="https://twitter.com/LaneCoFBC" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="background: rgb(230 , 236 , 240); color: #657786;">@</span></b><span style="background: rgb(230 , 236 , 240); color: #657786;">LaneCoFBC</span></a><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">, or email it to us at </span><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">lanecofbc@gmail.com</span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><b>WEEKLY ACTION #2: </b>Write letters
to the editor to the Register-Guard.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">This is crucial because, if
editors continue to receive letters, they understand that this issue is
important to their readers. Even if your letter does not get chosen for
publication, it raises the profile of our concerns, and increases the
likelihood that a letter on this topic <i>will </i>get published. These
letters can take many forms. Our talking points are attached; feel free
to use them as inspiration. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Here are some samples of
letters:</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20190516/birth-center-closure-significant-loss-to-this-community"><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc;">RG
letter Andy Redick</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20190517/in-my-opinion-ruhi-sophia-motzkin-rubenstein-on-vitality-of-nurse-midwifery-birth-center"><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc;">RG
letter Ruhi Sophia Motzkin Rubenstein</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20190519/put-forth-business-model-that-will-support-midwifery"><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc;">RG
letter Tiffany Grantom</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Here are details about letters
to the editor and the address to which they should be sent:</span><a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/contribute-letter"><span style="background: white; color: black; text-decoration: none;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc;">https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/contribute-letter</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">And when your letter is
complete, send it to </span><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc;">lanecofbc@gmail.com</span><span style="background: white; color: black;"> so that we can post it on our blog! The
more letters we have, the more stories we can share, and the more influence we
can gain!</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><b>WEEKLY ACTION #3: </b>Wear your
Save the Birth Center shirt around town! </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">This action helps us continue
to educate more of our fellow community members. It also helps us meet
one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you see another Birth
Center supporter wearing a shirt, make sure to say hello. Our community
grows larger and stronger by the day, and you can help this continue!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Send and post pictures of you & your
people in your t-shirts.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Thanks in advance for your
efforts! If you have concerns or are interested in getting involved with
our organization in a more substantial way, please be in touch! Everyone in our
community can help make a difference! Let’s do this!</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">In solidarity,</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Friends of the Birth Center</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: #888888;">-- </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: #888888;">Lane County Friends of the
Birth Center</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: #888888;">Email: </span><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc;">lanecofbc@gmail.com</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: #888888;">Blog: </span><a href="http://www.lanecofbc.blogspot.com/"><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc;">http://www.lanecofbc.blogspot.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: #888888;">Facebook: </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/lanecofbc"><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc;">http://www.facebook.com/lanecofbc</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: #888888;">Twitter: </span><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc;"><a href="http://twitter.com/lanecofbc">http://twitter.com/lanecofbc</a></span></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background: white; color: #888888;">Hashtag:
#SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter</span></span></div>
Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-43801860336122716152019-06-14T23:12:00.000-07:002019-06-14T23:12:28.248-07:00Thank you Centro Latino Americano for your Support!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zYRWT4xvtgs/XQSMCn2mWMI/AAAAAAAACnI/6p5ldQXt9QYzLk8WdvoTwHxhqs3clM1OwCLcBGAs/s1600/Centro%2BLatino%2BLetter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1266" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zYRWT4xvtgs/XQSMCn2mWMI/AAAAAAAACnI/6p5ldQXt9QYzLk8WdvoTwHxhqs3clM1OwCLcBGAs/s640/Centro%2BLatino%2BLetter.jpg" width="505" /></a></div>
<br />Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-25332927275533856562019-06-13T13:16:00.000-07:002019-06-13T13:16:09.048-07:00Thank you American Association of Birth Centers for Your Support!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mt2wkExjSjs/XQKt-9Y-_MI/AAAAAAAACkU/E2TtrjvF9fcilVMGlabOosn8AnfczxaUACLcBGAs/s1600/AABC%2BLetter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1286" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mt2wkExjSjs/XQKt-9Y-_MI/AAAAAAAACkU/E2TtrjvF9fcilVMGlabOosn8AnfczxaUACLcBGAs/s640/AABC%2BLetter.jpg" width="514" /></a></div>
<br />Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-59038233901600587722019-06-10T10:47:00.003-07:002019-06-13T22:32:47.572-07:00Rally Review <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lT-gltszmdA/XP3E9KPkmxI/AAAAAAAACiQ/-NGW4wV5HN0BAoyY24P_H75ZQ-vRA_3ogCEwYBhgL/s1600/D8fjoo_UYAA5FQ6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lT-gltszmdA/XP3E9KPkmxI/AAAAAAAACiQ/-NGW4wV5HN0BAoyY24P_H75ZQ-vRA_3ogCEwYBhgL/s200/D8fjoo_UYAA5FQ6.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "cambria";">#SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;">As planned and promised, Friday’s rally was a large community event. More than 200
birth center supporters turned out. We were pregnant women, partners of
pregnant women, young children, grandparents, and, generally speaking,
community members of all ages and stages in life who understand the importance
of and support women having choice in childbirth setting and care. We were a
walking, chanting embodiment of the ideals expressed in PeaceHealth’s mission
and values. So, too, was </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.change.org/p/peacehealth-save-the-nurse-midwifery-birth-center-d8ba9f6b-1bfa-4d88-b087-6b64bcf3564f" target="_blank">the
petition we delivered</a></span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.change.org/p/peacehealth-save-the-nurse-midwifery-birth-center-d8ba9f6b-1bfa-4d88-b087-6b64bcf3564f" target="_blank"> </a></span>with nearly 10,000 signatures. If you missed the
rally, check out </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CLfd9gShcgaFu0MOWt0j8ZGTxQid7-9XFl1K1g1SHc8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">the media coverage</a></span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;"> and look at our Twitter feed </span><span style="background: rgb(255 , 255 , 255); font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://twitter.com/LaneCoFBC" target="_blank">@LaneCoFBC</a> </span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://twitter.com/LaneCoFBC" target="_blank"></a></span>for the blow-by-blow tweets.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Arjjt6VTYIQ/XP3x2KblAvI/AAAAAAAACjQ/dAgqvrjYRfw377U3ZF9ncUJ6Of5lFF8EACLcBGAs/s1600/Collage_Marching.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Arjjt6VTYIQ/XP3x2KblAvI/AAAAAAAACjQ/dAgqvrjYRfw377U3ZF9ncUJ6Of5lFF8EACLcBGAs/s320/Collage_Marching.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h2>
<o:p><b><br /></b></o:p></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><o:p><b>Community Shows Up, PeaceHealth Still Deliberately MIA</b></o:p> </span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is something really wrong when healthcare providers – looking
at you PeaceHealth and Women’s Care – put pregnant women and their families in
a profound bind: give up and go away or stand up for what is right. Isn’t standing
up for what is right what PeaceHealth and Women’s Care should be doing? What’s
worse is these entities behave in ways that suggest their strategy is to out wait us, to wear us down. How cynical. Waiting us out is their strategy for pushing through plans
that hurt our community. Doing this on the backs of pregnant women is, in a
word, shameful. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZlpGpZ-W7fo/XP3TrKnUyqI/AAAAAAAACic/GcMJIAh2Vl8wzWiXAxL_bcxy1JbKiJscgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Collage_Rally%2Bsigns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZlpGpZ-W7fo/XP3TrKnUyqI/AAAAAAAACic/GcMJIAh2Vl8wzWiXAxL_bcxy1JbKiJscgCEwYBhgL/s200/Collage_Rally%2Bsigns.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">As a health care provider, PeaceHealth should be supporting
the birth choices of pregnant women. Instead, it creates and persists in a situation in which women are left with no alternative but to go into the street to rally for access to evidence-based, affordable birth
care. See </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rNVx3jNiIlXhAQvhMaENA4L5LflxX8US/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">“Why We Rally”</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
for more on this as well as </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12pt;">our <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1niSmU5Jlm9RQgBjdCHL-CyEXchCn-QMD/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">rally talking points</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. And, then check out the flair and panache with which
rallying is done. Click </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOSHVb8lJbBRFr7qFE7oIw_vvVMyZhR2XmRpiQ-UhySPWGYnRABd6itw95fkVykHQ?key=TTh6Qk5UWTBnU0RtWjJxdDdDdzlVd3hNam00b2l3" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
and scroll down till you see the many fabulous signs.</span></div>
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
Federal, State, County, and City Elected officials say: #SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter</span></h2>
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While we persist, PeaceHealth digs in to wait us out and
shut us out. We are incredibly grateful for our elected representatives who
have voiced their whole-hearted support for our objective: maintaining and expanding
access to midwifery-led care at the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b>We have
support from city, county, state, and federal elected representatives. Why is
our representatives’ expression of support met by a wall of silence from
PeaceHealth, which is awash in government dollars? How can this lack of accountability and transparency be deemed acceptable behavior?</b></i></span></blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KKHflLqgm-8/XP3WkyPu1MI/AAAAAAAACik/evBJNVT1VCIjQ13SRPh8WTbeUt00O0zvACLcBGAs/s1600/Collage_Semple%2B%2526%2BWilde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KKHflLqgm-8/XP3WkyPu1MI/AAAAAAAACik/evBJNVT1VCIjQ13SRPh8WTbeUt00O0zvACLcBGAs/s320/Collage_Semple%2B%2526%2BWilde.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left: Eugene City Councilor Emily Semple<br />
Right: Rep. Marty Wilde in red jacket</td></tr>
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Special thanks go to Councilor Semple,
Representative Wilde, Commissioner Sorenson (<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HYdUivSODGI3P_Qdk2fmMDSNpg9L--esosXb6wrqdjs/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">letter</a></span>), Commissioner Berney who emailed to let us know he supports us, and Congressman DeFazio whose <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WUgAhZ38J13fha0EWbtboZLlXx807ewA2tEcwE1aJC0/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">response</a> was read out lead at the rally.<br />
<br />
<span style="background: rgb(255 , 255 , 255); font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12pt;">See <a href="https://twitter.com/LaneCoFBC" target="_blank">@LaneCoFBC</a> for </span>videos of
Councilor Semple and Representative Wilde speaking at the rally point outside of PeaceHealth.<br />
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<h2>
<o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Local Media Coverage</span></o:p></h2>
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Who else are we grateful to? Our local media. At a time when
we are fully ignored by PeaceHealth, we appreciate being able to
speak about our concerns publicly. We believe continued attention is warranted. We are concerned PeaceHealth expects the media to move on. Let's hope this does not occur.<br />
<br />
The week going into the rally, we appreciated having space in The
Eugene Weekly for <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><a href="https://www.eugeneweekly.com/2019/06/06/peacehealth-shouldnt-own-birth/" target="_blank">“Peace Health Shouldn’t Own Birth”</a> and for its retweet of the guest editorial the day of the rally.</span> At the rally, we were pleased to speak with
reporters from KLCC, KEZI, KMTR, and KEPW. Coverage <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CLfd9gShcgaFu0MOWt0j8ZGTxQid7-9XFl1K1g1SHc8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a></span>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YQSEvMNkmcQ/XP3Zi6JHRZI/AAAAAAAACiw/KCAkUrmn8RotA4p6FX4_rkbZPN0KFUsyACLcBGAs/s1600/Collage_Media%2Bcollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YQSEvMNkmcQ/XP3Zi6JHRZI/AAAAAAAACiw/KCAkUrmn8RotA4p6FX4_rkbZPN0KFUsyACLcBGAs/s320/Collage_Media%2Bcollage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
Security Barred Our Entrance</span></h2>
Our final thoughts for this post bring us back to the source of our problem:
PeaceHealth leadership. Our purpose for the rally was to present our petition
of nearly 10,000 signatures to PeaceHealth leaders. When no one from PeaceHealth met with us at the rally point outside the RiverBend entrance, a small group was sent to go inside for the purpose of providing the petition. This group was barred from entering RiverBend.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WrqDnD5QGcs/XP3aHOZsV8I/AAAAAAAACi8/tKvL65Kdv-Q15TFYTgPsjq093sQBzXrfwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/61983166_10100340552806516_7228266398223433728_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="512" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WrqDnD5QGcs/XP3aHOZsV8I/AAAAAAAACi8/tKvL65Kdv-Q15TFYTgPsjq093sQBzXrfwCPcBGAYYCw/s200/61983166_10100340552806516_7228266398223433728_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Among us were a pregnant mom with a stroller and small children, and
another mom with a baby in a carrier. We were met by security outside
PeaceHealth’s entrance. After unsuccessful efforts to negotiate our entrance with him, a security <span style="background: white; color: #1c1e21;">manager
intervened and permitted our access to the lobby. We were escorted in by security and told we could not
take photos. Our request for PeaceHealth leadership to be contacted by security was refused. With no alternative, we presented the community petition to PeaceHealth security. We were reluctantly provided with written confirmation that the petition had been received. Obtaining this receipt required another discussion in which only our unwillingness to leave resulted in being given one. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #1c1e21;">Our
preference was and remains to be in a proper meeting with PeaceHEalth CEO Mary Kingston to begin the process
of reversing the decision to close the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. Instead,
we were told to leave the premises, but not before learning that PeaceHealth
leadership had made plans for their PR Manager, and not their CEO, to receive
the petition. This is not the approach or presentation described, less than a year ago, in <i>The Register-Guard</i> <a href="https://www.registerguard.com/news/20180904/new-peacehealth-oregon-chief-excutive-mary-kingston-finds-call-to-serve-in-eugene" target="_blank">article introducing CEO Kingston</a> to the community she serves. </span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: #1c1e21;"><br /></span>
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<h2>
<span style="background: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Onward</span></h2>
<span style="background: white; color: #1c1e21;">What we need, as soon as possible, is a PeaceHealth RiverBend CEO
capable of understanding and rising to the challenge before her, not ignoring it and the people who raise it. With the
ongoing support of community members and leaders and our elected
representatives, we will continue forward toward honest and transparent discussion. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;">Toward these goals, we leave supporters and interested parties with the following graph created by a Nurse Midwifery Birth Center father. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6RJO1rq6t4o/XP3bG5Kq7II/AAAAAAAACjE/5Mv-k_Fj2FgJsE8Oed5vaVJ_vszF6V09wCLcBGAs/s1600/Graph%2Bby%2BAndrew%2BCoury%2Bwith%2BOHA%2Bdata.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="960" height="290" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6RJO1rq6t4o/XP3bG5Kq7II/AAAAAAAACjE/5Mv-k_Fj2FgJsE8Oed5vaVJ_vszF6V09wCLcBGAs/s400/Graph%2Bby%2BAndrew%2BCoury%2Bwith%2BOHA%2Bdata.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graph using OHA data by Andrew Coury, 2nd generation NMBC parent.<br />
Andrew was born at the NMBC and hopes to welcome the third generation there.</td></tr>
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<span style="background: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />PeaceHealth leaders' public reason for closing
the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center is financial, which they attribute to
demographic trends; specifically a lower general birth rate and a higher
average maternal age. Even if true... a 4 year old demographic trend?
Furthermore, it's not true. Average maternal age is 26 in Lane County (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/04/upshot/up-birth-age-gap.html" target="_blank">source</a>).</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What's the real story in the precipitous drop
in birth center births between 2014 and 2018? The real reason far outpaced any
demographic change in the overall birth rate. Lane County Friends of the Birth
Center believes the real reason rests in risk polices imposed on the NMBC,
which served to unnecessarily push women into the hospital. See October 2011 on
the graph when Sacred Heart in-house OB/GYN care ended and was replaced with a
contract for Women’s Care to provide obstetric consultation. Also important to
keep in mind is the neglectful PeaceHealth management policies which de-prioritize
the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center and make it vulnerable to the kind of moment
in which we find ourselves currently.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="color: #1c1e21;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 12pt;">#SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter</span><br />
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-->Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-60047891697849587112019-06-04T21:03:00.000-07:002019-06-05T07:16:34.131-07:00Market Power - Rally this Friday - Elected representatives showing up. PeaceHealth still MIA. <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="background: rgb(255 , 255 , 255);"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nj2kh5YWnCZBIZP1sqWYPdSGJl3d9s_G/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Come to the June 7 Rally (Press Release)</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Market Power & the Bottom Line</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Market research shows that women
are the healthcare decision makers for themselves and their families. The power
of healthcare decision-making starts with pregnancy. This is just the beginning
of their decision making power. For decades more, women will make big decisions,
which impact the entire hospital system of care. In other words, where women decide to go
matters a great deal to the economic health of hospitals and medical practices. </span><i><b style="background-color: #ffe599;">Women in
this community, since the 1970s, have made it crystal clear that they intend to
go to the freestanding Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. </b></i><span style="background-color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">More than 9200</span></b> women and people who
respect women's choices in care have signed the petition to communicate this
preference to PeaceHealth. Marketing folks, no doubt, understand the economic
implications of how taking choice from us – against our will – will affect the
bottom line for PeaceHealth and, quite reasonably, Women’s Care, the private
medical practice whose disproportionate influence results in PeaceHealth’s
erroneous closure plan. PeaceHealth leadership needs to reposition itself so that it may
properly turn toward the community. Doing so brings it back into mission-consistent action in line with its status as a non-profit hospital. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Lane County Friends of the Birth
Center continues to make every effort to help re-orient PeaceHealth leaders into
meaningful engagement so that concrete plans and commitments can be made to
preserve the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. So far, our efforts have not been fruitful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The last several years have seen significant senior leadership turnover. This, no doubt, contributes to a serious and, so far, persistent case of institutional amnesia. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Below are details for the community's <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nj2kh5YWnCZBIZP1sqWYPdSGJl3d9s_G/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">June 7 rally</a>. Following rally details is a round up description of the federal,
state, county, and city elected representatives who are showing up for their constituents. That’s not all. We are also pleased to share the <b>American
College of Nurse Midwifery Oregon affiliate's letter to PeaceHealth. Read it</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><b> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><a href="https://www.oregonmidwives.org/advocacy" target="_blank">here</a></span>.</b></span><span style="background: white; color: black;"> Donors, too, are
reaching out to add their voice in support of #SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter. More on this soon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Narrow";"><span style="background-color: #d0e0e3; color: #0c343d; font-size: x-large;">RALLY to Save the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Supporters of the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center will hold a public rally, organized by Lane County Friends of the Birth Center, <b>near the grounds of PeaceHealth's RiverBend Hospital in Springfield on June 7, 2019 at 4pm</b>. <span style="background: white;">This is truly the community’s birth center with over 9,200 people signing a petition in support of keeping it open. W</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">e <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dIZgzbrz0JMswmAVdAUtS2T5x_tYAYhSH6YSLhgOhv4/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">have invited</span> </a>P</span><span style="background: white;">eaceHealth Administrators to take this opportunity to receive the <a href="https://www.change.org/p/peacehealth-save-the-nurse-midwifery-birth-center-d8ba9f6b-1bfa-4d88-b087-6b64bcf3564f" target="_blank">petition</a></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Narrow";"><span style="background: white;">and to begin hearing firsthand from community members. </span></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/451805425654816/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Details</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Narrow";">are posted on the</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/lanecofbc/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Facebook page</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Narrow";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Narrow";">for the Lane County Friends of the Birth Center.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Narrow";"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Narrow";">Supporters are encouraged to make and bring signs highlighting the current and future consumer power every woman represents. Women want the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center and, if this is taken away from them, they will go elsewhere. They will take their families, too. Big signs expressing economic power will make a good visual for PeaceHeath and help it to re-orient toward the engagement needed to maintain the community's beloved Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4JwCZouUFz4/XPc9tUqM87I/AAAAAAAACZY/cIumTo2QuU4ozFanaKD-8QroUP-Spo0-QCLcBGAs/s1600/20190603%2BSemple%2Bvisit%2Bto%2BNMBC_Fotor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4JwCZouUFz4/XPc9tUqM87I/AAAAAAAACZY/cIumTo2QuU4ozFanaKD-8QroUP-Spo0-QCLcBGAs/s400/20190603%2BSemple%2Bvisit%2Bto%2BNMBC_Fotor.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lane County Friends of Birth Center's Katharine Gallagher & </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eugene City Councilor Emily Semple in front of the NMBC donor wall </span></td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Narrow";"><span style="background-color: #d0e0e3; color: #0c343d; font-size: x-large;">Elected representatives heed our constituent call </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While PeaceHealth leaders are,
thus far, unwilling to communicate meaningfully with Lane County Friends of the
Birth Center, we are delighted with quick and responsive manner in which our
elected officials at the federal, state, county, and city levels of government
have reached out to us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Congressman Peter DeFazio is
unequivocal in his support. Read his message </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WUgAhZ38J13fha0EWbtboZLlXx807ewA2tEcwE1aJC0/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="background-color: white;">. </span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="color: #222222; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">Congressman Peter DeFazio writes: </span></span> </b></span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #222222; text-indent: 36pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>I intend to work in Congress to increase access to midwives and birth centers to significantly boost maternal and infant health.</b></i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, too, are Lane County Commissioners Peter
Sorenson and Joe Berney fully supportive of our position that the Nurse
Midwifery Birth Center is critical for our community and must remain open. Eugene City Councilor
Emily Semple is unequivocal, too. We also appreciate the support received from City
Mayor Lucy Vinis and State Representatives Julie Fahey and Marty Wilde. Friends of the Birth Center looks forward to continued support and engagement from our elected representatives. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><o:p><b><span style="background-color: #d0e0e3; color: #0c343d; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">In closing to our community and supporters.....see you at the rally! Bring your signs and use them to make your economic power clear and understood. </span></b></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-30449788231871576362019-05-30T00:41:00.001-07:002019-05-30T08:35:59.768-07:00PeaceHealth's (1) Faulty Financial Arguments and (2) Absence of Mission and Ethics<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EPFTE7KgPIwpZutaCFk9xU2BtzWDVYlY/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Letter Countering PH on Financial Sustainability</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vcF47agb972I4ZhnOVrrktCQagcbJRdS/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Letter on PH Mission and Ethics</a> </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19wUeY09yBS6XY_B4OWHaCg9OKC4rodSd/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Testimonies of Care </a></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CLfd9gShcgaFu0MOWt0j8ZGTxQid7-9XFl1K1g1SHc8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Media Coverage</a></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ARXR1C32A1sQjfdruSrG9OLH_uJhUrg9/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Press Release</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>PeaceHealth administration and Department of Mission, Theology and Ethics fail to substantively engage with Friends of the Birth Center</b></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">PeaceHealth has begun to respond but continues to fall far short of our community's demands for input into its decision to close the Birth Center. PeaceHealth COO Todd Salnas replied to our request for a meeting with PeaceHealth CEO Mary Kingston with a similar invitation to be heard only on the conditions determined by PeaceHealth administration. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Friends of the Birth Center also communicated this week with the PeaceHealth department of Mission, Theology and Ethics. We appealed to this department on the grounds that a sudden closure of the Birth Center stands in direct opposition to the values to which all PeaceHealth departments and employees are purported to adhere. Again, we received a reply that did not engage with the content of our letter or offer to communicate further with our organization. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>PeaceHealth CEO obfuscates reason for closure, declines to authentically engage with Birth Center community</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On May 20, Friends of the Birth Center received a <a href="https://www.peacehealth.org/supporting-healthy-births" target="_blank">reply</a> from PeaceHealth CEO Mary Kingston in response to our <a href="https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/2019/05/lane-county-friends-of-birth-center.html" target="_blank">request for a meeting</a> to discuss the Birth Center. This reply invited </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">one</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> member of our Board to attend a meeting, on the condition that we limit our input to ways to "</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ensure that as we transition from the Birth Center to the integrated model of care at RiverBend we meet the full spectrum of birthing needs of our community and that our expectant mothers enjoy safe, satisfying and empowering childbirth experiences."</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because, as members of the Birth Center community, we know that midwives are </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">already</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> integrated and providing low risk care at RiverBend, and that Birth Center clients </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">already </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">enjoy precisely these experiences under the care of midwives and staff, we declined to meet with PeaceHealth under this condition. Friends of the Birth Center is a consumer advocacy organization; we refuse to be used as a means by which PeaceHealth can purport to participate in authentic engagement with its patients even as it fails to address our concerns. Instead, we will continue to advocate for our community by demanding that PeaceHealth meet with us to discuss keeping the Birth Center open. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On May 23, PeaceHealth COO Todd Salnas also responded (via telephone) to our request for a meeting with administration. He asserted that PeaceHealth desires to convene with people who </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">want</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to help PeaceHealth formulate a plan to incorporate midwifery services into the obstetrics model of care at RiverBend. It is clear to us that PeaceHealth has NO current plan other than to close the Birth Center.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We were told that our board is only invited to a meeting if w</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">e limit our discussion to that plan; PeaceHealth is not willing to hear our concerns about the Birth Center’s closure, or our ideas about how it could continue to exist in its current form. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Financial unsustainability is the reason PeaceHealth continues to give for its decision to close the Birth Center. This rationale is disingenuous; we know that PeaceHealth was making plans to hire additional midwives and expand the Birth Center's services as recently as March 2019. The premise PeaceHealth offers for the Birth Center's "unsustainability" is furthermore based upon incorrect data (midwives delivered far more babies than the numbers PeaceHealth has stated) and fails to take into account the comprehensive care that has been provided by the Birth Center in over 3,000 clinic visits since July 2018. <b><i>Please see our response to Mary Kingston, which details the many ways that the claim of financial unsustainability does not withstand scrutiny, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EPFTE7KgPIwpZutaCFk9xU2BtzWDVYlY/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></b> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Women's Care recently decided to cease collaborating with Birth Center midwives and PeaceHealth seems to have decided to close the Birth Center instead of confronting this problem head-on, and working in collaboration with the Birth Center community to solve it. PeaceHealth has chosen to summarily close the Birth Center, thereby making its many invaluable services unavailable to women and families in our region. We continue to insist that PeaceHealth work to solve this problem by meeting with Friends of the Birth Center to discuss how to keep the Birth Center open. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Senior Vice President of Mission, Theology and Ethics declines to meaningfully engage with community’s concerns</b></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On May 24, Friends of the Birth Center sent a thoroughly researched and carefully considered letter to the Board of Directors and others in the the PeaceHealth Department of Mission, Theology and Ethics, which you can see <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vcF47agb972I4ZhnOVrrktCQagcbJRdS/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a>. This letter was sent with twenty-one pages of testimony provided by birth center clients and can be seen <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19wUeY09yBS6XY_B4OWHaCg9OKC4rodSd/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a>.The letter and testimonies detail the many concrete ways that eliminating the Birth Center without any input from the community it supports is a violation of PeaceHealth's </span><a href="https://www.peacehealth.org/statement-of-common-values" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">statement of common values</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Yet again, we urged PeaceHealth to respond to our specific concerns, and on May 28 we received a reply from Dianna Kielian, Senior Vice President of Mission, Theology and Ethics (available <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lhKFTR99zHoCjzRcdmykZPkq8SbSQPEv" target="_blank">here</a>) that did not engage with them in any way. Rather, it thanked us for sharing our "fond memories and special experiences," and reiterated the talking points with which we are now familiar. </span></span></div>
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<br />Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-84009495350116969692019-05-27T11:14:00.000-07:002019-05-27T11:17:18.383-07:00The Uniqueness of the Birth Center Model of Care<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Thank you to Desiree Larson, RN and past IBCLC (<span style="background-color: white;">International </span><span style="background-color: white;">Board Certified</span><span style="background-color: white;"> Lactation Consultant) for this guest post on the importance and uniqueness of the birth center model of care.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Midwifery practiced within Birth Center settings offers uniquely empowering care and support for women, babies, and families. I have decades of experience as a nurse, lactation consultant, maternal-infant program developer and policy analyst, and mother of three children delivered by midwives. My experiences in these roles have proven to me time and again that the birth center model of care addresses the lived experience of the whole woman in a way that cannot be replicated in other models of healthcare. Babies, parents, and families thrive on the long-term support offered by birth center nurses, midwives, lactation consultants, and others. I have dedicated my professional life to ensuring that Lane County families have access to this incomparable model of care. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The birth center model of care is fully integrated and addresses the entire spectrum of medical needs that arise long before and well after a baby's birth. As a lead member of Cottage Grove Hospital’s maternity staff, I was a lead in developing a 24-hour breastfeeding helpline, hospital- and home-based Lactation Consulting services, and prenatal clinic- and home-based maternity care coordination. Each of these is an example of the far-reaching and personal aspects of a birth center model that seek to support the mental, emotional, and physical health of women and babies. They are furthermore evidence of the ways in which the profound needs that arise when babies come into the world can be met by a holistic approach that extends far beyond a hospital building or doctor's office.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Birth center midwives compassionately attend to the many private and often difficult life experiences for which women need delicate support. These include: trauma and betrayal in prior birth experiences, sexual abuse of all types, PTSD, depression, anxiety, phobias, past or present stillbirths, past or present postpartum depression, addiction issues for themselves or their families, social stigmas associated with homosexuality, and teen pregnancy. Women also often endure a lack of confidence in our bodies as a result of culturally conditioned insecurities, modesty, and shame. As a professional in this field, I observe that obstetricians' training and service delivery model does not include addressing the lived experience of the whole woman, or this long list of challenges and traumas that might accompany a woman's birth experience. But as a practitioner of the midwifery model, I developed programs to support these common elements of women’s lives. Midwives understand that women's needs are not strictly medical, and seek to support the whole person as she experiences the profound process of pregnancy, birth, and caring for a newborn. The closure of the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center will make this model of compassionate care unavailable to countless families throughout Lane County and our region. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Birth Centers play a crucial role in the health of newborn babies. Far from being merely a place where babies are born, a birth center is the hub of a community that offers support of all kinds for new families. Lactation consultation is part and parcel of the birth center model, and takes place both at birth centers and in families' homes. By providing hands-on, concrete help to new parents in breastfeeding, Birth Center midwives seek to ensure that babies can reap the vast and undisputed benefits of breastfeeding. This is considered to be among the most important decisions a mother can make for her infant and a significant decision she can make for her own health. I helped spearhead the Baby Friendly Hospital initiative in Lane County; Cottage Grove Hospital was the first in Oregon to earn this designation, and I assisted the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center in becoming Baby Friendly. The Baby Friendly designation, which is an international standard, means that a birthing facility has met rigorous standards to consistently protect, promote and support breastfeeding. This designation gives confidence to mothers that their desire to breastfeed will be supported. Birth Center staff is available 24 hours a day to answer questions, address concerns, and provide expert clinical support. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Birth center communities offer other concrete services to ensure the health of new babies. As a member of the midwifery community, I worked to ensure that settings such as these were accessible to the community. At the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center in particular, Baby Clinic is an informal setting where parents can bring newborns to be weighed and discuss infant feeding and growth. Professional lactation consultants offer advice and assistance, and parents can ask questions and receive support during the very fragile first weeks and months of a baby's life. These settings, wherein both the physical and emotional wellbeing of babies and parents are being attended to by caring professionals, also foster crucial interventions into perinatal mood disorders and anxiety disorders, and offer access to facts about other issues such as safe sleep, SIDS, maintaining milk supply, working while breastfeeding, and referrals to other services. Birth center midwives, nurses, and staff do not merely catch babies; they provide an integrated, wraparound model of care that seeks to ensure the health and wellbeing of mothers, babies, and families for months and years beyond a baby's birth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Midwives do not view women as medical patients; they believe that women are experts on their own lives and feelings. Birth center staff members work to support families throughout every challenging and joyful dimension of childbirth and raising a newborn. In birth center communities, new parents' needs are validated and attended to by caring professionals. The model of care practiced in these settings seeks to address the full complexity of women's experiences and vulnerabilities, and honors the strength women reveal throughout the very intense process of bringing new life into the world. Birth centers offer true community healthcare, and all families throughout our region should continue to have access to this empowering kind of support and care. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Desiree Larson, RN</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">past IBCLC</span><br />
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Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-73658752576036178522019-05-23T19:40:00.001-07:002019-05-23T19:57:58.091-07:00Dear Elected Representatives: #SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter.<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "cambria";"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Following is our first letter to all elected representatives with constituents in Lane County. Supporters might also enjoy seeing a </span></span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XydVsT4KdkDYifpG3N1jm3fVHneduGP1/view?usp=sharing" style="color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 10pt;" target="_blank">letter of support from Sen. Merkley</a><span style="font-family: "cambria";"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> sent on the occasion of the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center's re-opening in 2010 at the Springfield site. Supporters, when you contact your elected </span><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">representatives</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">, ask their staff members to make sure they see this letter and take the suggested actions (see letter) to </span><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">#SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria";"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">***********************</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">May 2</span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">3<span style="color: black;">, 2019<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt; text-indent: 0in;"> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Re: PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth
Center<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">To
Our Elected Officials:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">PeaceHealth has announced its
intention to close the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center (NMBC) in</span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Springfield<span style="color: black;">. In light </span>of
your role as an elected official<span style="color: black;">, Lane County Friends
of the Birth Center</span> <span style="color: black;">asks for your help </span>to<span style="color: black;"> revers</span>e<span style="color: black;"> this plan.
Unchecked, it</span> represents a restriction on reproductive health choices.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Nurse Midwifery Birth Center has
served our community since the 1970s. It serves women and families from the
Eugene/Springfield area, Salem, Albany, Lebanon, Corvallis, Sweet Home,
Creswell, Cottage Grove, Roseburg, Coos Bay, Reedsport, Grants Pass, Oakridge,
and Pleasant Hill. It is a nationally accredited and </span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">designated<span style="color: black;"> </span>provider
of<span style="color: black;"> evidence-based lactation support for mothers and
babies. The current site was built from generous donor and community gifts only</span>
9<span style="color: black;"> years ago</span> and <span style="color: black;">celebrat</span>ed<span style="color: black;"> the 1000th baby born on site</span> <span style="color: black;">this year. In partnership with PeaceHealth, it was made by
and for the community and needs to remain open, as intended, for future
generations. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">There is good reason for the Nurse
Midwifery Birth Center’s longevity. It provides a unique</span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">, integrated, and comprehensive<span style="color: black;"> model of care including family planning, prenatal, birth
(out of hospital and hospital), pregnancy loss, postpartum, </span>lactation<span style="color: black;"> support, a baby clinic for weighing and feeding support,
and well woman care. The United States has the highest maternal mortality
rate of our peer countries and spends more on</span> <span style="color: black;">healthcare
than any other developed nation.</span> T<span style="color: black;">he Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) calls for scaling up of the
freestanding, midwifery-led birth center model. This model improves health
outcomes, patient experience, and</span> <span style="color: black;">reduces
costs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">NMBC closure would have a disproportionate impact
on low income and minority women. NMBC midwives do not limit or exclude OHP
Medicaid clients, unlike other local practices. Furthermore, the NMBC has
developed a partnership with the Community Health Centers of Lane County to
serve women receiving this coverage as well as coverage through CAWEM. In its
rush to close, PeaceHealth has failed to account for this critical partnership.
Rather, a decision was made without consulting NMBC staff or this consumer
group. PeaceHealth administrators, who have never visited the NMBC or taken
time to understand its vital role, can do better than this. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Lane County Friends of the Birth
Center </span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">is particularly <span style="color: black;">concerned
by what we have learned about the information gathering and decision making
processes used to</span> justify closure.<span style="color: black;"> Statistics
cited by PeaceHealth are incorrect. These same statistics are used without
context </span>and <span style="color: black;">mischaracterize demand for and
outcomes associated with NMBC services. Participants (this consumer group and
NMBC staff) who could have offered a corrective were fully cut out of the
process. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Lane County Friends of the Birth
Center asks for your support in the following ways</span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Visit<span style="color: black;"> the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center, as soon as possible. We
would be delighted to assist you in making such a visit possible. </span>C<span style="color: black;">ommunicate wi</span>th<span style="color: black;"> </span>us <span style="color: black;">via lanecofbc@gmail.com. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">M<span style="color: black;">eet with PeaceHealth leadership, here and at the system
level in Vancouver, to reiterate the importance and value the Nurse Midwifery
Birth Center holds in this community. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Speak with
administrators at Lane County Health and Human Services and at Trillium
Community Health Plan. Both of these organizations are responsible for ensuring
a high standard of maternity care for significant numbers of women in our
community. We believe an insufficient understanding of and appreciation for
midwifery-led birth center care currently exists and makes impossible the
recognition of the avoidable risks involved with closing the NMBC and replacing
it with what we anticipate will be physician managed midwifery care. <span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We would be happy to
assist you with a list of recommended contacts. We would like to be included in
meetings you attend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Following are specific topics Lane County Friends
of the Birth Center would appreciate elected officials raising and inquiring
about: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">PeaceHealth has
told us that some insurance plans do not have a reimbursement code for a birth
center birth. As a result, PeaceHealth doesn't bother trying to get reimbursed
for those births and just writes it off. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We understand
that Trillium plans to start reimbursing according to risk level. Inevitably,
low risk pregnancies will be treated as higher risk with the attendant
(cascading) interventions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is an
upside-down approach with very real ethical implications. Additionally, we do
not know if Trillium has or will have a birth center-specific birth delivery
reimbursement code.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We are committed to inclusion and
transparency with the community. </span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">W<span style="color: black;">e actively communicate using the social media channels
below. On our blog, visitors have access to media coverage garnered thus far, a
petition with nearly 7,000 signatures, and other valuable information for
understanding why we advocate for the midwifery-led birth center care at the
Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Blog: <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span><a href="https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-decoration: none;">https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Facebook: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/lanecofbc/"><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-decoration: none;">Lane County Friends of the Birth Center</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Twitter: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/LaneCoFBC"><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-decoration: none;">@LaneCoFBC</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Hash tag:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>#SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Included with this letter is a Guest Viewpoint
that goes into further detail about the importance of the NMBC,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">published in The Register-Guard last Sunday.
Thank you for your time and consideration. Please let us know how we can
anticipate working with you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Sincerely,
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Lynn Kane, PhD</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="WordSection1">
<div class="WordSection1">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Co-Chair, Lane County Friends of the Birth Center<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Commissioner, Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mother of two birth center babies (born
2010, 2012)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Ann Carney Nelson</span></b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Co-Chair, Lane County Friends of the
Birth Center<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">COO, Inpria Corporation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mother of two birth center babies (born
2012, 2015)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Encl: Kane
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<b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Lynn Kane, PhD</span></b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Co-Chair, Lane County Friends of the Birth Center<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mother of two birth center babies (born
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<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Katharine Gallagher, MPP</span></b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Founding member & Former Co-Chair, Lane County Friends of the
Birth Center<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-highlight: white;"></span><span style="background: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Commissioner
(Former), Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Centro Latino Americano, Social Services<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Mother of two babies, one a birth center VBAC baby (born 2005,
2007)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Matt Huston</span></b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Employee Benefits Consultant - Hagan
Hamilton <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Father of two birth center babies (born 2011 and 2016)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Heather LeCompte, MA in
Counseling</span></b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Mother of one birth center baby (born
2015)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><b style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Jennifer Noyce, PhD</span></b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Mother of two birth center babies (born
2012, 2014)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Teresa Roark, MPH</span></b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Mother of one birth center baby (born
2018)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/null" name="_gjdgxs"></a><b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Lindsay Selser</span></b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Communications and Policy Analyst--Planning and Development Department,
City of Eugene<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Board of Directors, Sexual Assault Support Services<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Mother of two birth center babies (born
2014, 2016)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
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<b>Rabbi Jacob Siegel</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Father of two birth center babies (born
2017, due 2019)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Emeritus Board</span></b><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Katharine Gallagher<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Eleanor Vandegrift<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Karen Guillemin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Kathy Lynn<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Renee Bailey<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Anna Chorlton<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Maria Blum<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10pt;">Jennifer Rinner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="normal" style="border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="normal" style="background: white; border: none; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Sara Starlin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span><!--EndFragment-->Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-91997548383474403632019-05-20T05:03:00.000-07:002019-05-23T20:22:15.917-07:00PeaceHealth sidelines, excludes. We remain committed to transparent communication, keeping the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center open.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">#SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter <o:p></o:p></span></i></b><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Press Contact: lanecofbc@gmail.com</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LqETdQkq7nqZgPT5cn7oP84BM1vt2JEM/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Press Release</a></span></b></div>
</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jpdMAp_MoQQ/XOCH5Uxvy8I/AAAAAAAAByQ/G9ZMVdWD1SMmgkDe9DP5BsV6jAEHId1iwCLcBGAs/s1600/Untitled.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="957" height="192" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jpdMAp_MoQQ/XOCH5Uxvy8I/AAAAAAAAByQ/G9ZMVdWD1SMmgkDe9DP5BsV6jAEHId1iwCLcBGAs/s640/Untitled.tiff" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri";"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 10pt;">More than 250 community members attended the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center's Birthday Party on May 15, 2019.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 10pt;">We came together to celebrate decades of NMBC care and to rally against PeaceHealth closure plan. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></span></span></i><br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 10pt; text-align: start;">
</div>
<i style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri";">
</span></span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;">t's </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;">It's been two weeks since PeaceHealth went public with its plan to close
the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center (NMBC). The closure plan and the initial media
coverage omitted the consumer group, Lane County Friends of the Birth Center
(LaneCoFBC) for the NMBC. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;">Every effort is underway to end the sidelining and
exclusion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Nurse Midwifery Birth Center serves women and families from the Eugene/Springfield area, Salem, Albany, Lebanon, Corvallis, Sweet Home, Creswell, Cottage Grove, Roseburg, Coos Bay, Reedsport, Grants Pass, Oakridge, and Pleasant Hill. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">PeaceHealth
Leadership Missing in Action</span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">PeaceHealth senior leadership’s behavior, at the local and system level,
thus far, suggests a strategy intent on ignoring our voice. Instead of using
its considerable reach and resources to improve decision making with better
information, inclusion, and transparency, senior leadership has backed out of
meetings. We were scheduled to meet with PeaceHealth COO Todd Salnas on
Wednesday May 15. After we posted <a href="https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/2019/05/lane-county-friends-of-birth-center-to.html">our
letter</a> in anticipation of the meeting and in accordance with our commitment
to transparency, the meeting was cancelled without a reschedule. See <a href="https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/2019/05/friends-of-birth-center-statement-about.html">here</a>
and <a href="https://lanecofbc.blogspot.com/2019/05/lane-county-friends-of-birth-center.html">here</a>
for additional efforts on our part to communicate what we know and what we
want. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Backing out of meeting with the LaneCoFBC consumer group coincided with
PeaceHealth cancelling the community birthday celebration of the NMBC
re-opening at its current location 9 years ago and sending security to bar
women and children from the property. This is not the considerate or respectful
engagement with the community needed or deserved. PeaceHealth senior leadership can change
direction at any moment. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">Update as of May 23:</span> Lanecofbc asked to have a few minutes at the Patient and Family Advisory Council's meeting this evening to share our experience. The PFAC coordinator informed us that as an advisory council, they have no influence on these matters. Really? <span style="background-color: yellow;">End.</span> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The more than 250 individuals who attended the replacement birthday
party (pictured above), the many community members attempting to convey their
concern to PeaceHealth via the Hotline to the Heart phone line and the nearly 6,100 (sure to be more by now) people who have signed the <a href="https://www.change.org/p/peacehealth-save-the-nurse-midwifery-birth-center-d8ba9f6b-1bfa-4d88-b087-6b64bcf3564f" target="_blank">petition in support of keeping the NMBC open</a></span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> deserve better than to be rebuffed and ignored. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Regarding
the Hotline to the Heart phone line, we have heard that messages being left by
community members are being deleted without being listened to. We are now encouraging supporters to share their concerns with the PeaceHealth </span><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 13.3333px;">Ethics Consultation Services at 541-222-2262. We also observe that the administrative role for the PeaceHealth NMBC Facebook page is no longer administered by midwives and staff. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;">This
behavior toward our community needs to stop. Lane County Friends of the Birth Center
is ready to get started and now is the time for PeaceHealth senior leadership to come to the
table.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-54c3Xn8b-os/XOCHXSkGgHI/AAAAAAAAByM/CIykRBbSSbQf5pScS4ZThF8a5i9awOk0ACEwYBhgL/s1600/%25234%2BCollage.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="687" height="210" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-54c3Xn8b-os/XOCHXSkGgHI/AAAAAAAAByM/CIykRBbSSbQf5pScS4ZThF8a5i9awOk0ACEwYBhgL/s320/%25234%2BCollage.tiff" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Posters, cards, flowers left by women, children, and the community.<br />
These items were left, not delivered, when PeaceHealth cancelled<br />
the annual NMBC birthday party reunion. The PeaceHealth <br />
security guard was stationed outside all day long. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p style="background-color: yellow;"><b>Update as of May 21: </b></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;">Yesterday, PeaceHealth
broke its silence. CEO Mary Kingston emailed Lane County Friends of the Birth
Center. The message is also on the PeaceHealth website <a href="https://www.peacehealth.org/supporting-healthy-births" target="_blank">here</a>. This website also includes links to a <a href="https://www.peacehealth.org/healthy-births-fact-sheet" target="_blank">fact sheet</a> and <a href="https://www.peacehealth.org/nurse-midwifery-birth-center-faq" target="_blank">FAQ</a>.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">As the recognized
consumer group for the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center, we have (as have the
community) expended considerable volunteer effort to be acknowledged by PeaceHealth. It
is unfortunate that this was and will likely continue to be needed. We remain
committed to continued momentum for inclusive, holistic engagement. As always,
we remain focused on retention of the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center as a nationally accredited <a href="https://www.birthcenters.org/page/bce_what_is_a_bc" target="_blank">freestanding birth center</a> within our system
of care. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">In response to CEO
Kingston’s message, we have thanked her. We
have expressed our desire to have a meeting time scheduled before the end of this
week. We conveyed that, consistent with our values and best practice for
meeting with senior PeaceHealth leadership, that we will attend this meeting as
a consumer board with our co-chairs in lead. We expressed that this should be
understandable given the organizational asymmetries and the great difficulty we have
encountered to be acknowledged. We also expressed the preference that we meet
only with PeaceHealth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We look forward to the
opportunity to move the discussion in its proper direction. Toward this end,
we will be prepared to counter the information presented in the second
paragraph of the PeaceHealth message to Lane County Friends of the Birth Center
and in the fact sheet and FAQ. There are considerable reasons to be concerned
about and disagree with this information. We look forward to exploring them. <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d2fHLKDxCZoGAptE_stpHeGH7BEZEkpA/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">(Press release re this update)</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: yellow; color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;">#### END OF UPDATE ####</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Media Coverage - Points to Consider Moving Forward</span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We are seeing improvement in media coverage and growing interest in
long-term coverage. To the degree that more eyes can be on PeaceHealth’s
behavior and effort to shut us out, we can increase momentum. See the media
round-up at the end of this post to get a sense of the depth and breadth of
initial press. Below are important points we are not yet seeing but hope to
encourage in the coverage. To the degree that they are understood, the fuller
and more complete the coverage can become. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Point 1: Birth Center Model of Care</span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">. Yes, we are
talking about midwifery. Even more fundamentally, we are talking about a care model
that centers and does not subordinate midwifery. Empowered midwifery is the
backbone of the birth center model. Birth-center based <span style="color: #222222;">midwifery
ensures the needed autonomy and scale for birth center professionals (midwives,
lactation experts, nurses, and other critical staff) to practice according to the
highest standards for their professions. This is precisely why, since its
inception in the 1970s, the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center was able to create and
maintain full spectrum care, i.e. planning, prenatal, birth, loss, postpartum,
feeding support, baby clinic, and well woman care. This is
integrated, not fragmented care typical of other practices.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Importantly,
when the birth center model is protected and promoted, we see the kind of maternal
and infant outcomes associated with comparator countries, i.e. better results
for women and babies. Take a look at this <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/birt.12430?fbclid=IwAR3D0Zbc5diw1Y7nkv379dcSmHAHVTCii2H7KS6r7SyljCt4CAUNhvewrF8&#.XNGDXPErXq8.facebook" target="_blank">April 2019 report</a> discussing Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation which concludes by calling for the scaling
up of birth centers: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Point
2: Market manipulation.</span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> PeaceHealth and Women’s Care are making and then
announcing inside deals to destroy a model of care and thus limit women’s choices
and access to quality care in this community. PeaceHealth’s presentation of
closure as an expansion and increase in quality is disingenuous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Sidelining the very stakeholders (this consumer group
and the NMBC staff) whose role would have been to speak to how and why this
plan is wrong headed is a hallmark of insider dealing. We were cut out and now
we are being silenced. Insider dealing works this way and it exists to serve a
narrow set of interests. The greater good loses. That PeaceHealth already does
and Women’s Care likely will seek to secure government funding in the name of
serving the community makes their process manipulation that much worse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Women’s Care, after helping to destroy the birth
center, is in position to take the remaining market share left in the breach. We
are hearing that it is already making overtures to be contracted for the hire
and provision of midwifery services for OHP-funded maternity care at the Lane
County Health and Human Services’ Charnelton clinic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Midwifery care, subsumed by and rented out by
Women’s Care, will be qualitatively inferior to midwifery emanating out of an accredited, freestanding birth center. Women’s Care, if contracted, would also perform this role with
fewer midwives than currently employed at but facing firing from the NMBC. Inferior
care and fewer midwives is what we are looking at, if the birth center model of
care in Lane County is broken. Women in our community deserve better. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Readers are encouraged to comment on this post about
ideas and ways in which State of Oregon entities charged with maintaining a
level playing field for consumers can be encouraged to take a look at what is
happening in Lane County. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Point
3: Wonky statistics.</span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> PeaceHealth’s first statement to the media provided factually incorrect
statistics about births at the NMBC, saying about 50 babies arrive there each
year. Misstatements like these frame issues incorrectly and disadvantage public
understanding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Even if PeaceHealth’s statistic were correct and declining
numbers were actually the most important driver behind closure, much could be
learned by looking at the where and the why for this decline. Women’s Care has
a track record of imposing stricter and stricter restrictions on which women
can give birth at the NMBC. We would want a close look at how these restrictive
policies do or do not align with best practices. A good place to start for this
would be with accreditation standards for the NMBC, available via the
Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers. The result of so many women
being “risked out” by Women’s Care’s ever-increasing restrictions is a
declining pool of women with access to birth at the birth center. This decline
at the birth center creates an increase in hospital births for which Women’s
Care benefits financially. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Returning to the incorrect statistic of 50 babies
per year, what we know is that the 1000<sup>th</sup> baby arrived at the start of
2019. Between the May 2009 opening and January 2019, we could assume a 117-month
period. 1000 /117 = 85 births. <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/BIRTHDEATHCERTIFICATES/VITALSTATISTICS/BIRTH/Documents/2018/facilcesarean18.pdf" target="_blank">State of Oregon preliminary data</a> for the year of
2018 indicate 70. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Interestingly, 64 VBACs (vaginal birth after cesarean) occurred in Lane County in
2018. Of those, 48 occurred at Sacred Heart Medical Center in 2018. It would be
worthwhile to drill further and find out how many of these were attended by
NMBC midwives, the only providers in the community who attend out-of-hospital
birth and have hospital privileges. This could point to the broader implications of losing a model of care in which midwives have the autonomy to
practice according to the highest standards of their profession, which includes
evidence-based VBAC support. If the hunch that NMBC midwives are behind the 48
VBACs is correct, it’s reasonable to anticipate that these numbers will plummet
should Women’s Care have its way. This would be another loss associated with
destroying a model of care. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Round up of Media Coverage Thus Far</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Register Guard</span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: #222222;"> wrote an </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.registerguard.com/news/20190508/peacehealth-closing-springfield-birth-center-plans-to-integrate-at-riverbend" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">i</span>nitial article</a></span> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;">May
8th, which didn't include any quotes from community members or midwives, just
from PeaceHealth and Women's Care. The newspaper published a <a href="https://www.registerguard.com/news/20190516/mothers-midwives-and-families-show-support-for-soon-to-close-birth-center" target="_blank"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: #1155cc;">second article</span></span> </a>on
May 16th, which highlighted the Birth Center's birthday party and included
quotes from community members as well as PeaceHealth.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Register-Guard </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">published an </span><a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20190517/in-my-opinion-ruhi-sophia-motzkin-rubenstein-on-vitality-of-nurse-midwifery-birth-center"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">opinion piece</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> by Rabbi Ruhi Sophia Motzkin Rubenstein 5/17 and <a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20190519/kane-and-nelson-keep-commitment-to-birth-center-families" target="_blank">another opinion piece</a> 5/19 by Lynn Kane and Ann Nelson, co-chairs of Lane County Friends of the Birth Center.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">NBC16/KMTR </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">did an <a href="https://nbc16.com/news/local/peacehealths-decision-to-close-midwifery-drastically-changes-several-local-mothers-plans?fbclid=IwAR1CGCiv4pFhbI6bS2XWh42AXI7_UeVVbruy9PAgYYig78ab2PviRnCWIU8" target="_blank"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/nbc16\.com\/news\/local\/peacehealths-decision-to-close-midwifery-drastically-changes-several-local-mothers-plans?fbclid=IwAR1CGCiv4pFhbI6bS2XWh42AXI7_UeVVbruy9PAgYYig78ab2PviRnCWIU8\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022 ";"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: #1155cc;">interview</span></span></span><b> </b></a>of
a current birth center family on 5/14.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><b><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/kval\.com\/news\/local\/midwifery-closing-in-springfield-forces-mothers-to-be-to-find-last-minute-plans?fbclid=IwAR3EYa4J_yhwt1sav3yMdXOHoc4r9coZNkAgvA_Fcisp5CBHkTp9rkhiCtA\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022 ";"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><br /></span></span></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/kval\.com\/news\/local\/midwifery-closing-in-springfield-forces-mothers-to-be-to-find-last-minute-plans?fbclid=IwAR3EYa4J_yhwt1sav3yMdXOHoc4r9coZNkAgvA_Fcisp5CBHkTp9rkhiCtA\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022 ";"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><b>KVAL </b>did an <a href="https://kval.com/news/local/midwifery-closing-in-springfield-forces-mothers-to-be-to-find-last-minute-plans?fbclid=IwAR3EYa4J_yhwt1sav3yMdXOHoc4r9coZNkAgvA_Fcisp5CBHkTp9rkhiCtA" target="_blank">interview</a>, too, on 5/14.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/kval\.com\/news\/local\/midwifery-closing-in-springfield-forces-mothers-to-be-to-find-last-minute-plans?fbclid=IwAR3EYa4J_yhwt1sav3yMdXOHoc4r9coZNkAgvA_Fcisp5CBHkTp9rkhiCtA\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022 ";"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">KLCC</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> featured
a <a href="https://www.klcc.org/post/midwives-react-peacehealth-decision-close-birth-center">radio
spot</a> on 5/11 and another <a href="https://www.klcc.org/post/petition-and-social-media-campaigns-circulate-save-nurse-midwifery-birth-center">radio
spot</a> on 5/16.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">IJPR Jefferson Public Radio</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> did a <span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/www\.ijpr\.org\/post\/midwives-react-peacehealth-decision-close-birth-center?fbclid=IwAR2dIWvb9CLXiTU0u2bdi82Zxe3NOtK-JX5Zu8pSUVpdvmAzFK5qPHtoa_A\0022 \\l \0022stream\/0\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022 ";"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><a href="https://www.ijpr.org/post/midwives-react-peacehealth-decision-close-birth-center?fbclid=IwAR2dIWvb9CLXiTU0u2bdi82Zxe3NOtK-JX5Zu8pSUVpdvmAzFK5qPHtoa_A#stream/0" target="_blank">radio spot</a></span></span></span> on
5/12.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;"><b>Midwifing America </b>devoted a <a href="https://www.midwifingamerica.com/episodes-rss/2019/5/18/episode-seven-save-the-birth-center" target="_blank">podcast episode</a> on5/18. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/www\.change\.org\/p\/peacehealth-save-the-nurse-midwifery-birth-center-d8ba9f6b-1bfa-4d88-b087-6b64bcf3564f?recruiter=909653843&recruited_by_id=19da8b60-de6b-11e8-b915-25d1046931b9&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=share_petition&fbclid=IwAR3Vu2_Crp-FIU9HMpi6yt_KW0U8-hskDX0qI7Yf_LNd0UHtDX9Ug79DBCg\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022 ";"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><a href="https://www.change.org/p/peacehealth-save-the-nurse-midwifery-birth-center-d8ba9f6b-1bfa-4d88-b087-6b64bcf3564f" target="_blank">Petition to Save the BirthCenter</a> </span></span></span>has nearly 6,000 signatures and counting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">There are many letters to the editor in The Register-Guard. Two
online on </span><a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20190511/this-mothers-day-consider-maternal-health-issues"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">May 11</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> by Karen Guillemin and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20190516/birth-center-closure-significant-loss-to-this-community"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">May 16</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> by Andy Redick</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">plus one more (not online) by Sara Starlin printed in the paper on 5/16 and <a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20190519/put-forth-business-model-that-will-support-midwifery" target="_blank">another</a> on 5/19 by Tiffany Grantom. </span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_Tf7o5E1F8c/XOCHXcKn15I/AAAAAAAAByI/Lv3HDVt6zeMGjAH0O9KWghw2jycqqU-QACEwYBhgL/s1600/20190516%2BLetter%2Bto%2BRG_Starlin.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="184" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_Tf7o5E1F8c/XOCHXcKn15I/AAAAAAAAByI/Lv3HDVt6zeMGjAH0O9KWghw2jycqqU-QACEwYBhgL/s320/20190516%2BLetter%2Bto%2BRG_Starlin.tiff" width="115" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">What Community Members Can Do:</span></div>
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<ol>
<li><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Because
the PeaceHealth "Hotline to the Heart" patient complaint line has
ceased to listen to our messages, we encourage community members to express
concern/support for the Birth Center with a call to Ethics Consultation
Services at 541-222-2262.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Make public comments on the Register Guard article and any
forthcoming media.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Share your stories and our posts on social media using the
hashtag </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/savethenursemidwiferybirthcenter?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDBchwcZb4AMpP9jiIdKK-TJmBe4IZmYyb_Rec1AwHiKBeoF4WefRWTkYcaGgQS5apLQZgX-O9IVaTYfiKfxamfeo4DlX-0pV0OxTUkbqtXAZBB7NI130ajdRGZ3CIuCQXPzhMQeUDwhSEhobR6MXe2BUOZFjShlscIr10M8hk89LF-fef7cS7RkBoJdRa_Am7mKxX7cH_h26Gfx2YLZstNUl9swE-FhoWX9c0d1djCGq4K9Tx2wCUoo6ECVUGv2MofWhVKuoJvvmHxtTgSXDcgD3l-j3hcN3T8ZeqYzqrOmXqmuTL59f8d4u8YofvvSgLZp-tXB1V4Dg8uuhDY&__tn__=%2ANK-R"><span class="58cl"><span style="color: #365899; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-decoration: none;">#</span></span><span class="58cm"><span style="color: #385898; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-decoration: none;">SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter</span></span></a><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> We will make sure to share your
stories with PeaceHealth decision makers as well.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Write letters to the Editor at Register Guard (</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/www\.registerguard\.com\/opinion\/contribute-letter?fbclid=IwAR1uZD95q5apbqWzub83WMwnl2WVHQd0lHoDdL_xrB3dxqOmxhMSJY8werU\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022 ";"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: #385898; text-decoration: none;"><a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/contribute-letter">https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/contribute-letter</a></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">) and the Eugene Weekly </span><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;">(</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/www\.eugeneweekly\.com\/category\/letters\/?fbclid=IwAR3n6N_NHvZvY_SjHc8_hCPpl9_deSfEC7wEwmAWj7_-GSTsuG4x1sLgrv8\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022 ";"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: #385898; text-decoration: none;"><a href="https://www.eugeneweekly.com/category/letters/">https://www.eugeneweekly.com/category/letters/</a></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;">).</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10pt;">Contact your State and U.S. Government officials to let them know how important the Birth Center is to their constituents. </span><a href="https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/FindYourLegislator/leg-districts.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/FindYourLegislator/leg-districts.html</span></a></li>
<li><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Follow this blog and our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lanecofbc/" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> "Lane County
Friends of the Birth Center" for regular updates and action opportunities
as they arise.</span></li>
</ol>
</div>
Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-14997795000265795102019-05-17T11:27:00.002-07:002019-05-17T11:27:59.107-07:00Lane County Friends of the Birth Center Insists on a Meeting with CEO Mary Kingston<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Ms. Mary
Kingston<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Chief
Executive Officer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Peace
Health Oregon Network<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">May 16,
2019<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Dear Ms.
Kingston,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We are members
of the Lane County Friends of the Birth Center (LaneCoFBC), the volunteer-led
consumer advisory panel for the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are writing to you to introduce our
organization and to schedule an appointment for our board members to meet with
you in person to discuss the future of our Birth Center.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We are
deeply concerned by your decision to close the Nurse Midwifery Birth
Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We share your stated goal of
“keeping the patient at the center of all we do.” However, in order to ensure
that is achieved, PeaceHealth would have needed to engage directly with the birth
center community and our consumer group, before proceeding toward a decision,
to understand and confirm needs, concerns and priorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We represent that community of stakeholders,
and this decision was made without any feedback from or recent collaboration
with us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">In your
announcement last week, you announced plans for the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery
Birth Center to become integrated within the Labor & Deliver unit at
Riverbend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We would like to remind you
that the PeaceHealth Birth Center’s Certified Nurse Midwives are already
integrated into the PeaceHealth Labor & Delivery Unit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, last year they delivered 388 babies
at Riverbend. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also recognize,
however, that Women’s Care represents a much larger market share.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pacific Women’s Care, on the other hand,
represents a very small fraction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
concerned that by transitioning our local Certified Nurse Midwife capacity from
PeaceHealth over to Women’s Care you are further empowering Women’s Care to
dominate, dictate and essentially limit the autonomy of midwives to practice
their profession and also impacting the access to and options for women and
families in our community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a fact
that Women’s Care has imposed additional restrictions over the past 9 years on
what risk factors require transfer to hospital for delivery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two examples, are the “41 week rule” and the
reduction of the PROM (premature rupture of membranes) window from 24 hours to
12 hours. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together they have resulted in
a significant increase (nearly 30%) in women who have “risked out” of
delivering at our Birth Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We also fear
that the most vulnerable members of our population will be impacted the
most.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, for women on OHP who
cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket, the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth
Center is the only option they have for an out-of-hospital birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, there are women who come from as far
away as, Medford, Redmond, and Salem to see the differentiated services
prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum wrap-around services such as 24/7
lactation support, birth control and well-woman services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We would
like to clarify that our community is not seeking “midwifery experiences” but
rather we seek the internationally respected midwifery model of care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This model provides high-quality services without
sacrificing a recognition, respect and honor for the inherent strength in every
woman and for her right to have a choice in the location and type of provider –
the ultimate flexibility- when seeking prenatal and childbirth services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We
are delighted that you are so proud of the care and service delivered by your
hospital’s Nurse Midwifery Birth Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, the staff’s commitment to and their impact on the wellbeing of
our community is impressive and far reaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, we are concerned because it sounds as if PeaceHealth has
forgotten its own public commitment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>PeaceHealth made a commitment to the community to protect and promote the
birth center model. This commitment was made in partnership with many in our
community, including donors who were asked by PeaceHealth to invest $774,000 in
this long-term vision and partnership. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">It
is nice to hear that you recognize the vital role our community played in the
construction of our current birth center home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, we would like to clarify that we did not develop the “birthing
center model.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a
long-established and internationally respected model of care (see attachment regarding
2013 National Birth Center II study.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We
hear constantly from birth center clients whose lives have been forever changed
by the knowledge of themselves, their bodies, and their innate strength that
results from a labor and birth attended by birth center midwives and staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also hear about the impact of the
holistic, wrap-around postpartum services they provide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also, of course, can each speak from our
own first-hand experiences. Each of us has been fortunate to be able to experience
a satisfying and empowering childbirth experience thanks to the high-quality
and personal support of birth center midwives and staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The birth center model of care is a valuable
asset to the PeaceHealth network of caregiving institutions, and we — and
countless others — are committed to seeing its role and impact in our community
continue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We
look forward to meeting with you soon, and look forward to hearing of your
availability.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Lynn
Kane, Co-Chair<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Mother of
two birth center babies (born 2010, 2012)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Ann Carney
Nelson, Co-Chair<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Mother of
two birth center babies (born 2012, 2015)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Matt Huston<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Father
of two birth center babies (born 2011 and 2016)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Heather
LeCompte, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Mother of
one birth center baby (born 2015)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Jennifer
Noyce<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Mother of
two birth center babies (born 2012, 2014)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Jacob
Siegel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Father
of two birth center babies (2017, due 2019)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Emeritus
Board </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Eleanor
Vandegrift<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Karen
Guillemin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Kathy Lynn<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Renee
Bailey<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Katharine
Gallagher<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Anna
Chorlton<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Maria Blum<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Jennifer
Rinner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Sara
Starlin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">cc:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dr.
Scott Foster<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mike
Metcalf<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Kelly
Rickman<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">encl.:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>American College of Nurse Midwives, "Birth Matters: Understanding
how physiologic, healthy birth benefits hospitals and organizations."
(midwife.org)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">National
Birth Center Study II</i> Executive Summary <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Lynnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02349383275519372962noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-12230752143676990962019-05-14T21:18:00.003-07:002019-05-14T22:49:24.534-07:00Lane County Friends of the Birth Center to Meet with PeaceHealth COO<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>The Co-Chairs of the Lane County Friends of the Birth Center will be meeting Wednesday, May 15 with PeaceHealth COO Todd Salnas. In advance of our meeting we sent this letter of introduction.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<!--[if supportFields]><span lang=EN-CA style='mso-ansi-language:
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lang=EN-CA style='mso-ansi-language:EN-CA'><span style='mso-element:field-end'></span></span><![endif]-->Mr. Todd
Salnas<o:p></o:p></div>
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Chief Operating Officer<o:p></o:p></div>
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Peace Health Oregon Network<o:p></o:p></div>
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May 13, 2019<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Dear Mr. Salnas,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">We are the Co-Chairs of Lane County Friends of the Birth Center
(LaneCoFBC), the volunteer-led consumer advisory panel for the PeaceHealth
Nurse Midwifery Birth Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In advance
of our meeting on Wednesday, May 15, we wanted to provide you with a brief
introduction of our organization and some history of our Birth Center. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Founded in the 1970’s, our Birth Center is Oregon’s first – and one of
the country’s oldest - nationally-accredited birth centers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a leader in our field, it has always
demonstrated a commitment to excellence and evidence-based practice; a point of
pride among the thousands of women, families, and caregivers throughout the
Eugene-Springfield and greater Lane County area who are invested in the birth
center model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Our Birth Center has existed in its current
location since 2010.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, this week
we are celebrating the 9<sup>th</sup> Birthday of the Birth Center’s
building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In January 2019 the 1,000<sup>th</sup>
baby was born at the Birth Center’s current location!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Births are also attended at the hospital. When
you consider the number of families and individuals whose lives have been
touched by the Birth Center’s suite of services over the years, the impact is
staggering and spans generations!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
is a growing number of families in which the births of both mother and child
were attended by Birth Center midwives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">Our Birth Center is a community Birth Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, the construction costs for our
current location were funded by the sale of the old birth center building, community
donations to the <span style="background: white; color: black;">Sacred Heart
Medical Center Foundation </span></span>totaling $774,000
(3% above the $750,000 goal), and PeaceHealth funds. The Birth Center serves a broad cross section
of our community including women and families from all socio-economic
backgrounds and from as far away as Florence, Medford, and Redmond. For women on OHP who cannot afford to pay
out-of-pocket, the Birth Center is the only out-of-hospital option
available. These women are also some of
the most vulnerable members of our community who most need holistic support and
services.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">The Birth Center’s </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">unique range of prenatal, intrapartum</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">, and postpartum wrap-around services include</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"> 24/7
lactation support, birth control and well-woman services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>Lactation support at the Birth Center
is Baby Friendly certified as evidence-based. Here, too, the Birth Center has a proud history of leading the
way in our community. <span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">The weekly baby clinics, part of the evidence-based model of care for
lactation support, also provide mothers with the opportunity to connect informally
with other new mothers. </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact,
many of us have formed long-lasting friendships with those we met years ago at
baby clinic. Research supports these types of services and support programs as
foundational for postpartum health. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
We hear constantly from Birth Center clients whose
lives have been forever changed by the knowledge of themselves, their bodies,
and their innate strength that resulted from a labor and birth attended by
Birth Center midwives and staff, as well as the holistic, wrap-around
postpartum services they provide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also,
of course, speak from our own first-hand experiences. We have both been fortunate
to be able to experience childbirth, not just once but twice, under the careful
and encouraging support of Birth Center midwives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Birth Center model of care is a valuable
asset to the PeaceHealth network of caregiving institutions, and we—and
countless others—want to see its role and impact in our community continue.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
Finally, we also believe that the Birth Center’s
woman-centered, low-tech, high-touch practices are a compassionate
manifestation of PeaceHealth’s stated vision that “every person receives safe,
compassionate care; every time, every touch.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Thank you in advance for your time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We very much look forward to meeting with you
on Wednesday at 3pm.</div>
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Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-62360070889236670892019-05-14T15:02:00.000-07:002019-05-14T22:54:51.574-07:00Friends of the Birth Center Statement about PeaceHealth's Announcement to Close the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">For at
least the third time in its history PeaceHealth is once again attempting to
close our beloved Nurse Midwifery Birth Center.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The Lane County Friends of the Birth Center have been in conversation
with PeaceHealth administration as well as the midwives, and just like the last
time PeaceHealth threatened this closure, we are committed to transparently
communicating with our community.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.registerguard.com/news/20190508/peacehealth-closing-springfield-birth-center-plans-to-integrate-at-riverbend">https://www.registerguard.com/news/20190508/peacehealth-closing-springfield-birth-center-plans-to-integrate-at-riverbend</a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">What we know right now:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">*While the
media are reporting that this is a decision made by PeaceHealth due to low
volume, we were told by a PeaceHealth senior administrator that this is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> merely a financial issue. The crux
of the matter is that Women's Care decided in late March 2019 that they would
not renew their contract to serve as the collaborating physicians for the PeaceHealth
certified nurse midwives. The following week Women's Care explained that they
intended to hire some midwives to build out a model of care for low risk
clients in the hospital, but would not be supporting out-of-hospital
births.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The current contract between
Women's Care and PeaceHealth expires at the end of the summer and PeaceHealth
has announced that the Birth Center will be closing no later than August 31.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">*While
PeaceHealth is claiming that the "The difficult decision to close the
Birth Center was reached only after a thorough discernment process," PeaceHealth
neglected to involve any of the women and practitioners who will be most affected
by the Center's closure in these conversations. The Birth Center midwives were
not involved in these contract discussions, and were only officially notified
of this decision just last week on May 7, the same day the news was announced
to the rest of the PeaceHealth leadership and providers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither did PeaceHealth elect to consult the
Birth Center's long-standing consumer group, the Lane County Friends of the
Birth Center, which exists to fulfill a national accreditation requirement. This
does not reflect PeaceHealth's core value of collaboration between all parties
to promote the health of the community, and is yet another example of women not
being allowed or empowered to make decisions that affect their own bodies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">* There is
no concrete plan in place to "transition" the midwives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All Birth Center staff, including the 10 Birth
Center midwives, and also the nurses, lactation consultants, and office staff,
are being laid off no later than 8/31/2019. Women's Care has recently posted
job openings for certified nurse midwives, but has said they are only
interested in hiring 4-5. Even if they did decide to hire some of the Birth
Center midwives, this would still be a reduction of midwifery services for our
community, and would be physician run rather than a true birth center model of
care.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">* In
January 2019, the Birth Center celebrated 1,000 births in its current location.
It is easy to do the math and realize that 1,000 babies divided by the nine
years that the new Birth Center has existed is a much larger number than the
average of 50 deliveries a year PeaceHealth is reporting. This does not include
the hundreds of women who also deliver at the hospital with the same
exceptional care from the midwives. Furthermore, the birth center model of care
is about much more than birth, and any birth statistics do not include the many
other families who received compassionate care from the midwives through well-woman
care, pre-conception and contraceptive counseling, or healing from a miscarriage.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">*The
midwives do not need to be more fully integrated into maternity care at
PeaceHealth--they already are! The Birth Center is the only obstetric practice
in town that already has providers with both hospital and out-of-hospital
privileges and can provide continuity of care for families whatever their birth
needs and preferences. What the Birth Center <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i> need, and what is in the best interest of the safety, best
outcomes, and patient satisfaction of families in our community is
collaborative physicians who are fully supportive of the Birth Center model of
care for low-risk women (which, according to the World Health Organization,
should be about 85% of us), something that the American College of Obstetrics
and Gynecologists recognized in their January 2015 statement on levels of
maternity care<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
and their February 2017 committee opinion on minimizing interventions during
labor and birth.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">* Women's
Care already has a large market share of the deliveries which take place at
River Bend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Women's Care were to take
over the birth center births, the combined impact would not be an “expanded model
of obstetrics care for women,” but rather gives Lane County women <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fewer </i>options about when, how, and with
whom they give birth, a clear contradiction with PeaceHealth's stated value of
respecting each individual's differences and choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="background: white; color: #2f393f; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">*The Birth
Center midwives provide all the prenatal care for the Community Health Clinic,
and are the only obstetric practice in town that will not limit the number of
women on the Oregon Health Plan or turn anyone away regardless of their ability
to pay. Closing the Birth Center would mean less equitable access to quality
care and is in direct contradiction to PeaceHealth's stated value of the just
distribution of resources.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">*PeaceHealth
states that they intend to create a "long term sustainable care model to
better serve Lane County mothers and families." In fact, there is no need
to create this model because PeaceHealth's Nurse Midwifery Birth Center has
been serving our community since the late 1970s, and already participates in a
long-established and internationally-respected model of care, which is backed
by years of research.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The most recent example is
the Strong Start Study (2018), sponsored by the Center for Medicaid and
Medicare Improvement, in which PeaceHealth's own Nurse Midwifery Birth Center
participated.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>five-year study followed over 45,000
women in 217 provider sites across 23 different states, the District of
Columbia, and Puerto Rico; many of whom had social and medical challenges that
placed them at risk of experiencing poor birth outcomes. When comparing three
different maternity models, all of which received the same enhanced services
for this study, the researchers found that women receiving birth center care
had significantly lower rates of pre-term birth, low birth weight, and cesarean
sections. Notably, all three of these things have been identified as key national
objectives for increasing maternal, infant and child health.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The data show that our birth center is
already providing a model of care that provides an important corrective to the
challenges related to social determinants for the health of mothers and
families in our community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">*At the
Birth Center, birth is not the final event of maternity care, and many families
choose the Birth Center for the full suite of evidence-based lactation services that are offered. Here too the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth
Center has led the way in our community by becoming one of the first ten
facilities in the nation to achieve the World Health Organization's<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Baby-Friendly designation for comprehensive
excellence in breastfeeding support in 1997. The U.S. Surgeon General's Call to
Action to Support Breastfeeding says that breastfeeding is the single most
important thing a woman can do to protect her baby's health and also her own
health,<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and the Birth Center helps women achieve
their breastfeeding goals with 24/7 support, outpatient lactation services (no
longer offered by Riverbend), and weekly well-baby clinics--all for no extra
charge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">*Regardless
of the other parties involved, nine years ago PeaceHealth made a public
commitment to the community to protect and promote the birth center model. This
included asking nearly 200 individual donors to believe that they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">were</i> investing in a long-term commitment
to a sustainable care model by contributing building funds through the Sacred
Heart Medical Foundation. PeaceHealth needs to be held accountable for breaking
this commitment, especially as it relates to their core value of ethical and
responsible stewardship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Right now the top priorities for
Lane County Friends of the Birth Center are:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">1)
Insisting on meetings with key PeaceHealth decision makers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As in years past, we will summarize and report
out what we learn in these meetings in order to maintain a record and be
transparent with our community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">2)
Obtaining and disseminating accurate information. This includes both making sure
that PeaceHealth has accurate information about the history of and continued community
support for the birth center model, and also includes our pledge to be
transparent with the community we represent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">What community members can do:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1c1e21;">1) Call the PeaceHealth
"Hotline to the Heart" patient complaint line to express
concern/support for the Birth Center. 1-866-222-6822 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.5pt;">
<span style="color: #1c1e21;">2) Make public comments on
the Register Guard article and any forthcoming media.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.5pt;">
<span style="color: #1c1e21;">3) Share your stories and our
posts on social media using the hashtag </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/savethenursemidwiferybirthcenter?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDBchwcZb4AMpP9jiIdKK-TJmBe4IZmYyb_Rec1AwHiKBeoF4WefRWTkYcaGgQS5apLQZgX-O9IVaTYfiKfxamfeo4DlX-0pV0OxTUkbqtXAZBB7NI130ajdRGZ3CIuCQXPzhMQeUDwhSEhobR6MXe2BUOZFjShlscIr10M8hk89LF-fef7cS7RkBoJdRa_Am7mKxX7cH_h26Gfx2YLZstNUl9swE-FhoWX9c0d1djCGq4K9Tx2wCUoo6ECVUGv2MofWhVKuoJvvmHxtTgSXDcgD3l-j3hcN3T8ZeqYzqrOmXqmuTL59f8d4u8YofvvSgLZp-tXB1V4Dg8uuhDY&__tn__=%2ANK-R"><span class="58cl"><span style="color: #365899; text-decoration: none;">#</span></span><span class="58cm"><span style="color: #385898; text-decoration: none;">SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter</span></span></a><span style="color: #1c1e21;"> We will make sure to share your stories with PeaceHealth
decision makers as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1c1e21;">4) Write letters to the Editor at
Register Guard (</span><a href="https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/contribute-letter?fbclid=IwAR1uZD95q5apbqWzub83WMwnl2WVHQd0lHoDdL_xrB3dxqOmxhMSJY8werU" target="_blank"><span style="color: #385898; text-decoration: none;">https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/contribute-letter</span></a><span style="color: #1c1e21;">) and the Eugene Weekly<br />
(</span><a href="https://www.eugeneweekly.com/category/letters/?fbclid=IwAR3n6N_NHvZvY_SjHc8_hCPpl9_deSfEC7wEwmAWj7_-GSTsuG4x1sLgrv8" target="_blank"><span style="color: #385898; text-decoration: none;">https://www.eugeneweekly.com/category/letters/</span></a><span style="color: #1c1e21;">).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.5pt;">
<span style="color: #1c1e21;">5) Follow this blog and our
facebook page "Lane County Friends of the Birth Center" for regular
updates and action opportunities as they arise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Lynn Kane<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Co-Chair,
Friends of the Birth Center<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Mother of
Two Birth Center Babies (2010, 2012)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Ann Carney
Nelson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Co-Chair
Friends of the Birth Center<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Mother of
Two Birth Center Babies (2012, 2015)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
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<br />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a href="https://www.acog.org/About-ACOG/ACOG-Departments/LOMC">https://www.acog.org/About-ACOG/ACOG-Departments/LOMC</a><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a href="https://www.acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/Committee-Opinions/Committee-on-Obstetric-Practice/Approaches-to-Limit-Intervention-During-Labor-and-Birth">https://www.acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/Committee-Opinions/Committee-on-Obstetric-Practice/Approaches-to-Limit-Intervention-During-Labor-and-Birth</a><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jmwh.12003">https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jmwh.12003</a><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a href="https://innovation.cms.gov/Files/reports/strongstart-prenatal-fg-finalevalrpt.pdf">https://innovation.cms.gov/Files/reports/strongstart-prenatal-fg-finalevalrpt.pdf</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a href="https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/maternal-infant-and-child-health/objectives">https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/maternal-infant-and-child-health/objectives</a><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Lynn/Downloads/Update%20%231_Rev2.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <o:p></o:p><a href="https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/breastfeeding-call-to-action-executive-summary.pdf">https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/breastfeeding-call-to-action-executive-summary.pdf</a></div>
</div>
</div>
<br />Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-76365975401306693552016-12-28T15:04:00.000-08:002016-12-28T15:04:01.429-08:00Meet Victoria Mayfield, CNM<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We are pleased to introduce you to Victoria Mayfield, </div>
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the Birth Center's newest midwife.</div>
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Welcome Victoria! We are so glad you are here!</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3brzk5dHzmE/WGRC7JnLSII/AAAAAAAABuo/1hg_FhHavkYwIqzs9DHL90TCnCcdfxUfACLcB/s1600/victoria2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3brzk5dHzmE/WGRC7JnLSII/AAAAAAAABuo/1hg_FhHavkYwIqzs9DHL90TCnCcdfxUfACLcB/s320/victoria2.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
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<b>What inspired you to become a midwife?</b><br />
I was born at home, as were all of my siblings. This meant that I grew up thinking it was normal for all women to have natural labor and for babies to be born at home. Also, the midwife who delivered me was also my dance teacher (from ages 2-16), so needless to say I thought she had the best life ever. Dancer by day and baby catcher by night. What could be better!?<br />
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As I grew up, my eyes widened to the "real world" and I was sure that I'd go to medical school. Being a doctor would be most fitting for my math and sciency brain, and my type-A personality. Again, what could be better!? Well, what was better was one day waking up to realize that the perfect melding between my, for lack of a better term, "hippie," "birth is normal" upbringing and my motivation to work in healthcare was nurse-midwifery. I fundamentally believe that the foundation to a healthy life begins in the womb, and even for some women, it can begin with a pregnancy. I also have seen that healthy communities are rooted in healthy birth. This has inspired me, as these principles have inspired me to be where I am today, doing what I love to do!<br />
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<b>Can you tell us a bit about your own family? </b><br />
My long-term partner and I do not have any kids yet, but we do have a cat baby. I tell him all the time that I love that cat more than I ever thought I could ever love a non-human... It gets me daydreaming about how insanely wonderful it will feel to one day love a human child more than I ever imagined was possible! Some day....<br />
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Otherwise, my family is big and wonderful. I have 3 full siblings: a sister who is a super smart fish biologist, a brother who is a bearded brewer for Ordnance Brewing (check them out!), and a younger sister (and best friend) who works with at-risk high schoolers and is an amazing runner (winner of this year's Eugene Marathon!). My mom and little brother live in Ashland. He is 10, and was born when I was in high school (did I give away my age?). Ezra is wonderful and one of the best "mistakes" to happen to our family; he's this amazing little mini-adult. Having a newborn in the house when my siblings and I were at such a formative age served as good birth control, but it also made me fall even more in love with small humans! All my siblings were all at his birth. My Dad is a FNP who is currently living on the Oregon Coast.<br />
<br />
<b>What are your favorite things about providing care at the Birth Center?</b><br />
I LOVE meeting families, and especially the families that have a rich history with the midwives in this practice. It's wonderful and special to be at births where a sibling who was born into the same space or to another midwife is present. It's humbling to feel that I have walked into this place that is a fixture in so many people's lives, and to feel welcomed and embraced. This place is a family in its own right. I also LOVE being with women who face labor with bravery and determination, and being with women who hold on to keeping birth sacred and normal. I am constantly in awe of a woman's strength!<br />
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<b>What can you share with us that we may not already know?</b><br />
I'm a knitter and quilter. My preferred project is baby hats! I make them all the time to have on hand to give away! I've been running my whole life; I'm mostly into ultra-distance trail running. This summer I have two 50k's planned. A fun bragging right I have is that I was team captain of our state championship cross country team in high school. I went to Willamette University and studied Exercise Science, so that may be considered my area of interest in pregnancy. Shortly after, I attended OHSU for my BSN and Masters of Nursing, Nurse-Midwifery. Prior to working in this field, I worked at Crater Lake clearing and building trails for the Park Service for 6 seasons!<br />
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<br />Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-81316899874418541392015-02-26T23:14:00.000-08:002015-02-26T23:14:11.997-08:00Welcome January 2015 Babies!<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.9149990081787px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20px;">Welcome to all the babies born with the PeaceHealth midwives in January! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.9149990081787px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20px;">We are so glad you are all a part of the Birth Center family and would love </span><br /><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 20px;">to see your photos and hear your stories!</span></div>
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Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7805848055160985611.post-36803126107319826702015-01-22T22:49:00.001-08:002015-01-22T22:50:36.667-08:00Welcome Anne Richards, CNM, to the Birth Center!<div class="MsoNormal">
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We are pleased to introduce you to Anne Richards, </div>
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the Birth Center's newest midwife.</div>
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Welcome Anne! We are so glad you are here!</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<!--[if supportFields]><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:
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lang=EN-CA style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-CA'><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span></span><![endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">How long have you been working at the Birth Center?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> I am the newest midwife at the Birth Center, having
joined the team just about six months ago, in late June. I graduated from
Vanderbilt University’s midwifery program in December 2013, but was living in
Eugene prior to attending graduate school in Nashville, so I already knew about
the practice. Every day I feel so lucky to have been asked to join this
incredible group; everyone at the Birth Center has welcomed me with open arms
and taken me under their (awesomely knowledgeable and supportive) wings – I am
so very grateful for that!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Tell us a little about
your path to the Birth Center.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> It seems everyone in my life knew I was supposed to be a
midwife before I did! I have always been fascinated with pregnancy and birth,
but I honestly didn’t think I could transform that passion into my life’s work.
My Dad is a journalist, my Mom is a business consultant, my brother is pursuing
a career in film; being an obstetrics care provider simply wasn’t on my radar
growing up. That said, my brother is eight years younger than I am and I
vividly recall nearly everything about my Mom’s pregnancy with him; I was desperate
to attend my Mom’s prenatal appointments and literally begged her to allow me
to be present at the birth (my parents deemed me too young). I was ravenous for
information related to pregnancy, labor, and delivery, even in the second grade.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> I received my undergraduate degree in nutrition from UC
Berkeley in 2007. For several years following graduation, I worked in the field
of clinical dietetics at a San Francisco Bay Area hospital. At every
opportunity, I found myself trying to get under the service of the Registered
Dietitian assigned to the hospital’s antepartum unit; she spent her days
working with pregnant women who were hospitalized for gestational diabetes, hypertension,
etc. She is the one who told me, “I think you’re meant to work in labor and
delivery.” So, on her urging, I trained and then volunteered as a doula for
several years at a San Francisco county hospital. Witnessing that first birth
was it for me – I never again contemplated another field. I was lucky enough to
support women whose labors and births were overwhelmingly attended by the
hospital’s Certified Nurse-Midwives and the Student Nurse-Midwives of UCSF;
working with them made me realize that I wanted – and needed – to become a
midwife.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">What do you enjoy most
about working at the Birth Center?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> Everything! For one, the opportunity to attend both
out-of-hospital and in-hospital births is an incredible (and rare) blessing;
it’s amazing that our practice can also offer that choice to our patients.
Additionally, I love that I get to work with women and families who
specifically seek out midwifery care; at the practices with which I trained as
a Student Nurse-Midwife, low-risk patients were automatically assigned to the midwives
and higher-risk patients were automatically assigned to the obstetricians,
which wasn’t always ideal. At the Birth Center and in this community in general,
there is so much respect for and trust in the training that midwives have and
our expertise in managing healthy, low-risk pregnancies and deliveries. I am so
appreciative of that respect and trust. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">What is one thing about
you that might surprise people?</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> As a fairly new Certified Nurse-Midwife, everything in my
life seems to be focused on midwifery right now! Possibly it would surprise
people that I am a newlywed? My husband and I just got married in September. We
together moved to Oregon from California for his job four years ago, but soon
thereafter endured a long-distance relationship while I attended midwifery
school in Nashville. He’s an air traffic controller, so we both work varied
schedules. When he’s not directing airplanes and I’m not catching babies, we
indulge in one of our truest passions – delicious food and drink. We have loved
together experiencing Eugene’s burgeoning restaurant scene! We also make the
trek to Portland more often that I would like to admit simply to indulge our
many culinary cravings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Lane County Friends of the Birth Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14374460832280519101noreply@blogger.com0