New Year Greetings from Spirit of LIfe Midwifery

Happy New Year!

May the New Year bring these wishes to all of you
Warmth of love, comfort of home
Joy for your children.
Company and support of family and friends.
A caring heart that accepts and treats all human beings equally.
Enrichment of knowledge and richness of diversity.
Courage to seek and speak the truth even if it means standing alone.
Hopes and dreams of a just world and the desire to make it happen.
A light to guide your path.
Helping hands to strengthen unity.
Serenity and peace within your mind, heart and soul.
Food for thought and soul.
A hand to hold.

~ Sheila ~

Homebirth Baby LuLu

Greetings!
Sharing this lovely picture of sweet Luciana LuLu who was born this June.

Mobile Midwife Launch Party! July 14th

Mobile Midwife Party: July 14, 2011!

Thursday, July 14, 2011
 7‐10pm
 The Dorset Rooftop
 Catalina Hotel & Beach Club 
 1720 Collins Avenue
 Miami Beach, FL

$15 admission.
includes complimentary Womb Warrior, our signature drink
  Cash Bar & Food available  

Buy tickets for you and your friends here! 
  RSVP: mobilemidwives@gmail.com   

Mobile Midwife at

Let's Talk about Sex

Mobile Midwife will be participating in Sister Song's Let's Talk About Sex conference in July 13-July 17, 2011.

Support Mobile Midwife!

 

Like us on Facebook!

Greetings Beloved Community,

In the spirit of unity, we write to you as we move forward on our journey to Birth Justice.

With you, our beloved community, we have marched for justice in Atlanta, Detroit, Oakland and many other cities, fought for midwifery care in Miami, facilitated childbirth preparation circles, developed a framework for Birth Justice, and attended the births of some of your children.

We now call on you to walk with us in building Birth Justice in Miami and beyond. Our walk is rooted in the Reproductive Justice movement; it must be innovative, autonomous, and led by women of color.  It is for this purpose we are birthing Mobile Midwife, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Through Mobile Midwife, we aim to expand Birth Justice with story telling, popular education, and community organizing to improve access to midwifery care.

We’ve heard your birth stories that reflect the trauma and crisis we’ve endured. These birth stories share our survival, courage, resistance, and (yes!) our hope and joy. Sharing and documenting these stories are healing and revolutionary acts. Each story moves like a ripple across water, merging to create a powerful wave of Birth Justice!

We’ve learned with and from you. Using popular education and community organizing, we will continue to examine the roots of inequality and injustice in relation to childbirth. Armed with this knowledge, and with you, our beloved community, we can demand and create the type of change we desire when it comes to our reproductive health.

We've cared with you and for you. In spite of an increasingly violent medical environment, midwifery care creates space to have safe, gentle, and empowered birth experiences. Midwifery care is holistic, healing, and humanistic. It has rich herstory, legacy, and roots in communities of color. Our vision forMobile Midwife is to make this care accessible and central to all, especially Black, Brown, immigrant, indigenous, queer, transgender, low-income and other marginalized communities.

This journey to build Birth Justice has only been possible thanks to your support. Let us continue to share and build this movement together!

With Respect and Love,

Mobile Midwives



Jamarah Amani & Anjali Sardeshmukh

Mothers and Concerned Community Rally in Support of Midwives

The public is invited to the International Day of the Midwife Rally on Thursday May 5, 2011 at 5pm in Miami to raise awareness about the important role of midwives in improving maternal and infant health.

April 21, 2011 – Miami, FL – Midwives take to the road to tackle maternal mortality. Midwives and their supporters around the world are gathering to raise awareness to tackle global inequalities in maternal and infant health. On Thursday May 5th at 5pm, Birthworkers of Color United, a local collective of midwives, doulas, childbirth educators and breastfeeding counselors, will lead mothers and community in a rally on 33rd Street and Biscayne Boulevard in Miami to mark the International Day of the Midwife.

Over 340,000 women die each year, with millions more suffering infection and disability, as a result of preventable causes. Locally, in Miami-Dade county, the infant mortality rate is rising and disproportionately impacting African-American communities. According to the Miami-Dade County Health Department, Black babies are twice as likely to die in the first year of life as White babies. Birthworkers of Color United is committed to reducing inequality, through greater access to essential midwifery care locally and worldwide. Mothers and midwives around the world will be walking with us, in their respective locations. The goal is to demonstrate commitment to tackling maternal and newborn mortality by standing shoulder to shoulder with midwives and mothers around the world. Mothers and babies deserve to get the support they need through increased global and local commitment to midwifery services.




The walk on the 5th of May is the start of a journey that finishes at the International Confederation of Midwives Congress in Durban, South Africa, a global gathering where 3000 midwives will share evidence of what works to reduce maternal mortality and improve the care and support available to mothers and newborns around the world. For more information contact Jamarah Amani at 786-587-8741 or jamarah@gmail.com. 

HEALTHY BIRTH SYMPOSIUM SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2 at 7pm

HEALTHY BIRTH SYMPOSIUM SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2 at 7pm with Michelle Maniaci, Deanna Alvarez and Marina Langesfeld...

New MANA 2010 Event - Ricki Lake hosting "Roast of the Farm Midwives"

On Friday night of MANA 2010, October 15, The Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery is hosting a

"Roast of the Farm Midwives" Moderated by Ricki Lake

with the following schedule:

7:00 - Cash bar of midwife concoctions
7:30 - Roast begins promptly
9:00 - Screening of Guerrilla Midwife


Tickets are $20 and will go on sale in September.

Please Be sure to sign up for FAM's e-newsletter at www.formidwifery.org to receive ticket notices. This event will be open to the public.


Early Registration Deadline is Sunday!

As the days get shorter and we rush to finish summer vacations before returning to work and school, don't forget to register for MANA 2010 before Sunday evening when the cheapest registration rates expire! Everything you need to know about the conference is on the Midwives Alliance web site at this link: http://mana.org/mana2010


There you can download the registration brochure, see a day-by-day schedule of speakers and sessions and even link to the hotel to reserve your room. If you prefer to call in your room reservation, please remember to tell them you are reserving for the Midwives Alliance. We have reserved rooms specifically for our attendees, and we have a great rate!


Conference Speakers include:

Ina May Gaskin
Robin Lim
Geradine Simkins
Bridget Lynch
Barbara Katz Rothman
Carol Leonard
Makeda Kamara
Holly Kennedy
Harriette Hartigan
Help Bring Teachers for Traditional Mexican Skills Workshops

This year the conference planning committee is bringing five midwives from Mexico to teach workshops at the MANA 2010 conference. These midwives, including traditional elder midwives and young leaders who will guide midwifery in Mexico into the next decade, are coming on scholarships provided by the conference. We are very pleased at the quality of the workshops they will be giving as they reflect the current state of Mexican midwifery, with its ancient knowledge that is so important to pass on, as well as an understanding of the current social and political forces that make Mexico one of three countries with the highest cesarean rates in the world.

In order to bring the Midwives to Nashville, MANA has provided conference registration, and we are seeking funds to cover travel, lodging, food and a visit to the Farm. Any amount of donation will be greatly appreciated! We are also seeking translators who are willing to spend one day of the conference translating for Angelina Martinez, a wise and well known midwife from Cuernavaca.

We are looking for eager and savvy Fundraisers who would be willing to donate a day of time to organize a dinner, throw down, bake sale, party, facebook drive, whatever you think would work in your community. We need to raise $6000 and have already raised $500, and I'm sure with your help we can raise the additional $5500.

You can donate on the conference registration website when you register or even if you will not be able to attend the conference mana.org/mana2010/register/index.html#donation. Or, if you'd rather mail in a donation, send your check made out to MANA and with a notation that it be used for the Partera Fund to:

Audra Phillips
5332 Sharon Ave
Columbus, OH 43214

Thank you for your help in supporting our sisters from the South.

Conference Scholarship Opportunity!

Because of the overwhelming number of inquiries we have received this year, FAM has agreed to fund three registration scholarships for midwives to come to the conference who otherwise may not be able to attend. And, MANA is also offering three partial scholarships with a registration fee of $275 each.


Please visit mana.org/mana2010/register/scholarships.html to apply for a scholarship. Application deadline is September 1.

To apply, please be prepared to write a brief (200 word) essay about why you wish to come to the MANA conference and how you plan to use the conference information in your work.

For more information about the conference, visit mana.org/mana2010. We look forward to seeing you there!

My Journey into Midwifery - Sheila Simms Watson, LM, CPM

Sharing with you my personal journey into the art and tradition of Midwifery.



Hello, I am Sheila Simms Watson, the Miami Midwife. Traditional midwifery is my life's mission and passion. I honor childbirth as a rite of passage, a celebration of life! A friend planted the seed of midwifery... which was the seed of change in my life, in 1980. I was pregnant with my first child and my friend said, "Why don't you choose a midwife?" Midwife? I knew nothing about whom or what that was. So, my journey began! I got a book from the library and contacted the midwifery service at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City and on March 29, 1981, I had my first child with help of Midwives.

In 1983, the journey continued with a midwife attending the birth of my second child at home. She carefully and lovingly supported me on this journey of birth and midwifery. I became a childbirth educator, a birth assistant and eventually joined a midwifery study group. Midwives and Midwifery care made so much sense to me. It is such an ancient tradition. Women have been helping, supporting, teaching women since the beginning of time. I truly see pregnancy and birth as a fundamentally healthy process that is a normal, natural part of a woman's life. Midwifery became my mission and my passion in life.

In 1990, my journey led me to eventually move from the city to rural Virginia to apprentice with a midwife. The apprenticeship provided me with what I needed and wanted at that time, Traditional Midwifery training. My goal was to get my training and return to my community in New Jersey. However, I did not return to New Jersey. The opportunity presented itself for me to stay and start a midwifery practice in Virginia. I practiced as a Traditional Midwife in an independent homebirth practice in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia from 1991 to 1996.

In 1996, our family relocated to Northern California (for my husband to attend school). During that time I completed the process and attained my Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) credentials and continued to do homebirths. In 1999, I relocated to the "midwife friendly" state of Florida and in 2001 completed the Midwifery program at Miami Dade College and received an Associate of Science degree in Midwifery and a license to practice midwifery.

In June 2001, I established Spirit of Life Traditional Midwifery, an independent homebirth practice. I am so honored to be a part of the wonderful tradition of midwifery supporting, caring for and being "with woman". Pregnancy and giving birth are some of the most magical and powerful times in a woman's life. It is a time of great transformation and change. I know that midwives make a difference. As a midwife, it is my mission and my desire to confidently continue to carry on this ancient time honored tradition far into the future.