Midwife Rebekah - Rebekah Myrick CPM

05/04/2025

Wishing a gentle day to all bereaved mothers. Praying for comfort and peace for you and your families.

04/29/2025

You’ve probably heard that Alabama has a maternal care crisis. These map images are impactful.

04/20/2025

The LOVE Approach Ultrasound Clinical is for healthcare professionals to practice their ultrasound scanning skills. Expectant mothers are needed to participate as models. In exchange for your participation and time, you will receive a $35 Amazon gift card and be entered into a drawing to win an add...

04/13/2025

Moms and Midwives on the Move event May 4th hosted by The Mom Foundation is going to be a great event. Check out the event page, plan to attend and consider donating to efforts to improve maternal health in north Alabama.

The Mom Foundation and DandeLion Differences are doing good work in the Huntsville area.

Walk to support midwifery in Alabama

04/07/2025

By all metrics, Alabama is failing in maternal and newborn care. Midwives are a part of the solution to this grave problem.

Last week midwives Stephanie Mitchell, Rebekah Myrick, Noel Leithart, (Nancy Megginson, not pictured) and student midwife Jamilah Channel had an exhibit table at the Alabama Rural Health Association annual conference. We had great conversations with many of the attendees.

The boards showing three different maps of Alabama illustrate the maternal and newborn health care crisis in our state and that midwives are actively serving families in rural counties.
1. Only 16 of Alabama‘s 67 counties have hospitals with labor and delivery units.
2. Alabama midwives have served home birthing families in all, but five of Alabama‘s 67 counties. Midwives can be part of the solution for the maternal and newborn health crisis.
3. According to Alabama Board of Pediatricians, 10.3% of the 1,130,840 children in Alabama age 18 or under live in a county without a pediatrician. There are 29 counties with 0 pediatricians and 8 with only 1 pediatrician. This is why midwives should be able to provide essential newborn screening and basic newborn assessments Alabama Public Health. Medical Association of the State of Alabama

04/04/2025

Alabama Political Reporter highlights SB87 again. Please take a moment to go to their page and like and share the article.
Alabama babies born at home are being put at risk by the organization that should be the ones ensuring newborns’ wellbeing. Medical Association of the State of Alabama and alabamapublichealth this is not a good look for you.

The Alabama Midwives Alliance and a number of concerned citizens have publicly denounced SB87's substitute.

04/04/2025

Midwife Laura Reeder of Farmhouse Midwifery was interviewed today about midwifery legislation that would restrict midwives from performing even the most basic newborn care and newborn screenings.

This bill must be fixed!



https://whnt.com/news/alabama-news/alabama-midwives-worry-changes-made-to-legislation-will-restrict-newborn-care/

04/02/2025

Thank you to everyone who generously and quickly gave of their time and talents to help us with this video! Thank you, Laura A. Reeder for organizing this.
We want to reach as many legislators as possible. The senate hearing is scheduled for TOMMOROW 4/3! (We only get a 24hr notice). Let’s encourage senators to read the fine print and make amendments to these unsafe restrictions.

Please send me a DM if you want access to this video to send to your Senator or Representative! Thank you!!!

03/27/2025

Dr. Danielle Gershon, an OB/GYN, emphasized the importance of personal autonomy in healthcare decisions. "People should understand their bodies that people should have access to the care that they need to best care for their bodies and they should be the only people that are allowed to make decisions about their own bodies," she said.

I appreciate when a doctor recognizes the importance of autonomy. Lawmakers are restricting options and parental choice. They are perpetuating MASA’s goals of protecting physicians and their businesses.

“That birthing person has built a relationship with that midwife. That midwife was there during birth and knows them and their baby. Why should lawmakers be able to take that from them?" - Arietha Thomas, doula

More coverage from ABC 33/40 on SB87 highlighting midwives' need to administer ALL newborn screenings. The above comment from the doula is against the March 20th amended version of SB87. This language must change! The video also includes a clip from Midwife Nancy - Nancy Megginson, LM, CPM on behalf of Alabama Midwives Alliance discussing Alabama licensed midwives' national training under their certified professional midwife credential, which is required by Alabama law (Childbirth Freedom Act 2017).

History: Following the 2017 bill's passage, the Alabama Department of Public Health created a rule to require licensed midwives to "refer" babies to a physician for newborn screenings and took a position that midwives do not have legal authority to administer. The original SB87 language would fix that. The amended version does not fix it and adds restrictions to midwives that erases the original intent of HB315 from 2017.

HOOVER, Ala. — A panel in Hoover is shedding light on the critical issues surrounding birthing care and options in Alabama. The Better Birthing Panel aims to in

03/20/2025

Thank you, Midwife Layla Brown of 10 Moons Rising Midwifery who recorded and shared this video of the Senate Health Committee on SB87.

Less than 2 hours before the committee was to vote on our bill, Senator Larry Stutts presented an unfriendly substitute bill written by the Medical Association of the State of Alabama that further restricted midwives from providing life-saving health screenings to babies born at home and other untenable restrictions. You will hear the MASA’s lie coming from Tim Melson that we had not worked with MASA, the BME and Alabama Hospital Association to come to agreement of bill language. That is NOT TRUE. We had a verbal agreement with those entities a few weeks ago. Later MASA’s lobbyist walked it back refusing to “allow” us to do all three components of the Newborn Screenings. We have ALWAYS referred to newborn screenings (plural) and the Newborn Screening Program. We emphasized the blood spot card at the public hearing because that was the only one that ADPH/MASA has ever pushed back on.

Senator April Weaver expressed confusion over the two substitute bills and the wish to carry over SB87. In other words, they did not vote on this bill and may or may not bring it up for a vote before the end of the session.

This delaying tactic is one that has been used countless times on midwifery legislation over the years. We have never been able to get any midwifery bill through the Senate Health Committee, primarily because so many legislators who sit on this committee are strongly opposed to midwifery. Many others have little appetite for going against MASA.

This is why we need people to meet with their legislators. Call them. Email is fine but legislators’ inboxes get inundated. Go to Safer Birth In Bama and sign the petition and sign up for updates.

No matter how much some legislators wish we would go away, Midwifery is here to stay. Alabama families want midwives. Midwifery is growing in Alabama in spite of having some of the most restrictive laws and enormous barriers to becoming a licensed midwife and practicing here. We will be back. We will keep fighting for the safety of mothers and babies.

03/19/2025

Newborn screening is a connected system … except in Alabama.
Only physicians and hospitals in Alabama are allowed to obtain the newborn screening cards. The Alabama Bureau of Clinical Laboratories refuses to give the cards to midwives.
Many physicians including pediatricians do not realize that babies born at home may not have received the first newborn screening. This leads to delayed screening.
Some physicians will not accept babies born at home into their practice. This leads to limited access to the life-saving screening.
Parents cannot be forced to take their baby to a physician. This leads to babies not receiving newborn screening.
Newborns are potentially exposed to sick children when they are taken to a physician’s office.
Midwives inform clients about newborn screening, state requirements and local resources. In Alabama midwives refer all babies to a physician for newborn screening.
Midwives check on the mom and new baby in the client’s home at the appropriate time for newborn screening to be performed.
Midwives have the training to perform newborn screening. Midwives experienced in collecting newborn blood specimens rarely collect an “unsatisfactory” specimen.
Midwives stay in close communication with their clients so if there was an abnormal result she could immediately contact the client and facilitate further testing or transfer the newborn’s care for treatment.
Midwives can help with the public health goal of screening every baby.

TODAY the Senate Health Committee votes on SB87. Will these legislators recognize that babies born at home deserve timely access to the same screening tests provided to babies born in the hospital? Will they recognize midwives can assist with the public health goal for every Alabama baby to be screened? Will they side with the powerful Medical Association of the State of Alabama who funds their campaigns or choose the safety of Alabama's youngest citizens?