Me and Beckett, 12/12/2006. He was about 10 minutes old here. Photo by Kim Goldman.
Today is Give For Good Louisville 2018!
I know there are tons of awesome deserving organizations out there to give to today. But this one is personal to me. Many of you know that Beckett was born at home (on purpose) with the help of one of my favorite people, Juliet Dietsch, Certified Professional Midwife. Home birth is not illegal in KY for parents; but midwives cannot get a license because the state stopped issuing them in the 70s. This means in most cases insurance won’t cover a CPM’s fee, hospitals and physicians will not work with midwives to transfer clients, and there is no safeguard for consumers. We don’t have licensure for CPMs and we don’t have birth centers. When the only choice is the hospital, no one chooses the hospital. Women are losing out.
Kentucky Home Birth Coalition is working to change all of that. Last year their bill to license midwives passed the KY House–in 2020 the goal is to make it through the Senate. Working to get a bill passed costs money, unfortunately–and that’s where we all come in as a community– to support CHOICE for women. Home birth is a safe option for low risk women & babies when they are supported by a qualified attendant. With licensure, we can assure that last piece and provide safe, qualified midwives for moms & babies. If you don’t want a home birth–that’s cool–but if you want women to have safe choices, awesome. That’s what it’s about.
So…if you need an organization to donate to…or you just want to do a favor for me…will you throw some money their way?? I’ll draw you a picture or sing you a song or something if you do. If you read this far you deserve some kind of award.