Birth Center Consumers past, present and future: We need you!

UPDATE: The rulemaking hearing will be July 19, 2017 at 10am at Sabin-Cleere Conference Room, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Bldg. A, 4300 Cherry Creek Drive South, Denver, CO. 80246. The public is invited. And Elephant Circle will have a reception following at a location nearby. Information about the proposed rules is available in this document. Written comment can be sent to Lorraine Dixon-Jones at CDPHE, lorraine.dixon@state.co.us. We encourage comments that state your support for the proposed rules. 

Hello Birth Center Consumers!  We are so glad you are interested in speaking up for Colorado Birth Centers.  Here is the scoop -

The rules that regulate birth centers in the state of Colorado were written in the early 1980s and have not been revised since that time.  In late 2015, the Colorado Birth Center Coalition, comprised of Bloomin' Babies Birth Center in Grand Junction, the Birth Center of Boulder, Denver Center for Birth and Wellness, and Mountain Midwifery Center, pushed hard on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to open and update the Birth Center regulations.  The journey has included many challenges including trying to impart the understanding that the birth center and midwifery model of care are quite different from the obstetric and hospital model of care.  One of the midwives involved in the process has chronicled her journey here if you would like more details.

Elephant Circle participated in this process in two ways:  1) We facilitated consumers to advocate for the kind of community maternity care they wanted for their families and 2) Elephant Circle was thrilled to be hired to coordinate the CBCCs preparation and execution of this revision process.

Monthly meetings began last September and have involved reading and revising (if necessary) every single line of the regulations.  Elephant Circle has advocated for birth centers to be allowed to provide care for clients they can’t see now (such as those having their 6th baby or those with a previous cesarean birth) and for both Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) and Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) to be allowed to practice at Colorado birth centers.

Though we are nearing the end of the process – WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP!  The critical time for consumers to tell regulators about their birth center experiences will be from May 17 to July 19.  As the end of May approaches, we will post and disseminate names and addresses where you can direct your comments.  As for July 19, put it on your calendar!  We may need the public to show up in support – we will let you know!

So at this point, you have two choices:

1)    Put your name on our list found HERE and we will contact you with specific asks and details at the appropriate time

or

2)    Put May 17 and July 19 on your calendar and stop back here at our website or here on our FB page for more information.