An announcement

The last three weeks have brought huge changes to our family. I was contacted by the midwife I did most of my apprenticeship under (Suzanne Smith - www.betterbirth.com ) and asked to join her group of midwives. Her requirement for all her midwives is that they have to be a CPM and licensed by the State. The next testing date for NARM, the CPM agency, is in August but I have to have my paper work in to them by March 10th. At the time I hadn't filled out a single record for them, consisting of about a 1/2 inch stack of papers. During all of my apprenticeship I didn't fill out the papers mostly because I was exceedingly busy with births and prenatal's, plus half way through I became pregnant with a surprise baby, and I was never 100% certain that I wanted to be licensed. So, for the last three weeks, I've been studying, studying, studying and looking through a ton of records. I took a whirlwind course on suturing and then Suzanne taught me the skills lab portion of it. This week I've spent about 40 hours going through records. It's been crazy and I'm incredibly close to being done but tomorrow is going to be insane trying to get the last little bit together and I'm still not sure I have all the numbers that I need. I have everything except enough postpartum visits. I'm praying that I can figure out when I did them because it would be incredibly frustrating to put in all the work that I have and then not be able to send it in.

So, what is my time line? If all goes well, I get my paperwork in on Monday afternoon and I take the test in August in Salt Lake. I will start doing the prenatals of my own clients at Better Birth under supervision for awhile, for women due after September and will act as a student midwife learning practice protocol and births where needed. If I don't get the paperwork in tomorrow I will have until June to finish it but will have to travel to Tennessee in October to take the test and will start taking clients due after October but will still act as a student until then.

As for Heritage Birth, my own midwifery business, nothing will change until October. I will still take my own clients due before then. For those that didn't know it, I've been operating as a DEM and taking clients since the end of last year. What does all this mean to you? Those clients due before October will be Heritage Birth clients, those due after will be Better Birth clients. The location of where I do prenatals will change depending on the due date. Heritage Birth clients will still have their prenatals done at their home, Better Birth clients will have prenatals done in Sugar House. The supervising midwife will also change.

I'm excited to join Better Birth for many reasons. It is a busy practice, I won't have to put together my own birth kit, I have the choice of three midwives to back me up and I don't have to take care of the business end by myself. I will essentially have a secretary! The only sad thing about it is that I lose the business name I love. I will hang on to it in case I decide to leave Better Birth someday but it won't be for a very long time.