• Current Research
• Barriers to Informed Choice
• Recent Progress
• Our Investment: Overcoming Barriers to Informed Choice
• Our Challenge: Expanding Access to Midwifery
• How You Can Help
• Tips for Contacting the Media
• Definitions

Seattle Midwifery School's Investment

Overcoming Barriers to Informed Choice in Childbirth

The existence of licensed midwifery care in Washington State, so important to the families it touches, can be historically traced to the founding of Seattle Midwifery School (SMS) and continues in large part due to the school's current work. See A History of Progress.

Since 1978, SMS has not only provided high caliber education for aspiring midwives, but has also maintained consistent pressure on the political and healthcare system to move toward a more functional maternity care model. SMS staff and faculty play a leadership role within policy task forces, advisory councils, and midwifery and doula professional organizations and are frequent speakers at national and international conferences. Along with such organizations as Midwives Alliance of North America, Midwives Association of Washington State, North American Registry of Midwives, and Citizens for Midwifery, SMS has played a pivotal role in the development of local and national practice standards and organizations to support midwives and doulas.

We believe this investment is an essential part of our mission. Our potential and current students and our graduates need an environment that supports their practice, an environment in which the benefits of midwifery care are not marginalized and in which families have access to information and choice. The experience and expertise of our faculty, staff, and other associates uniquely position us to effectively carry out this work, and therefore place an obligation on us to do so. The children and families who will benefit from the care of our midwives are depending on us. We cannot let them down!

Midwifery Education Access Initiative
In 1999 we made a major commitment of financial and staff resources to redesign our midwifery education program. Our goal was to make midwifery education more accessible for prospective students and therefore expand the number of practitioners available to meet current and growing demand. The major elements of our Midwifery Education Access Initiative were as follows:

• Renovation of our midwifery education program, including major curriculum redesign, to align requirements more fully with new national standards for direct-entry midwifery care and to allow consolidation of on-site classroom time.
• Incorporation of distance learning technologies to consolidate and reduce on-site classroom time and thus open midwifery education to a greater variety of students.
• Establishment of institutional eligibility with the U.S. Department of Education to qualify our students for federal educational financial aid.

SMS was approved by the U.S. Department of Education to offer federally subsidized loans and grants in late 1999.  Nearly one-half  of our current students now receive financial support from national, state, or provincial authorities.

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OUR CHALLENGE: Expanding Access to Midwifery Education and Care

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