MMA members,
It’s been nearly three years since we were issued our first midwifery licenses, and here we are due to renew again. I moved to Michigan in 2018 knowing that licensure was on it’s way. Coming from Oregon where licensure was deeply ingrained into the history of midwifery, I was always keeping an eye on what Michigan was up to and watched you all, from afar, come together to make it happen over the years. Such an amazing effort to push this important piece of our professional puzzle together. As we know there is often a pause between the birth of the head, and the birth of the body. We have come this far, and yet, we know there is more work to be done. We continue to reach for more, push for something new, to renew our ideas of what we need as a collective.

For example, this month, June, we celebrate Juneteenth and Pride month. Juneteenth was first federally recognized last year, as commemorating the emancipation of black people from slavery. Though we know as midwives the effects of slavery still ring true today in the elevated maternal mortality for black women, as one example. How are we renewing our commitment to ending the systemic racism that this country was built on?

How are we renewing our commitment to our black mothers and birthers to provide safe care for them through the perinatal time? And Pride month, to honor the activists who have fought for LGBTQ issues and celebrate the diversity of love. How, as midwives, are we renewing our commitment to this community that we will protect their rights to make families? If we don’t stop in our busy lives and birth practices to recognize what is happening around us, how will we ever know where the next big push is? We hold so many things at once. It’s a talent of being a midwife. I challenge you all to pause and look around your community and our state, and see what needs attention. Tell us, your MMA board. What issues are important to you? Where should we focus our energy?

I know the work of a midwife is never ending. We carry our clients in our minds and hearts and in our cell phones glued to our hips. Therefore renewal is not just for those around us and the greater good, it’s the spring in ourselves that needs refreshing and renewal to keep going in this challenging work. If you ever need an example, look around you. We live surrounded by oceans of freshwater. Once glaciers, now snow melt, spring rain and groundwater. Exposing shorelines in the low season, breaking levees and breaching flood plains in high water. We are all water, waiting for that renewal of the season, anticipating what will be while knowing the wisdom of water is to be still, flow where you are needed, and be moved by the elements that guide you.