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About the Foundation
CNMF was born out of a commitment to addressing health equity and racial justice through a midwifery model of care that centers on providing culturally concordant care to diverse birthing people and their families wherever they are. Founded in 2019, CNMF is overseen by a Board of Directors, and is a 501(c)(3) whose work is funded by foundations and individual donors. CNMF aims to secure funds to support smaller organizations and people (particularly BIPOC people), to support aspiring and student midwives, to diversify the midwifery workforce, and increase access to the midwifery model of care through institutional and systems change. The Midwifery Model of Care
CNMF promotes the midwifery-led model of care (or midwifery care) refers to a commitment to supporting normal physiology and limiting interventions, extending care to persons seeking sexual and reproductive healthcare across the care continuum. Midwifery-led care emphasizes physiologic birth or, in other words, understanding, facilitating, and avoiding interference with the body’s natural, physiologic birth process. It emphasizes shared decision making and respect for an individual’s cultural needs, comfort, and privacy. Emphasizing the normalcy of birth, those practicing a midwifery model avoid practices that might lead to further interventions such as continuous fetal monitoring in lieu of intermittent fetal auscultation and the use of nonpharmacologic pain management techniques when safe and desired. The midwife provides care during the prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum periods. |