A major step in making waves for CPMs in South Dakota is to consistently have our voices published in local newspapers by submitting a Letter to the Editor. This is free advertising of our point of view, plus most legislators read these daily. Letters to the Editor are typically about 200-250 words (the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls has a limit of 300). These letters are a great way to educate the public, and they work best if we come across as educated, reasonable people – no ranting and raving allowed. You can use the SDSCO Lobbying Lessons (conveniently archived at sdSafeBirth.org) as the foundation for each of the letters you submit. Each lesson highlights a key point of the issue, and bringing those various aspects to the public and legislators will be important in generating support for the Home Birth Safety Act.

There are many different angles one can take when writing a letter, and we want to cover as many angles as possible. Whether you focus on personal experience, statistics, or common sense, there are two major points we want to incorporate in each letter:
1. The CPM is a nationally recognized credential that is working well in 26 states.
2. We need state legislators to pass the Home Birth Safety Act in order to have access to these skilled midwives.

Grassroots strategy:
In a perfect world, we would have back-to-back letters published every day in every local newspaper in the state, praising the value of CPMs every day from now until the bill passes. At least a handful of people in each district would be e-mailing the online link for that day's published letter directly into their legislators' e-mail boxes. They would address their legislator by name, add a personal sentence or two, the URL for the Letter to the Editor (maybe also a direct link to the British Medical Journal CPM study), plus end with their full name, street address, and phone number.

This strategy feeds two birds from the same bird-feeder. The moment legislators read an e-mail from a constituent that contains a link to a letter in their local paper, an obvious realization will strike: every single person who's read the local paper that day is at least having a passing thought about SD families’ limited birthing options, and wondering whether the Home Birth Safety Act will pass. Also, they realize that the spotlight is on them to remedy the problem, by making it a priority to update SD law this session to license CPMs. If we only have letters printed twice a week instead of seven times, that is AWESOME too! Even once a week is great. The point is to use every opportunity to contact legislators about the CPM issue, and e-mail is very convenient.

Step-by-step to submitting a letter:
1. Type your letter. If you would like someone to edit it, e-mail it to: cpmlettereditor@gmail.com.

2. Save your letter. If the paper doesn't publish it the first time, re-submit it a couple days later.

3. Google the name of your town and local newspaper.

4. Of the options that come up, click on the homepage of your local paper.

5. Scan the top of the homepage for "Voices" or "Get Published" or "Letter to the Editor".

6. You will be asked to fill in some fields of personal information.

7. After you do that, when you find the box to submit your letter, simply highlight your pre-typed letter, right-click to copy (or simultaneously press CTRL-V). Then put the cursor inside the letter-to-editor box, and right-click paste (or simultaneously press CTRL-P). You just copy-pasted your pre-typed letter into the box. Voila` ;-)

8. Click "Submit". If the website goofs up, just re-enter the information and copy-paste again.

9. Be sure to call the local paper in 2 days to verify they received the letter. (When you call and they're holding the phone, plus the letter you submitted, the chances are higher that your letter will be published.)

10. E-mail the SDSCO group after you submit your letter, so we can all squeal and jump and be watching for your letter in your local paper, and be ready to post a comment to support you.

11. Also, as soon as anyone notices a letter to the editor about CPMs in the paper, please highlight the URL at the top and "paste" it into an email for the SDSCO group. We will be ready to click the link and comment, and we will all copy-paste the URL into personal emails to our legislators.
rep.lastname@state.sd.us and sen.lastname@state.sd.us

Getting a sign-in name to comment online to a newspaper letter:
Now would be a perfect time to get a "Log-in name" for your local paper and other SD papers, so you will be ready to post a comment every time a CPM Letter gets published. Simply scan the home page for "Forums" or "Register". When you click on "Register", you will be asked for your e-mail address and limited other info. Some papers will assign you a password that will be sent to your e-mail box. You will then need to highlight-copy the password and paste it into the password field to log in. You can then go to "Account Settings"/"Change Password", where you will be able to change the password to something you can remember or write down on a paper near your computer. This way, when a Letter to the Editor is
published and you want to comment online, all you will have to do is click "Log In" and enter your password. Then click on the "Comment" button right next to the published letter, and you're set.

We are it…every last one of us. If South Dakota is going to license CPMs, it will be because of our persistent, organized efforts (and a lot of help from above). So please, if you are having a tough time trying to find where to publish a Letter to the Editor online for your local newspaper, or if you need help writing a letter, or figuring out how to sign in or log in to comment, just reach out to the SDSCO e-mail group. We are a team! We will figure it out and walk anyone through the process.

One individual (or one letter) can make a difference, but all of us working together can make a huge impact. Together let’s keep a steady stream of letters being sent to the papers and keep
generating all those positive comments in response.

Quick Summary:

* Get a “Log-in” name and password now for local papers so that you will be ready to comment when a birth-related article or letter is published.
* Write Letters to the Editor to educate the public and legislators about our cause.
* Comment on Letters to the Editor and other articles relating to birth.
* Send links to these letters and comments to your legislators.