As soon as you know which day or days you will be going to Pierre, sign up on our Legislative Calendar on the sdsafebirth.org website. This will help the SDSCO leadership prepare for your visit and give others an opportunity to carpool with you. Here is the link: http://sdsafebirth.org/2009session. This is also the site where you can sign up to stay at the house. It is often a good plan to come down the night before and get to the Capitol early the next morning.

A couple of days before you come to Pierre, email your legislators and let them know when you are coming and that you would like to meet with them that day. They may give you their cell number or just tell you to look them up when you get there. If you are really lucky, they may make an appointment with you.

If the “Captain” listed on the website does not contact you. Feel free to contact them and let them know when you will be arriving in Pierre. They will give you tips on where to park and where they will meet you. They will have a “midwife” button for you to wear while you are there, so all the legislators will recognize why you came.

Legislative Schedule
7:00 pm Floors open to public (until 2 hours before Floor Session)
7:45 First Round of Committee Hearings
10:00 am Second Round of Committee Hearings
1:00 pm Caucus
2:00 pm Floor Session (usually finishes by 4pm, but can last longer)

Committee Hearings
Two rounds of committee hearings happen every morning – the first beginning at 7:45am the second starting at 10pm. Your legislator can’t meet with you while he/she is in committee, but you can sit in and listen to the hearing and visit with them afterwards or just wait for them outside the door.

You can find the committees that your legislators are on if you click on their name at:

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.

"Thanks very much for sharing your concerns. As a candidate I do support choices in healthcare, but as for the issue of midwifery I do believe this was addressed during last year's legislature and that midwifery is now legal in South Dakota. You may wish to review the law passed during last session to see if additional legislation is still actually needed..."
[A reply from a legislative candidate regarding willingness to support CPM legislation.]

"We took care of the midwife problem." "We gave the home birth families CNMs, which is a better kind of midwife..."

Last year the Department of Health, Boards of Nursing and Medicine came forward with a bill regarding home birth and midwifery. They offered the bill "in response to the needs" of the home birth families. So why are we still complaining?

The CNM-home birth law in South Dakota:

36-9A-17.3. Waiver of collaborative agreement requirement. The boards may waive the collaborative agreement requirement for a certified nurse midwife, licensed under this chapter, who provides out-of-hospital birth services in accordance with practice guidelines established by the boards. (This section is repealed effective June 30, 2013 pursuant to SL 2008, ch 193, § 2.)
Source: SL 2008, ch 193, § 1.

The law fails CNMs:
This law does not provide for true autonomy of practice for CNMs. While an out-of-hospital birth practice does not require a signed collaborative agreement, the rest of CNM practice still does require the permission of a physician. A CNM must be willing and ready to do a home birth-only practice because taking the waiver will put the collaborative agreement covering the rest of her practice in jeopardy.

The elections are over. The legislators, including many new ones, will soon be heading to Pierre to cast their vote on the Home Birth Safety Act. What have you done to educate your legislators? Here are some suggestions to help you make sure your legislators know why they should vote for our bill.

1. If you don’t have internet, go to the library or have a friend print out the Lobbying Lessons put together by Dr. Heather Margaret. Look under the “Resource” heading at sdSafeBirth.org. These will give you a wealth of information and great pointers on how to talk to legislators. (New ones are being posted every week until January.)
While you are there print out the 2008 Handouts.
2. Network – share this information with family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Ask them to send a note to their legislators if they agree that home birth families should be able to hire a skilled midwife. Write it for them if that helps.
3. Send your legislators a short, handwritten note congratulating them on winning their election. Let them know you are counting on their support for home birth families.
4. Invite them to one of the area Movie Nights which are being held around the state and come yourself.
5. Send them a Christmas card, reminding them how special birth is and asking them to help improve the safety for South Dakota’s home birth families by passing the Home Birth Safety Act.
6. Print off a copy of the Milbank Memorial Report (see page 8) and give it to one of your legislators (coordinate this with your District Contact).
7. Make plans to come to Pierre during the legislative session (January 13 – March 13).
a. Call Alaina (534-9821) and let her know when you are coming and whether you will be utilizing the gas fund or the rental house. She will make sure someone on the leadership team is there to help you connect with your legislators.