Advocacy

Lay of the land for midwifery care and licensing in Hawaiʻi  Image based on the work of Carol Gautchi, who is a Traditionally trained and licensed Midwife on the Washington Peninsula who developed and presented the framework for Classical Midwifery Care in the image above.  The Midwifery Model of Care Midwifery Care is: A women-centered approach which perceives  Pregnancy, Birth and Postpartum as an optimal state of Wellness with unique physical, spiritual, emotional, nutriti

A threat to reproductive justice anywhere is a threat to reproductive justice everywhere. SisterSong  defines  reproductive justice as "the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities."  The continued terrorist attacks on the Palestinian people, the historical and current violence against Jews in Israel and around the globe, and the hate crimes that have increased as a

Pacific Birth Collective board member and pale keiki Kiʻi Kahoʻohanohano and cultural practitioner Laulani Teale are in Geneva, Switzerland at the United Nations with the Center for Reproductive Rights. They presented a report on the human rights violation involving Hawaiʻiʻs criminalization of traditional midwifery among other issues involving the maternal healthcare crisis in the United States. For history on this topic, please read here. Kiʻi and Laulani are working alongs

As of July 2023 the State of Hawai'i has mandated Midwifery Education through programs that are not accessible to Hawai'i Residents meaning that we have no Native Hawaiian Licensed Midwives in the entire state. Additionally they have denies access a nationally recognized Apprenticeship Training Pathway which would help local women to become midwives and access midwives in their own communities.    In the January 2023 Legislative Session:   HB955   and Companion bill  SB1047