Mission & Background

The goal of TfM-Austin is to see that the Midwives Model of Care© is available to all childbearing women, wherever they choose to birth, and is universally recognized as an ideal kind of care for pregnancy and birth. Tfm-Austin also endorses the Mother-Friendly Childbirth InitiativeTM.

For more information: Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative

Background

Austin families have recently lost access to Certified Nurse Midwives’ (CNM) services in our hospitals. In April 2002, two physician groups announced they were shutting down CNM practices at Seton Medical Center and city-owned Brackenridge Hospital, making Austin the only major Texas city without midwifery care in hospitals. Today, none of the six affected midwives is catching babies. Read more for updates on these midwives.

Following these announcements, families rallied to support their midwives in the summer of 2002 -- first at a meeting of the City Council’s Brackenridge Hospital Oversight Council, and later at midwives reunion picnic downtown, where hundreds of families voiced their concerns to City Councilmembers and hospital administrators. Since that time, TFM-Austin was formed to promote access to The Midwives Model of Care™ wherever women choose to birth.

Our access to Direct-Entry Midwives (DEMs) in homes and birth centers has eroded in the last decade and faces more threats to their profession and The Midwives Model of Care™. The number of DEMs has dropped from 426 in 1991 to only 159 as of May 2002. In April 2003, the Texas Department of Health approved the Midwifery Board’s groundbreaking rules governing DEMs, despite last-minute opposition from a physician trade group. In May 2003, Texas legislators narrowly defeated Rep. Jaime Capelo’s (D-Corpus Christi) attempts to amend Texas law to move the 20-year-old Midwifery Board at the Department of Health to a medical board that would govern this non-medical profession. Similar attempts are anticipated in 2005, and are regarded by the Association of Texas Midwives as a major threat to the midwifery profession. More information about this struggle.

At our midwives picnic and rally last summer, more than 270 Austin parents signed petitions in support of keeping midwives in Austin's hospitals.