the birth trust
2014 annual report

Over the last ten years, as key midwifery organizations have created new coalitions and strategies to increase their impact, FAM has worked to strengthen the infrastructure and to support the professionalization of the midwifery movement. This requires far more resources than FAM has had to date. For this reason, FAM is working hard to identify other partners to invest in midwifery and midwifery- related organizations.
And of course, we engage in fundraising from individuals for the money that we grant to projects. Historically, midwives have been FAM’s strongest supporters. But midwives cannot fund this change alone, and FAM works hard to reach midwifery consumers – the very people most likely to know of the benefits of midwifery and to support it. With greater resources, imagine the change you and our grantees could bring to the maternity care system.

FAM makes grants in five key areas to improve access to midwifery care: public policy, public education, research, promoting birth equity, and international access (within North America). Here are our most recent grantees:

To validate and publish the 4.0 MANA Stats data set

To support the operations and expansion of the MANA Stats data collection

To build capacity for MANA’s Public Education & Communications Program

For lobbying expertise to pass H.R. 1976, the Access to Certified Professional Midwives Act of 2013.

To answer consumer demand for CPMs by addressing barriers to midwifery program accreditation

To broaden the community birth worker training program curriculum

To disseminate the Best Practice Guidelines: Transfer from Planned Home Birth to Hospital

To create a web repository on midwifery education, competencies, and scope of practice for policy makers.

To expand prenatal care to Spanish-speaking populations by training Spanish-speaking birth workers

To launch the website for The Grand Challenge: Matching Scholarships to Birth Workers of Color

To provide nutritional counseling to pregnant women in at-risk neighborhoods in Brooklyn, NY

To support the operations and expansion of the MANA Stats data collection

To build capacity for MANA’s Public Education & Communications Program

For lobbying expertise to pass H.R. 1976, the Access to Certified Professional Midwives Act of 2013.

To enable web-based submission of applications and reports associated with the accreditation process

To implement the DC-area community birth worker training program

To create a web repository on midwifery education, competencies, and scope of practice for policy makers.

For a matched cohort study of maternity outcomes and midwife-led care in the United States

To further develop social justice frameworks and training within the organization

To address postpartum hemorrhage by providing training in and access to oral misoprostol

To bring BoBB:CE to regions where laws and access to midwifery are especially challenging

To promote midwifery care to rural aboriginal communities using indigenous multi-media platforms

FAM uses a unique model of grant making called the Birth Trust, for donors most dedicated to the cause of improving birth for women and babies. The board presents a prescreened docket of projects, and the Birth Trustees select the projects that receive funding. FAM believes that the vision and strategy to advance maternity care should be a collective process shared among as many stakeholder groups as possible.

Several years ago, FAM realized it was critical to involve other large health foundations in discussions —and funding— regarding increased access to midwifery care. Since that time, FAM is proud to be a leading force behind convening a group of funders that are committed to funding midwifery-related organizations and has organized meetings in Boston, New York, and Atlanta this year through our memberships with the Grantmakers in Health and the Women’s Funding Network. We are working hard to increase the strength of this group to identify more resources.