Interviewing Staff to your Midwifery Team
Interviewing Staff to your Midwifery Team If your midwifery business has grasped its capability to expand and the workload started to become heavy, plus your revenue started to grow as you’ve planned from the beginning, hiring new staff is beneficial to you and your business. Hiring employees within different aspects of your midwifery business will help your company run smoother and faster. New employees can also bring new ideas and perspectives to the table, helping your business remain competitive. Young minds are very innovative and competitive as well so hiring younger staff is likewise a good choice. Possess good interviewing skill is an edge as a business owner. You will be able to meet the applicant firsthand and will immediately perceive the capabilities of the candidate and what they can contribute in your midwifery business. As a good interviewer, you must hold and maintain qualities like good communication skills, active listening skills, and interpersonal skills. Below are the list of things you should consider when interviewing staff for your Midwifery Business. 1. Be prepared. Being prepared is a way to set things up. As a midwife, we are taught to be prepared 24/7. It is also showing organization and professionalism as the interviewer. Make sure to scan the potential employee’s background and qualifications before starting the interview. Also, note to dress appropriately to set proper expectations with the applicant that you are there to examine his/her great potential and experiences associated with the position you’re looking for. 2. Make your Interviewee Comfortable Creating rapport is one thing you need to master if you’re a business owner. Most of the time you’ll meet people with different stands in life and initiating a conversation is easy if you know how to establish rapport very well. It is your job as an interviewer to establish a connection and make your interviewee comfortable not just with you, but with your business as well. If they are comfortable talking to you then it is easier to know them better as they will show confidence while talking to you and presenting themselves. 3. Remain Straightforward Avoiding unnecessary small talk can get you directed to your main goal which is to get to know your applicant’s suitability to the position. Make sure to create a list of questions that are designed for the role you are hiring for, such as questions relating to skills, job knowledge, and work history. You should also include behavioral and situational questions to give you a good idea of how the candidate handles challenging situations. Preparing a list will also ensure that you ask each candidate similar questions. 4. Customize an Interview Procedure A disorganized interview can make you lose track of the interview and end up wasting your and the candidate’s time. The best way to avoid this is to set out a structure during your interview prep. For example, make the first part of the interview a brief introduction and description of the main goals of the position and what your company hopes to achieve, followed by the interview questions. Lastly, give the interviewee an opportunity to ask a few questions of their own. 5. Be Proactive Being proactive can help you as an interviewer be more relaxed, prepared, and in control. Note that you need to show superiority to the candidate and avoid being intimidated. Always take note of the candidate’s, answer, behavior, and performance. Notetaking is essential in any interview. It will help you keep track of how each candidate performed and allow you to compare candidates once the interview stage is over. Be sure to clear your mind and focus on what the candidate says so that you can note any positive or negative attributes. You might also want to use a scorecard to assess the candidate’s answers effectively. At the end of the day, you will need to decide and choose the best and most qualified person from all applicants. But that does not end there, you need to follow up with the references provided if that applicant performed well in his/her previous job. Integrity is a valuable skill in an employee because it indicates that they will perform to the best of their ability and act according to their principles.
Interviewing a Great Accountant for your Midwifery Team
Great Accountant For Midwifery Team Do-it-yourself bookkeeping and accounting can help you through the early days of getting your business off the ground. The problem with business leaders spending time on accounting is that it takes away from other revenue-focused duties of the job, and doing just enough to get by isn’t exactly best practices for setting your business up for long-term financial success. After all, your business lives and dies by your finances. That said, it’s vital to hire the right accounting professional for the job. I have been learning that there are very few great resources out there that understand midwifery and birth professional businesses. Been spending hours and hours networking and trying to find these great people to help leverage the success of your business. The Hardest Person to find is a Great Accountant Two months ago, I was blessed with the findings of Alan Abadie! I literally was google searching, “midwife accountant.” I found a 4yr old blog post of Alan asking advice about starting midwifery school and having a background being an accountant. I reached out to him on LinkedIn and the rest is history! He lives and breathes advocating for families and creating better birth options. His ultimate dream is creating a birth center in his hometown in LA. I can’t stress enough how important it is in your business to have people on your team (staff and advisors) that are passionate about you and your business. There will be better strategies discussed, opportunities to go the extra mile for you, and really want your midwifery practice to be successful. Having a strong accountant that does more than file your taxes on your team is vital to the success in this business. Accountants that are versed in business tax strategies are hard to find, let alone one that LOVES midwives! Please look over Alan’s website and set up a meeting if you are a looking for a great accountant! Here are some great questions you can use when interviewing an accountant. 1. What does your experience looks like in my midwifery business field? Accountants skilled in managing startup finances will understand how to design a chart of accounts that can scale with startups’ businesses, the best tools to support startups as their needs evolve, and have a solid understanding of relevant finance functions such as cash flow analysis and pre-revenue operations. Additionally, and importantly, they’ll be well-versed in helping generate financial reports for board meetings including burn rate, runway, revenue, COGS, unit economics and other growth metrics. 2. How responsive and accessible can you be? One of the most important factors to understand about your potential accounting partner is how they communicate and their level of responsiveness to ensure it’s a good fit for your communication style. Explicitly ask how quickly you should expect a response to a request, so you can set the tone for your relationship going forward. Be mindful that they have other clients, but make it clear you are looking for is consistency and dependability. Hiring someone who makes themselves accessible when necessary will ensure that your business isn’t losing out in any way. 3. What do your services include (and not include)? Accountants are good for a lot more than just bookkeeping, monthly closes and generating financial reports. Your accountant could help you with everything from bookkeeping tasks to bills payment and invoicing, payroll administration to receipt management. They can also help in the future planning for your business by working on financial projections and modeling, waterfall charts, budgeting, and more (introductions to potential investors, recommendations for cost-saving initiatives or cash flow analysis). 4. Tell me about a time when… It’s important to verify the team or individual you are speaking to can not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. Ask them to describe how they work through specific scenarios that directly relate to your business; come to the meeting with a few real-life examples of challenges or scenarios you’ve encountered in your business accounting, and see how they describe the process or solution. 5. What role would you take in budget and cash flow management? For startups, setting and adhering to budgets is an important element of cash flow management and keeping your startup in the green zone. Having an expert involvement in the practice of setting and tracking budgets for your business could be game-changing. It’s vital that your accountant knows how to manage cash burn, too. The right accountant for your business should not only be able to quickly assess the rate at which the company is burning up cash reserves, but also make projections for the future and suggestions for ways to better manage your runway while working toward your goals. 6. How do you bill for services? Most accountants and finance firms use the hourly billing model, whereas others have adopted value pricing or flat fees. It’s important to know in advance what to expect and to determine which method works better for you. Flat fees typically come with a subscription model that involves a monthly payment structure (usually automatic), whereas hourly billing is exactly that (though you’ll likely be given an estimated monthly cost range). Depending on your team structure, the decision to use a service or individual who bills hourly versus flat monthly rate could be the difference of hundreds or even thousands of dollars in fees. Alan Abadie, Accountant with Call the Accountant:https://www.deliveraccounting.com/ Article Reference: https://www.zeni.ai/blog/hiring-an-accountant
Interested In Starting Your Own Midwifery Practice? – MBC
Starting your own midwifery practice Starting your own midwifery practice can be a rewarding and fulfilling venture, but it requires careful planning, preparation, and consideration of various aspects. Want to be your own boss and be the final decision maker of policies, and community services you will offer, or have money directly going into your pocket from care versus flat salary? Being a private business owner has many benefits with taxes, financial freedom, the sole purpose of midwifery care, and so much more. Starting your own midwifery practice, you can run a birth center, home birth practice, women’s health clinic, hospital-based practice, consultation services, or locum assignment for another practice to fill their short-term needs. You can even do niche services like breastfeeding support, pelvic floor rehabilitation, primary care, hormonal replacement therapy, or geriatric care. And even run multiple businesses at once. Be sure to note whether you want to be a business owner or self-employed Would you like to work for your earned income from services or hire employees to do the work and make profits running a business? The big advantage of creating a business ownership position is with a well-run entity, passive income will continue to come in whether you are on vacation, sleeping, or sick. Self-employment funds only keep coming in if the work happens. As soon as you directly stop seeing patients, money will stop. I have run and worked for many practices. I worked for a private practice, hospital-based practice, home birth practice, and community clinics. I owned my own home birth practice, birth center practice, locum contracts with hospitals, consultation in creating a midwifery practice at the community hospital, and a women’s health clinic. My skills include scheduling, billing, marketing, training staff, creating policies, starting a business entity, continuing legal paperwork, and so much more. Creating the dream business My mission is to help other midwives (Certified Nurse Midwives, Certified Midwives, Certified Professional Midwives, Direct Entry Midwives, and Lay Midwives) create the business they have always dreamed about. There are so many hurdles and limited resources for business ownership, specifically for midwifery practices. Many midwives don’t even know the possibilities of their business ownership options. Creating value for the community, clinics, families, and other providers in the area is the key to making a successful business. Learn what makes you happy being a midwife. Do you like to attend births (what most people think of as a midwife practice)? Do you have a young family or close to retiring and want to sleep at night? Consider running a consultation service from your years of experience to help others get started or start a typical office-hour clinic. Is your passion urinary incontinence? A pelvic floor maintenance program can be your forte. Get some additional training about billing specifics and the equipment you need to run that aspect of women’s health care services. Network and learn what the demands are in your area based on what you want to do, not what you have to do! That is the biggest perk of running your own place. You can decide what your business will do to serve women and their families best. Please subscribe to our newsletter and keep watching for future posts. We will be discussing all the details of running a practice (marketing, legal entity choices, billing, budgeting, short-term and long-term goal-making, supplies, and the birth center accreditation process, to name a few topics). We have resources, example policies, sample marketing material, and more on the site to help with running a practice. Midwives need to stand up for their full capacity, including running their own businesses locally and nationally. I look forward to being the resource that midwives can turn to in create their dream practice. We created the course, Tips for Running a Successful Midwifery Practice, to teach you all you need to know about being a midwife. Warmly, Leslie Cornwell, CNM
Inspire Your Women with Home Birth Stories
Katelyn Fusco has created amazing resources for home birth clients. She has created a podcast that does birth stories from women all over the country that delivered in the home setting. Want to give your ladies more than book resources, Katelyn’s virtual community support is like no other. She has Facebook groups for home birth clients to learn from each other, childbirth education courses specifically for home birth clients, and so much more. Happy Homebirth is a brand and podcast dedicated to inspiring and explaining how to have a homebirth. The goal? To provide a source of continuous support, encouragement and education for women considering giving birth in the comfort of their own homes. This is a safe space for our community to ban together, celebrate our successes, cherish our stories and find other like-minded women to lean on. Happy Homebirth is a shout from the mountaintops: You deserve a safe, mindful peaceful birth! You deserve to know all of the birthing options available to you! So often women are made to think they have no choice in the matter of birth. Uncertain of anything beyond the walls of the hospital, 98% of women are giving birth in the cold, florescent lights of a building dedicated to sickness. Happy Homebirth exists as a lighthouse for the women of our generation. No, giving birth at home is certainly not for everyone, but every woman deserves to know that it is often a safe alternative to the typical impersonal care given in over-crowded hospitals. This homebirth podcast encourages our community to ban together. We should celebrate our successes, cherish our stories and find other like-minded women to confide in. Not too long ago, women leaned upon one another for childbirth, breastfeeding, and motherhood in general. It cannot be denied: Our culture has shifted over time to viewing birth as a medical emergency. Because of this shift, the art of female to female support and encouragement, especially around birth and motherhood, has degraded. Just as Ina May Gaskin improved birth through not only attendance, but also her sharing of birth stories, the goal of this homebirth podcast is to reestablish the lost legacy of traditional female support. Katelyn has been both a homebirth mother and student midwife. Because of this, she has seen birth from many angles and knows the importance of a supported mother. The goal of this homebirth podcast is to compile the beautiful stories of women around the country and world. These women have shared in the sacredness of giving birth at home, and they hope to help Katelyn provide a solid foundation for women journeying into pregnancy and birth: whether for the first of fifteenth time. Katelyn has been lucky enough to be surrounded by a community of mothers who have helped her along her journey into motherhood. Because of this support, it is her goal through Happy Homebirth to create this same kind of kindred tribe that transcends location. Happy Homebirth Academy https://www.myhappyhomebirth.com/ Check out video with Happy Home Birth Podcast and Midwifery Business https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jePWmUAuhqE
Independence and Midwifery Opportunities
Independence and Midwifery Opportunities Independence and Midwifery Opportunities This year has been so much: pandemic, economic crisis, and riots! 2020: Year of the Midwife is still something I want us to focus on today. We have so many midwifery opportunities with these trying times. Families are actively looking for out of hospital births and safe health care away from Covid-19. Women want normal birth in a respected, private environment. Birth centers are cropping up all over the country due to hospitals trying to keep healthy moms and babies away from the infection. If you have EVER considered starting a private practice or taking your current business to the next level, now is it. There are so many birth center and home birth practices needed right now. There are so many online education for families and midwifery students due to lock down and social distancing. Student and practicing midwives alike are craving online continued education. Families are begging for childbirth education and newborn classes online. Birth workers are finding quickly that adapting to current needs is very viable and profitable. We are Very Good at Adapting to Birth Flow Use that mentality to make your business more fluid. Mission statements can change based on demographics, health disparities, and pandemics. Midwives are powerful women and can creatively change our professional track to serve our communities better. We live in a country that allows freedom and choice. Make the choice to do what makes you really happy, serves your family, and supports your local community’s needs. Take some time tonight and think about the needs with your consumers and how can you better serve them. Even though 2020 is half way over, the second half will be our time to shine and provide families with stability during these trying times. Fulfill your dream of owning a business and serving mothers on your own terms. Create a business plan, network with local midwives to learn about their business models, and morph your passion into that unique niche that no one is serving right now. There is so much demand for midwifery services right now and I encourage you to take advantage of the growing momentum. Supporting normal birth and strong family units will be our savior during a time when communities are craving stability, safety, and confidence in their country to stay united.
INCREASED POST COVID DEMANDS FOR HOME BIRTHS & BIRTH CENTERS
Since the pandemic happened, giving birth in a hospital setting has become a lesser option to expecting families. As pregnant women become more at risk with the spread of the Covid-19 virus, families choose a location that is less part of the main healthcare system and its regulations and infection risk exposure. Giving birth at home has become a more enthralling choice as well. Now that the pandemic is almost over, women have reconsidered their birth plans, increasing the demands of home birth and birth center facilities. According to The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, midwives across the country are experiencing a surge of interest in home births. A recent study of Jama Network proves that homebirths practitioners have reported an increase in their services. (Trends in Home Birth Information Seeking in the United States and the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 Pandemic) Most of our today’s families looking for best birthing options would be a great candidate for out of hospital births. We are in an amazing time in history for massive demands and needs for access to midwifery services, particularly in the out of hospital setting. Let’s take this momentum and show our communities the care we provide. Consider precepting and expanding your practice from solo to a team model of midwives. See how you can improve the backdrop efficiency of your practice to keep up with these demands while still taking care of yourself. I love helping midwives all over the country fulfill their ultimate practice dreams with strategic planning, improving their revenue streams, and expanding services to help fill the needs of families better. Especially birth centers, the grants and funding available to start this venture has never been more pronounced! To me, birth centers fill the perfect balance of home and hospital services where midwives can support communities at a concrete location versus burning out driving a large home birth radius they serve. The midwives can take a bit more clients doing birth center than home birth practices can with keeping their care high quality and safe. Many insurances recognize birth center deliveries over home birth deliveries so families can also benefit from having their insurance plans cover the midwifery services desiring for their birth experience. Covid-19 just proved to us that we can adapt to anything. Even this spread of the virus taught us that staying at home is not a bad idea at all. This pandemic has unveiled the true importance of midwives in keeping the health of mothers and babies as well as all members of the family. It greatly showed us the challenges every midwife is facing in the healthcare system, and not being recognized at all. It also proved that midwife is capable of surviving within this ever-changing world and can provide the care everyone needs. By this, we can definitely agree that midwives play not just vital but a very important role in our ever-changing world.
Improving Inventory Management in a Freestanding Birth Center: A Key to Efficient Care
Managing inventory efficiently in a freestanding birth center is crucial for ensuring that both staff and patients have what they need when they need it. Birth centers are fast-paced environments, and the supplies and equipment required can change from day to day. Whether it’s the medications for pain management, sterile equipment for delivery, or everyday supplies for postpartum care, keeping track of inventory can sometimes feel like a never-ending challenge. The good news is that there are proven strategies to streamline inventory management and improve overall efficiency, leading to a better experience for both the staff and the families who come to your center for care. Let’s dive into some actionable steps for improving your inventory system. 1. Conduct a Comprehensive Needs Assessment Before making any changes, it’s important to evaluate the current state of your inventory. What supplies do you use most frequently? What do you seem to run low on? Are there items that often go unused or expire before they can be used? By conducting a thorough needs assessment, you can better understand which supplies are essential and which items need to be reordered or replaced. Sit down with your staff and ask for their input—those on the front lines can often provide insights into items that need more consistent supply or are regularly out of stock. 2. Implement an Effective Inventory Management System Manual tracking of inventory, whether through paper logs or spreadsheets, can be time-consuming and prone to human error. Transitioning to a digital inventory management system will allow for real-time tracking of supplies and help automate processes like reordering when stock runs low. There are several healthcare-specific inventory management tools available that help track items by lot number, expiration dates, and usage frequency. Many of these tools also offer barcode scanning, which can simplify the process of checking items in and out, minimizing mistakes and saving time. 3. Standardize Processes for Reordering and Auditing Establishing a clear process for managing stock is essential. Set minimum and maximum stock levels for every item. When stock reaches the minimum threshold, the system can automatically trigger a reorder. This will help you maintain an adequate supply of essential items without overstocking or risking stockouts. Regular inventory audits are also critical. By conducting audits every quarter (or more frequently, depending on your center’s needs), you ensure that the physical inventory aligns with what’s recorded in your system. This prevents discrepancies that can lead to over-purchasing or running out of vital supplies. 4. Ensure Accountability and Staff Involvement An effective inventory system is only as good as the people behind it. Assign a dedicated staff member or team to oversee inventory management. This person will be responsible for ordering, receiving, and tracking supplies, as well as ensuring that inventory records are accurate and up-to-date. It’s also essential that all staff members are trained on the system you implement. When everyone understands how to properly log supplies and manage stock levels, the process becomes more efficient and transparent. Encourage staff to report any issues or shortages, as their hands-on experience is invaluable in refining your inventory practices. 5. Track Usage Patterns for Better Forecasting An effective inventory system is one that takes into account usage trends. By tracking the usage of different supplies over time, you can identify patterns in demand and forecast future needs more accurately. For example, if you notice that certain medications are used more frequently during a particular season or that certain supplies are in high demand during peak delivery periods, you can adjust your ordering practices accordingly. Monitoring usage trends helps ensure that you’re not left scrambling for supplies when you need them most. By proactively managing your stock, you can reduce the likelihood of shortages and avoid excess inventory that could go unused. 6. Optimize Storage and Organization A key element of efficient inventory management is making sure your storage systems are organized and optimized for quick access. Store frequently used items in easily accessible locations and organize them based on the frequency of use. For example, things needed for emergency deliveries should be readily available, while items used less frequently (like specific postpartum care supplies) can be stored further away but still in a clearly labeled section. Proper storage also means maintaining the integrity of supplies. Sterile items should be stored in a clean, controlled environment, while medications should be stored according to their specific requirements. Having an organized and clearly labeled system makes it easier to find items quickly, even under pressure. 7. Build Strong Relationships with Suppliers Strong relationships with suppliers are crucial to ensuring timely deliveries and maintaining the quality of your inventory. By working closely with your suppliers, you can better align your order schedules with your birth center’s needs, allowing for smoother operations. You may even be able to negotiate bulk discounts or flexible delivery schedules that suit your center’s specific needs. Establishing a reliable supplier network also ensures that you can quickly reorder and replenish supplies without delays. 8. Continuous Improvement and Feedback Loops Inventory management is not a one-time fix—it’s an ongoing process that requires regular review and improvement. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) like inventory turnover rate, stockouts, and delivery time. These metrics will help you assess how well your system is working and where adjustments are needed. Gather feedback from your staff regularly to identify areas for improvement. Whether it’s improving the training process or fine-tuning stock levels for specific items, fostering a culture of continuous improvement will help your center adapt to changing demands and ensure that you’re always prepared for the unexpected. Effective inventory management in a freestanding birth center doesn’t just improve efficiency—it directly impacts the quality of care you provide. By adopting modern inventory systems, standardizing processes, and involving staff in decision-making, you can ensure that your center is always stocked with the necessary supplies. This will not only reduce costs and waste but also allow your team to focus more on what matters most—delivering safe, compassionate care to
Importance of Women Leaders & Support Groups
Importance of Women Leaders I am on multiple mastermind and support groups that help further my success. I am part of Facebook private groups, monthly mastermind calls, and local community Chamber of Commerce meetings for women. I do attend some that are for men and women, but really find my creativity, relationship-building, and progress with my goals are accelerated with like-minded women. We can brainstorm our ideas and empathize with the challenges of women in leadership roles (balancing motherhood, business, and life purpose). The focus groups pull passions and unique resources together to make something better ideas than would have occurred on our own. Solutions to the Problem The relationships I have made over the years have only exponentially grown from forums, groups, and networking events. Creating YouTube videos and interviewing amazing midwifery practices all over the country has only opened my eyes to opportunities for creating joint projects and services. We look at each other’s challenges and find mutually beneficial solutions to the problems. By creating win-win scenarios, everyone including ourselves better from the opportunities. The value placed on women and their ability to lead and participate fully in the world is a matter of justice. Social justice is really quite simple, but it is intentionally made complex in order to maintain the status quo. Social justice is actually in and of itself not a matter of left-right political spectrum, even though that is what we have come to believe. In the same way, it is not the natural order of human beings to be hierarchically organized with some people appearing to be superior to others – these are socially constructed concepts. There is a saying in design thinking that says everything is designed to get what it gets. Social justice is much more logical and nuanced than some would have us believe. One step in making a society operate more justly is to make sure the people who are in positions of power and are making decisions that impact other people’s lives are representative of the very people they are deciding for/with. This very thing is based on how the system is designed. What are the rules, policies, etc? These things – rules, policies, etc are a manifestation of the value we place on people and the earth. This is why very important to continue to analyze with women the cultural and social ways in which our lives are being shaped because if we don’t the only analysis will be about the personal psychology of women. Psychoanalyzing the social and cultural manifestation in women’s lives places the solution for change on the individual – this moves us away from seeing, naming and ultimately changing the very structures that gave rise to the injustices we see and ultimately keep us down. This is why we see so many women getting lost in a maze of self-improvement groups. We have to be very conscious of the tremendous pressure to view women’s oppression as a “sickness” or individual mental health problem rather than as a political, social, and cultural condition. What does the lack of representation of women in leadership roles mean to women’s everyday lives? How does it impact women when they haven’t actually ever seen themselves reflected in the leadership of their community? https://www.kaxe.org/post/strong-women-focus-groups-women-supporting-other-women-leadership#stream/0
Importance of Understanding Scope of Practice for Midwives
Scope of Practice for Midwives When practicing as a midwife whether a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), Certified Midwife (CM), Certified Professional Midwives (CPM), Licensed Midwife (LM), or Direct Entry Midwife (DEM), you need to understand your state, national, and international scope of practice. Standards of care and scopes of practice are put into effect to make clear guidelines of training, skills, and competencies for consumers, medical community, and fellow midwives. If I say I am a Certified Nurse Midwife, we have a national certification with AMCB to reference. ACNM and NARM have a clearly written scope of practice reference for midwives. Each state will make more detailed scope of practice requirements. Some states will allow twins, VBACs and breech deliveries to be done by midwives with additional training. Some states won’t. When you start practicing and running your own business, you need to be even more aware of those scope of practice guidelines. If there is a question of your competency and a patient case is brought to the Board regulating your license and certification, those guidelines will be referenced. It becomes very confusing when consumers don’t even know what a midwife can do, let alone our own midwifery colleagues. I strongly encourage each midwife today to find their state and national guidelines of scope. Make sure your policies and procedures reflect that current standards of care. Low Risk We are low risk care providers and each state determines what is considered low risk. Some states require a written collaboration to practice. Some states will specifically say what patients a midwife can and can’t take care of. Vague states are actually harder to practice in, because when something comes up for investigation, there isn’t a clear guideline to reference. When things are up for interpretation, that is when conservative management and policies benefit your midwifery practice. Each midwifery certification and licensure has different services that can be offered. Typically a CNM and CM can get hospital privileges, provide primary care and gynecological services after pregnancy, first assist with cesarean sections, and order ultrasounds, labs, and additional testing at local medical services. Gyn procedures like IUD insertions, wart removals, colposcopies, nexplanon insertions, and infertility treatment can be done with additional certifications and trainings. Performing ultrasounds can be done with additional certifications for CNMs. CPMs, LMs, and DEMs, in most states do not offer those services and refer to a CNM or doctor for additional support. Understanding Scope of Practice It is so important for each business owner and even employee to understand their scope of practice. If you work for a hospital and they are asking you to take care of a patient outside of your scope of practice, make sure a collaborating physician is involved in that care whether co-signs your note or sees the patient every other visit in conjunction with midwife. Work closely with our medical community on aspects of care that are not part of independent scope of practice. We want to serve women and do it within the educational background and skillset of our midwifery training. I worry about midwifery practices that push the envelope of scope of practice and standards of care. When there is a question of competency or standards, it creates a ripple in the midwfiery community that is hard to get over. When there is a bad outcome, which happens at some point when caring for mothers and babies, we want our practice to have policies, standards, and scope of practice clearly defined and followed by entire midwifery team. Safety and risk reduction should be our number one priority for our midwifery practices. Independent Midwifery Practice There are specific variations of normal that need to be closely evaluated if should be cared for with an independent midwifery practice. Trial of labor after cesarean section is considered a high risk pregnancy by most medical national associations. Make sure your state midwifery board has a position statement to reference about VBACs and midwifery scope for those women. There are position statements on a national level that VBAC can be attempted in a Accredited Birth Center within certain distance from local hospital that can provide immediate OB services if warranted. I can’t find a single national or local organization that support VBAC and home births. If you offer that service, just understand that if care is put under investigation, we are being held to national and state organizations that don’t directly support that option in home setting and scope of midwives. Take some time and really list all of your midwifery services being offered, your perceived scope of practice, and look at state and local regulations. Does your current midwifery mission, standards of care, and services being offered reflect what the midwifery boards and medical associations position on those topics? We want to be safe, protect our license, and protect our families. Keep care within our scope and know when to refer to the medical community for services outside of our midwifery scope of practice.
Importance of Taking a Vacation from your Midwife Business
Taking a Vacation Most midwives don’t think about their outside time from work or taking a vacation when creating a midwifery business plan. It is just as important to know that your practice will run whether you are present or not. Do you have enough resources and plans in place that if you got in a car accident, the practice would still survive? What about a vacation or two? So much of self employment implies giving to work all the time. If you aren’t working, money isn’t coming in. I want midwives to start thinking more like business owners versus self employed status on your tax paperwork. Your budget needs to have vacation pay for you and staff present. Your practice needs a back up midwife to cover your vacation or large enough practice so that other midwives can cover while you are away. Who will handle your administration duties while away on vacation for week or two? Take a vacation every three months. Create a team that you have trained so well that every duty can be completed fabulously without your presence at the office or birth. Take a vacation every three months. Try to rotate family vacation with a more personal vacation with either your partner, relaxation, or personal retreat. There is so much evidence out that about importance of vacations. Living in the Midwest, limited sun shine during winter months makes craving the tropics that much more intense. Having a good dose of vitamin D is good for your business, soul, and personal health. Your mind will come back refreshed and ready to start another creative chapter to your practice. Make sure all of your staff is getting their vacation time. Make incentives with your practice to encourage vacation versus make them feel guilty for “leaving you for a week.” Creating an environment at work where staff’s personal time is just as important as work time will have your team devoted for the long haul. Happy employees are productive employees (same counts for you). If a midwife starts burning out and having trouble separating personal and work time, the business starts to crumble from the top on down. Your mission is to serve women including yourself and the staff around you. Try not to forget that important lesson!