• CNMA held its 5th annual Lobby Day on April 23, 2007 during which 50 nurse midwives and nurse-midwife students covered nearly 45% of all Senate and Assembly offices with 56 legislative visits. Assembly Majority Leader Karen Bass, (author of two of the bills discussed in the lobby day visits) presented a Nurse-Midwifery Week Resolution to CNMA attendees.
• Status of bills supported by CNMA:
• A.B. No. 139 (Bass with coauthor, Maze). This bill enables physician assistants, nurse practitioners and nurse midwives to conduct medical exams for commercial license through the Department of Motor Vehicles.  07/20/2007 Status: Chaptered!
•  A.B. No. 741 (Bass with principal coauthor, Leno). This bill would require the department to develop a pilot demonstrationprogram that would offer interpregnancy care, in an effort to improve the child spacing and adverse pregnancy outcomes for women who have had a previous very low birth weight delivery. Conceptually supported but as of 10/13/2007 vetoed by the governor due to budgetary constraints.
• S.B. No. 102 (Migden). This bill would allow that information to inform the patient of the positive and negative aspects of receiving autologous blood and directed and nondirected homologous blood from volunteers to be given by the physician or doctor of podiatric medicine, directly or through a nurse practitioner, certified nurse midwife, or physician assistant, authorized to order a blood transfusion. Status: Chaptered!
• Several meetings were held with CNMA and the California Department of Insurance to discuss nurse midwives’ challenges in procuring malpractice insurance and ongoing issues with policy affordability
• CNMA met with the Department of Managed Care to explore avenues by which CNMs may be reimbursed directly from the managed care plan instead of via the supervising physician

In closing, I would like to thank each of you for your past support and membership in the CNMA.  However, as our “New Year” is here, I am also asking each of you to renew your membership and in so doing continue your participation in CNMA. Your membership renewal is critical if CNMA is to keep its “ear to the ground” in Sacramento and continue to participate in activities that will protect and insure our future as nurse-midwives in California.