10 Midwifery-friendly Ways to Spend Black Friday

by Melissa Garvey, ACNM Writer and Editor

Make Black Friday 2010 count by doing more than bargain hunting at o’-dark-thirty. Use these tips to spend your time and money updating your professional skills and making a difference for midwives.

1. Connect with other midwives and midwifery supporters via Facebook (both the ACNM page and the ACNM Student Midwives group) and on Twitter (@acnmmidwives and @acnmmeeting).

2. Watch advocates promote midwifery and student midwives show why they are becoming midwives on the ACNM You Tube Channel.

3. View FREE Annual Meeting sessions in the ACNM Live Learning Center, and earn free CEUs while you’re at it! Look for a green square that indicates the 2 free sessions.

4. Jump over to the Online Education tab in the ACNM Live Learning Center to register for Billing and Coding Modules 1 & 2 so you’re prepared for live modules 3 & 4 on December 7 and December 14, 7pm – 8pm EST.

5. Buy ACNM midwifery postage stamps to support the A.C.N.M. Foundation and promote midwifery with every holiday card, bill, and letter you send this season.

6. Submit a poster presentation for the ACNM 56th Annual Meeting & Exposition. General non-research submissions are due December 31. Research submissions to the Division of Global Health and the Division of Research are due February 15.

7. Start on your paper describing your successful collaborative practice model. It’s due to ACNM and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on February 1!

8. Flip through the November/December issue of the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health. If you don’t have a subscription, check out the new Share With Women Handouts (Weight Gain During Pregnancy and Omega-3 Fatty Acids During Pregnancy).

9. Apply for the A.C.N.M. Foundation Midwives of Color-Watson Basic Midwifery Student Scholarship.

10. Learn about the ACNM Department of Global Outreach and the ACNM Division of Global Health. Get involved by joining the division or registering for the Life Saving Skills workshop to be held in Tuscon, AZ, April 11 – 15, 2011.