Who is FoMM?
Friends of Missouri Midwives (FoMM) is a non-profit consumer group committed to expanding and educating about safe childbirth options for Missouri families.
Our Purpose - To support, promote, and protect the right of Missouri families to a wide range of choices about how, where, and with whom their babies will be born, and to promote access to the Midwives Model of Care.
What are FoMM's goals?
To educate and inform the general public about the safety and feasibility of midwifery and the Midwives Model of Care©, homebirth, and other options in childbirth.
To support the intrinsic right of women to give birth as they choose.
To support the intrinsic right of parents to choose the location and attendants for the births of their children.
To inform public policy makers about the birthing rights and needs of Missouri families.
To educate legislators and promote legislation concerning the basic and ongoing needs of Missouri’s families who choose midwife-attended birth and the Missouri midwives who serve them.
To provide a support and discussion group for women who have had, or plan to have, a midwife-attended birth and/or homebirth.
To support Missouri’s midwives, and others practicing the Midwives Model of Care©, by increasing public awareness about midwifery.
To unite and coordinate homebirth and midwifery supporters statewide, and to empower them by giving them a strong voice, specific goals, current information, and a large group of cosupporters.
Why do we do it?
Research has shown that midwifery care is a healthy option for pregnancy and childbirth, and has been shown to reduce birth injury, trauma, and cesarean section. FoMM is working to make midwife-attended birth and out-of-hospital birth more readily available options for families in Missouri.
We believe that with intelligent inquiry, access to education, and utilization of informed choice and disclosure statements, parents are the sole best decision-makers about their own maternity care, for no one mode or place of birth suits all families.