About - California Families for Access to Midwives

We’re working to improve the health of pregnant people and babies by increasing access to midwifery care.

California Families for Access to Midwives (CFAM) includes mothers, fathers, families and their communities who advocate safe, affordable and healthy birth options.

CFAM is a grassroots consumer advocacy organization whose mission is to ensure that all California families have access to safe, affordable midwifery care. CFAM has a large base of consumer supporters, a significant social media reach, and has organized action campaigns that have been pivotal in improving access to midwifery care. CFAM partners with midwifery professional organizations to coordinate action strategies.

Accomplishments

In 2013, we successfully removed physician supervision from California midwives via AB 1308.
In 2015, we helped pass SB 407 and SB 408 which will allow midwives to bill Medi-Cal and allowed for licensing of a Midwifery Assistant position.
In the spring of 2017, we were able to stop passage of SB 457 and also keep it from being reintroduced in the fall of 2018. This bill would have severely limited access to homebirth midwifery care.
In 2018, we successfully advocated for Dr. Annette Feinberg to continue providing natural breech birth options when a California hospital attempted to ban her from having hospital privileges.
In 2019, we mobilized our supporters to advocate with the Medical Board to stop harmful legislation, and we were able to protect VBAC access.

Learn more about our current action alerts here

Meet Our Board

Teresa Yu

President

Teresa Yu, LMFT, chose midwifery care at home because she wanted client-centered, personalized, empowering care and for her birth to be respected as a natural process. Her sister is a Bay Area community midwife and learning about her birth and lactation work over the past 20 years has had a profound impact upon her, as well as working in the anti-violence against women field where she grew aware of the ways that institutions can disempower women.

She works for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, where she oversees Innovation Programs and supports consumer-driven initiatives as a Mental Health Services Act Program Manager, and has served as the Interim Mental Health Services Act Director.

She previously was Secretary of the board of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence and managed a non-profit domestic violence program for over 10 years. She is an alumnus of the Blue Shield Against Violence Strong Field Leadership Development Program, and has a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from UC Berkeley, an MA in Theology (Social Ethics) from the Graduate Theological Union and an MA in Counseling Psychology from California Institute for Integral Studies.

Desiree Leal

Treasurer

Desiree Leal is a mother of three living in the Bay Area. All three of her pregnancies were under the care of Licensed Midwives. Desiree is a UC Davis graduate with a double major in Theater and Film but found her true calling in birth work. She is a Licensed Midwife with a Bachelors from the Midwives College of Utah. She is excited to be a part of CFAM and help midwives become more accessible for everyone. Desiree is an avid movie fan and enjoys cooking and baking with her daughter’s supervision.

Bobbie Her

Secretary

Bobbie Her is mother to two wondrously eclectic children born at home under the care and support of a community midwife. Through the transformative and empowering experiences of her home births, she gained a deep appreciation and a passion for educating and advocating for access to community midwifery care for all birthing people. She is a lifelong educator to diverse communities of English Second Language learners and currently teaches in Berkeley, CA. She has worked and volunteered in non-profit organizations focused on increasing access to, and creating equal educational opportunities for children. She holds a BA in English and a steadfast dream to one day share her stories through her writing. She enjoys spending time being a “vegetable” with her boys on weekends, walking with her 15 year old dog and traveling.

Previous Board Members

Adeola Adeseun (Co-founder)
Treesa McLean (Co-founder)
Louis Heystek (Co-founder)
Jennifer Heystek (Co-founder)

Tanya Smith-Johnson (Co-founder)
Alexandra Rounds
Julia Goldin
Meghan McLean
Leilani Nguyen
Jinny Pagle

The Midwifery Model of Care

Monitoring the physical, psychological, and social well-being of the pregnant person throughout the childbearing cycle

Providing the client with individualized education, counseling, and prenatal care, continuous hands-on assistance during labor and delivery, and postpartum support

Minimizing technological interventions

Identifying and referring people who require obstetrical attention

As any person who has experienced the midwifery model of care will tell you, midwives provide unparalleled physical, emotional and wellness support during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period.