Skip links

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 two living in the Bay Area. Both her pregnancies were under the care of two wonderful Bay Area 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 currently studying to become a Certified Professional Midwife through the Midwives College of Utah and is apprenticing with a midwife in the Sacramento Area. 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.  

Leilani Nguyen

Board Member

Leilani is a mother to three children born at home attended by midwives. In her early 20s, she was womb-empowered when a nurse midwife handed her the speculum for a cervical exam; this small act of body autonomy and self determination transformed her relationship to reproductive health and launched her quest to reclaim woman-centered models of care. Her experiences as a new mother supported by traditional, Vietnamese sacred mother-roasting has forged her into a passionate advocate for continuity of care throughout the childbearing year and for birth choice as a reproductive justice issue.
 
Leilani is an Anthropology and Linguistics graduate from UC Santa Barbara and has an MA in Anthropology from UC Berkeley. She has a decade of nonprofit sector experience and two decades of grassroots volunteer experience in youth empowerment, campaign research, and research analysis. She was previously a childbirth educator & postpartum doula until the birth of her middle child. She has published matrescence essays, poetry, and photojournalism in Squat! Birth Journal, Mothering.com and personal blogs.

Jinny Pagle

Board Member

Jinny is a mother of three beautiful children birthed with the assistance of wonderful midwives. She has been a birthworker since the birth of her first child and is now a student midwife. She is passionate about supporting families through the transition from pregnancy, to birth, and postpartum integration. Jinny’s goal is creating more peaceful communities through supporting all birthing people, babies, and their families in having loving, supported and empowering births in the environment of their choice and with the people of their choice. She is a graduate of UC Davis in International Relations and French. She holds an MBA from San Francisco State University. In her spare time she raises chickens, grows delicious food, knits, creates in the kitchen, and dances.
 

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

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.
The application of this client-centered model of care has been proven to reduce the incidence of birth injury, trauma, and cesarean section.