The 60th Anniversary of the American College of Nurse-Midwives: honoring our past, celebrating our present, forging the future.

Abstract

This year is the 60th anniversary of the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM). Just as 60th anniversaries are special occasions for marriages and monarchs, so too are they for organizations, providing us with an opportunity for commemoration and reflection. In this spirit, the theme for ACNM's 60th anniversary is “Honoring Our Past, Celebrating Our Present, Forging the Future.” The honoring and celebrating phrases of the theme address where midwives have been and where we are now. The last third of the theme uses forging, an action verb, and switches our to the, which moves the focus from the profession itself to the broad and important work midwives are doing to advance the well-being of women and infants. This year is also the 60th anniversary of ACNM's Journal. The Journal began in 1955 as the Bulletin of the American College of Nurse-Midwifery and was renamed the Bulletin of the American College of Nurse-Midwives in 1969 when the College name changed. The Journal became the Journal of Nurse-Midwifery in 1973, and the current name of the Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health (JMWH) was adopted in 2000. In recognition of this anniversary year, unique Journal content in each issue will link to the anniversary theme. Throughout the year, you will find a special 60th anniversary logo on the cover of JMWH and on the first page of articles related to the anniversary, including this editorial. This logo is a modernized version of ACNM's 3-women logo and reflects the care of women throughout their lifespan. To commemorate this anniversary year, each issue of the Journal in 2015 will highlight a featured topic that is of importance to the past, present, and/or future of midwifery and women's health. These topics include honoring our past (January/February), collaboration (March/April), clinical practice (May/June), global health (July/August), health policy and advocacy (September/October), and forging the future (November/December). Each issue will begin with an editorial about the featured topic and include related commentaries and original articles. Content related to the featured topic in this issue includes an editorial by JMWH Associate Editor Linda Walsh that honors enduring qualities of midwives,1 a commentary looking back at the past 10 years of the Journal,2 and historical articles about the Frontier Nursing Service3 and Midwifery Legacies Project's 20th Century Midwife Story Collection.4 Most of the anniversary-related articles that address history will focus on the previous decade in order to avoid duplicating the outstanding 50th anniversary special issue of JMWH (Volume 50, Number 2, March/April 2005). I encourage you to read or re-read that issue of JMWH as this year's anniversary celebration begins. The 50 Years of Nurse-Midwifery/Midwifery special issue will be freely available throughout the year at http://tiny.cc/JMWH50th. As Walsh discusses in her editorial in this issue,1 midwives have always been and continue to be innovators. In order to share and record current examples of this quality of midwives, the 2015 continuing education theme issues (May/June and November/December) will focus on innovations in midwifery. This includes innovations in clinical practice, education, research, health care policy, advocacy, global health, public health, and other areas related to midwifery. These articles describe a wide range of creative, exciting work by midwives, and I hope they will be read widely by midwives and other clinicians. The Journal will also feature a special column in 2015 that honors US midwife researchers. JMWH is committed to reviewing and publishing research conducted by midwives, and this column provides us with an opportunity to recognize midwives who have made significant contributions through research published across many journals. This issue includes the first column,5 which focuses on midwifery theorists and researchers whose work extends back over several decades. Future columns will highlight more recent research by midwives. Like the Journal, ACNM is also planning anniversary celebrations throughout the year. Midwives are being asked to share their stories via written pieces, videos, and photos. Visit the 60th anniversary Web site at www.midwife.org/ACNM60 to learn more. That Website will house all of the information and materials pertaining to the 60th anniversary, and it is a great way to find out how you can be involved in the celebrations. Speaking of which, you won't want to miss the ACNM 60th Annual Meeting & Exhibition in National Harbor, Maryland on June 27 to July 1, where there will be numerous events to commemorate the 60th anniversary. As this year begins, I want to thank the JMWH Deputy Editors, Tekoa King and Patricia Aikins Murphy, Managing Editor, Brittany White, and Associate Editors, Mary Barger, Sharon Bond, Jenifer Fahey, Mary Ann Faucher, Kathryn Osborne, and Linda Walsh, as well as our publishing team at Wiley for all of their work to bring the Journal's year-long celebration of the 60th anniversary to fruition. We look forward to sharing special anniversary content with you throughout the year and hope you will enjoy it. Happy 60th anniversary to ACNM!