Birthing advocacy group launches national campaign

Coalition opens U.S. campaign in Chicago

Illinois and other states should legalize and license lay midwives to ensure women have safe and affordable choices for maternity care, according to a coalition of advocacy groups that launched a national campaign Thursday in Chicago.

Certified professional midwives, who are lay practitioners specializing in home births, are banned in 26 states, including Illinois. They fall under a different legal classification than certified nurse-midwives, advanced practice nurses who are licensed in all 50 states and work mainly in hospitals.

The National Birth Policy Coalition, a group of midwives and their advocates, say they are willing to undergo a minimum of three to five years of training and pass a national board exam to become certified.

"Licensure creates legal standards that all midwives have to follow, and that's what we want to see across the United States," said Katie Prown, manager of the coalition's national campaign. "As it stands now, families have to navigate an underground network of unlicensed midwives and take it on faith that their midwives are qualified and skilled at attending out-of-hospital births."

The coalition kicked off its campaign at a hotel near the headquarters of the American Medical Association, a physicians' organization that opposes the licensing of lay midwives because they are not nurses or doctors.

Chicago Tribune