Licensing Certified Professional Midwives

The following letters and statements, written by childbirth advocates and organizations including Our Bodies Ourselves, encourage the Massachusetts State legislature to pass bills that would license Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) and support out-of-hospital birth centers.

“We respectfully urge the House to take immediate action to prioritize maternal health, bodily autonomy, and birth justice by including the language of H.4640 in any legislative vehicle that is moving forward this session. At a time when the federal government threatens to thwart our reproductive rights and birth choices, Massachusetts must step up.”

— A letter from multiple MA organizations to MA state officials, urging support for H.4640, An Act relative to out-of-hospital birth access and safety, dated June 22, 2022. Read the full letter.

“Decades of research and recommendations from national and global expert organizations and academics have pointed to fully-integrated midwifery as key to improving our birth outcomes.”

— A letter from MA residents, urging State Speaker Ronald Mariano to support H.4640, An Act relative to out-of-hospital birth access and safety, dated July 9, 2022. Read the full letter.

“Many who live in Massachusetts – including consumers, health care providers, and organizations such as the League of Women Voters, Reproductive Equity Now, ACLU of MA, the Union of Minority Neighborhoods, Planned Parenthood, YWCA of Southeastern MA, the Resilient Sisterhood Project, and Mass NOW – have voiced the need for change over multiple public hearings. These bills will help to dismantle systems of oppression that make Black women even in our own state two to three times more likely to die of childbirth than their white counterparts.”

— Public Health Leaders and Health Care Practitioners Call Upon Massachusetts State Legislators and Other Policy Makers to Advance Proven Policies Regarding Maternal Health Safety and Choice – Statement  July 2022