Massachusetts legislature fails to pass maternal health and midwifery legislation.
The formal Massachusetts legislative session which began January 2021, ended the morning of August 1, 2022 without the passage of key midwifery and maternal health legislation. The Health Care Financing Committee sent the Out-of-Hospital Birth Access and Safety Act, An Act to Increase Access to Nurse Midwifery, and 7 other maternal health bills to study in early June, effectively killing the bills with no reason given and no vote. Though there were multiple attempts to resurrect the midwifery legislation be attaching them as amendments to other bills, none were successful.
What happened this legislative session?
A win in the budget!
In a first for Massachusetts, the state budget for 2023 will include $100K for Neighborhood Birth Center, a non-profit led by Black women to open Boston’s first freestanding birth center in 2023. The budget amendment for this funding was filed by State Representatives Brandy Fluker-Oakly and Liz Miranda and State Senator Lydia Edwards. Thanks to all the supporters of Bay State Birth Coalition and Neighborhood Birth Center who called, visited, and emailed legislators to get this done.
Learn more about Neighborhood Birth center.
Disappointing inaction on legislation.
On June 1, the Health Care Financing Committee sent many maternal health bills to “study,” effectively killing them, including the following two midwifery bills:
Out-of-Hospital Birth Access and Safety Act (H.4640) sponsored by State Representative Kay Khan and State Senator Becca Rausch - license Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), as 37 other states do, and allow them to be Medicaid providers, as they are in 16 other states. (In Massachusetts, CPMs attend almost all home births and they also can practice in birth centers in most other states.)
An Act to Increase Access to Nurse Midwifery Services (H.3881) sponsored by State Representative Kay Khan - ensure equitable reimbursement rates for Certified Nurse Midwives when providing the same services as a physician. (CNMs are already licensed in Massachusetts, and all 50 states, and primarily practice in hospitals, though a few practice in birth centers and at home.)
These bills, recommended by the Commission on Racial Inequities in Maternal Health and broadly supported, are commonsense and urgently needed!