From MassLive: “Massachusetts Senate clears bill to license midwives who provide out-of-hospital care”
By Steph Solis
The Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed a bill Thursday that would license midwives in Massachusetts, which Sen. Becca Rausch said would reduce costs and improve health outcomes in births.
Rausch, a Needham Democrat who filed the original Senate bill earlier this session, said the bill was not only a cost reduction tool but a maternal justice issue. She said the issue becomes even more crucial during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The coronavirus spurred a significant and sharp increase in demand for home birth care in our commonwealth, both because pregnant people are at higher risk for the virus and because pregnant people want to avoid unnecessarily taxing our hospitals,” Rausch said during formal session Thursday afternoon.
Massachusetts regulates certified nurse midwifes, who can legally attend home births but tend not, but does not have a licensing system for certified professional midwives, who provide out-of-hospital care, according to the Massachusetts Midwives Alliance.
It is unclear how many home births occur each year in Massachusetts, but supporters of the legislation have estimated the number could be in the hundreds.
Licensing midwives who provide out-of-hospital care would enable them to get easier access to personal protective equipment and other resources during the coronavirus pandemic, Rausch said. It would also formalize an alternative people across the state may prefer in lieu of hospitals, especially Black and brown pregnant women who have reported disparate pre-natal treatment in the health care treatment.
Black and Native American people giving birth were four to five times as likely to suffer pregnancy-related deaths than their white counterparts, according to a September 2019 CDC report.
Creating a licensing system would not only benefit midwives, but also offer consumer protection and information to prospective clients.
Sen. Jo Comerford, a Northampton Democrat, said the bill comes at a time when the country’s maternal mortality rates are on the rise, and even more so for Black mothers.
“In Massachusetts, we think of ourselves as home to the best medical care in the world, but the commonwealth is the 17th worst state in the nation when it comes to maternal harm,” Comerford said. “We can do better than this. We must do better than this, but nothing will change unless we in the Legislature take action.”
The Senate also passed a bill to study racial disparities in maternal health, meaning the legislation has been engrossed by both chambers of the Legislature.
The Senate passed its own order extending formal session past Friday. The House passed a similar order on Wednesday.
The Legislature traditionally holds its last formal session on July 31 every two years as lawmakers shift gears to focus on primary races. With a day before that deadline, the House and Session have several major bills on police reform, transportation, health care and economic development under review in conference committee.