Powerful Hearing on Sustainability for Birth Centers and Midwifery

On October 14, 2025, the Joint Committee on Financial Services in the Massachusetts State Legislature held a hearing about An Act promoting and enhancing the sustainability of birth centers and the midwifery workforce, filed by Senator Joan Lovely, Representative Manny Cruz, and Representative Lindsay Sabadosa (H.1117/S.784). 20 individuals showed up to testify at the hearing in support of this bill, (accompanied by one very patient baby) . Over 50 organizations signed onto letters of support for the legislation.

Committee members heard from a cross-section of perspectives including Senators Joan Lovely and Liz Miranda, American Association of Birth Centers, American College of Nurse Midwives, Bay State Birth Coalition, Boston University School of Law Program on Reproductive Justice, Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice at Tufts School of Medicine, The Cord Foundation, MassNOW, Mind the Gap Coalition, National Association of Certified Professional Midwives, Neighborhood Birth Center, Worcester Community Midwifery, and from individuals who shared their stories of receiving midwifery care or being denied access to the out-of-hospital birth they would have wanted.

Testifiers shared why fair reimbursement for midwifery services and birth centers is critical, and why now is the time to invest in the midwife workforce.

You can view the video recording of the three-hour hearing at the State House web site: hearing video. The hearing was about multiple bills, and testimony on midwifery and birth centers was scattered throughout. (Look for testimony on the birth center and midwifery bill at times: 0:06-0:10, 0:17-0:30, 0:39-0:43, 0:53-1:15, 1:37-1:40, 1:50-2:10, 2:16-2:20, 2:32-2:50.)