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Consumer Groups Urge Support of MA Licensure for Certified Professional Midwives

11/21/2013

Massachusetts Midwives Alliance (MMA) | Massachusetts Friends of Midwives (MFOM)

CONTACT: Audra Karp, MMA, Audra.karp@gmail.com; Ann Sweeney, MFOM, ann@annsweeney.com

November 25, 2013

CONSUMER GROUPS URGE SUPPORT OF LICENSURE AND REGULATION FOR CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL MIDWIVES IN MASSACHUSETTS

Mother Who Attended Hearing Delivers Healthy Baby Boy through Home Birth

BOSTON, MA – November 21, 2013 – Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs), OB/GYNS and other physicians, public health experts, consumers and advocacy organizations submitted testimony to the Joint Committee on Public Health at their public hearing on scope of practice and licensure bills on November 19th. These advocates expressed their strong support of a bill that would license CPMs in the Commonwealth: HB 2008/SB 1081, An Act Relative to Certified Professional Midwives, sponsored by Representative Kay Khan and Senator Richard Moore.

The bill, which has almost ¼ of the Massachusetts legislature signed on as cosponsors, would create state oversight of CPMs - the primary attendants for families seeking home births in the state.

Certified Professional Midwives, several parents (with their babies in tow), a physician, and representatives from Our Bodies Ourselves, Massachusetts League of Women Voters, and Amnesty International all testified in person, pointing to the many advantages of such regulation.

In her letter to legislators, Martha Richardson, MD, FACOG, Assistant Clinical Professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine at Harvard Medical School, urged lawmakers to “please support this effort to give women and families a supervised choice for their births.” Dr. Richardson is a constituent of Public Health Committee Chairman Representative Jeffrey Sanchez and Senator Sonia-Chang Diaz. Additionally, a letter signed by eight organizations* urged legislators to “ensure that Massachusetts women and their families receive the consumer protection and good birth choices that women in 28 other states already have.”

Legislators received a packet of 27 pieces of written testimony, a petition with nearly 500 signatures of Massachusetts residents, fact sheets, research studies, and information on the increase in home birth nationally and locally, as well as the potential for cost savings.

Advocates urged the Committee on Public Health to report the bill out favorably as they have done in previous Sessions and allow the bill to advance to the next step in the legislative process.

The group of more than 20 consumer advocates who attended the hearing included Kati Mcbride from Stowe, MA, a constituent of Representative Kate Hogan and Senator James Eldridge. Less than 12 hours after the hearing concluded, Kati and her husband Keith delivered a healthy 9lb 12 oz. baby boy at 5:53 a.m. on November 20th at their home in the care of Certified Professional Midwives, Jessica Petrone and Sarafina Kennedy. They have named him Boston Brock McBride.

* ACLU of Massachusetts, Amnesty International, Massachusetts NOW, Mass Friends of Midwives, Massachusetts League of Women Voters, Our Bodies Ourselves, and the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts

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