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The PushStates

What's up in your state?

In 24 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) are subject to criminal prosecution for practicing medicine or nursing without a license.

Citizens and birth-advocacy organizations are working together, with the help of the Big Push for Midwives Campaign, to effect change at the organizational, community, and policy making level by pushing to pass laws licensing CPMs nationwide and incorporating them into our state and federal healthcare infrastructure.

Another 26 states provide for licensure or legally authorized practice by CPMs. Recently, however, the Big Push Campaign has been contacted by several of these legal states seeking resources, as they find themselves with increasingly hostile and prohibitive CPM practice environments. Specifically, there are increasing numbers of physicians unwilling to consult with or receive transfers from professional midwives who practice in out-of-hospital settings. For example, in Delaware this is because insurance companies are threatening to drop malpractice coverage for any physician who consults with CPMs.

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