2/28/08
In 40 of 51 States, direct entry (non-nurse) midwifery is legal.
In those 40 States…
• 24 regulate the practice by license, certification, registration or permit.
• In 4 States midwifery is unregulated but not prohibited.
• In 10 States it is legal by judicial interpretation or by statutory inference.
• In 2 states midwifery is legal by statute but licensure is unavailable.
• In the remaining 10 States, direct entry midwives are prohibited from assisting mothers in the natural process of birth.

Massachusetts is an unregulated State in which Direct Entry Midwifery is legal by Judicial Interpretation and Statutory Inference. Midwives are free to practice but there are no rules regarding licensure. To begin the process of legal recognition, midwives in Massachusetts and their supporters created legislation - now House Bill #2142, to recognize Midwifery as a separate profession from Nursing and to regulate all midwives under one Board - whether they practice in a hospital, birth center or home. It will include certified nurse midwives (CNMs), and direct entry non-nurse midwives who are either certified by the North American Registry of Midwives (CPMs), or certified by the American College of Nurse Midwives (CMs). In 2006 the Bill easily passed through the Health Care Committee and the Senate Ways and Means. In October of 2007 the Bill passed through the Joint Committee on Public Health. In November of 2007 it was reviewed by the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, and then on 2/25/08, The Board Of Midwifery bill was taken up in the Senate and is now in third reading. This is the place where the Senate lawyers look the bill over before it comes up for final consideration in the Senate. So, Things are moving forward in “08!

To compensate for the current lack of State regulation regarding the practice of direct entry midwives in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Midwives Alliance was established in 1984 as a professional trade organization to facilitate productive cooperation amongst midwives, establish practice guidelines, provide peer review and continuing educational opportunities, arbitrate complaints amongst midwives and consumers, and promote midwifery as a means of improving health care for women and their families.