Bay State Birth Coalition

12/03/2024

10 Organizations to Support this Giving Tuesday! LINK IN BIO for details and how to donate. Midwives save lives. These organizations help more families have access to midwives, offer essential birth and reproductive care options, and make our communities safer, healthier, and more equitable.

12/03/2024

Earlier this fall, Bay State Birth Coalition was honored with Helen Rodriguez Trias "We Need Health Prosperity" Award from the Prospera Institute. It was a moving experience to accept this award, and to have been nominated by Lilly Marcelin, our longtime collaborator at . The award was presented at the Health Equity for All Symposium, an annual event held by , an organization which promotes Latinx health prosperity. presented about the Massachusetts bill for midwifery and maternal health, highlighting our collective movement, advocacy, and the road to passage into law. Bay State Birth Coalition President Emily Anesta proudly presented on this topic alongside powerful advocate Merline Sylvain-Williams, . Grateful to have the support and community of Reverend Barbara Groover and . Excited to hear about the midwifery program getting started at from Dr. Conwell. Kudos to fellow awardees , and to Prospera Institute's phenomenal Executive Director, Joanne Suarez for a fantastic symposium.
(Last slide shows the title page of the presentation featuring a photo from our 2023 rally taken by Stefanie Belnavis )

08/16/2024

So excited to announce that Massachusetts has passed a comprehensive midwifery and maternal health bill! H.4999, An Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options, a “Momnibus” package of midwifery and maternal health legislation has
passed the Massachusetts legislature,
with unanimous votes in the House and Senate, and is headed to the Governor for her signature! Massachusetts families can look forward to greater access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options at home or in birth centers. In addition to midwives and birth centers, the bill also expands access to postpartum mental health screenings and creates a grant program for community based maternal mental health support. The bill also has provisions for a MassHealth postpartum home visiting program, doula access, lactation consultant licensure, and more. The bill is excellent, and the result of so much hard work from advocates, legislators, and legislative staff. This would not have happened without all of you, making your voices heard, sharing your stories, spreading the word, educating legislators, and advocating for the best possible bill. Beacon Hill really heard us when we said: “Midwives save lives,” and this labor of love has resulted in meaningful change that will impact families for generations.

06/29/2024

What do Alabama and Massachusetts have in common? Outdated midwifery laws! Ms magazine breaks it down, calling out Massachusetts by name. "The good news is we already have something that works: midwives. They have the potential to provide 90 percent of all essential sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health care around the world, contributing to 4.3 million lives saved annually by 2035. The bad news is that some places in the U.S. have made it difficult for midwives to provide the care that we so desperately need." TY

06/29/2024

📢Last week: “Mass. House approves wide-ranging maternal health bill” by “Pregnant individuals and new mothers could soon benefit from expanded physical and mental health care options under a sweeping maternal health bill the House unanimously passed on Thursday.
Representatives say the legislation, which now heads to the Senate, could stem the tide of deteriorating maternal health outcomes, particularly among people of color, by creating a pathway for certified professional midwives (CPMs) and lactation consultants to be licensed in Massachusetts and removing regulatory barriers to open birth centers that offer home-like environments during labor…
Midwifery care is linked to fewer maternal deaths, infant deaths, unnecessary C-sections, and postpartum complications, among other benefits. The bill requires MassHealth to cover midwifery services regardless of the care setting setting.
CPMs, who offer clinical care for low-risk pregnancies, are seen as a key workforce for birth centers should they gain licensure in the commonwealth. For now, Massachusetts is home to just one birth center in Northampton, though Rep. Lindsay Saboda expressed hope Thursday that more facilities would open due to the updated guidelines.“

06/26/2024

🎉We did it! The Massachusetts House has passed midwifery and birth center access as part of a sweeping maternal health omnibus bill. 🚂 Next stop: Senate!
⭐ Key pro-midwife, pro-birth center, pro-birth equity amendments were adopted making the bill even stronger. MIDWIVES SAVE LIVES! This legislation implements recommendations of the Special Commission on Racial Inequities in Maternal Health, offering families options for safe, skilled, and respectful care.
🙌 We are grateful to the House leadership, bill sponsors, and many Representatives who worked to so hard to bring this forward-looking and comprehensive legislation to fruition; this will meaningfully improve maternal health care for Massachusetts families: Speaker Ron Mariano, , Speaker Pro Tem Kate Hogan, , Chair John Lawn, Representatives , , , , , .sammontano, , , , and every cosponsor and member of the House! 👏
On June 20, Representatives in the Massachusetts House voted 153 to 0 to pass H.4773, "An Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options," which includes licensure and MassHealth reimbursement for certified professional midwives, removal of barriers to staffing and operating birth centers, ensures MassHealth reimbursement parity for nurse-midwifery services, provides paid pregnancy loss leave, expands postpartum depression screening, and more!
Expectant families in Massachusetts deserve equitable access to best possible care, including midwifery and birth options in their community. Let's do this Massachusetts!

We are so proud to advocate for maternal health and equitable access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options alongside ACNM Massachusetts, Human Rights in Childbirth Massachusetts Health & Hospitals Association Massachusetts Public Health Association North American Registry of Midwives , and so many midwives and families!
Photography by the phenomenal Stefanie Belnavis

11/28/2023

11/28/2023

03/17/2023

It was great to connect with doula and member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe at the Cape Cod Health Equity Symposium on March 10. Thank you for sharing your experience with home birth and lifting up the lack of access to midwives and birth options on Cape Cod.

03/13/2023

🔥 opening keynote from at Cape Cod Health Equity Symposium on Friday, Mar 10. Dr. Jolly wove together personal experience and scholarship giving a compelling presentation about Black maternal health (it’s racism, not race!). She celebrated the work being done to achieve birth justice, including the creation of Birth Equity and Justice Massachusetts (BEJMA), which Dr. Jolly co-leads with Yaminah Romulus and the leadership of Yaminah () on the passage of 12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage in Massachusetts. The presentation culminated in a call to action for equitable access to midwifery care and birth centers through pending legislation. (See link in bio to take action.) The presentation was rich and nuanced, providing insights for the room full of providers, health care systems workers, and community based organization. To cap it off, dr. Jolly shared short video encouraging us to reimagine birth!

03/07/2023

"Massachusetts politicians like to hold the Bay State up as a mecca of reproductive rights. Yet while pregnant people can choose whether to carry a baby to term, they have less choice in where to deliver that baby."
Boston Globe Sunday: "License midwives to help struggling birth centers: Birth centers give women with low-risk pregnancies a more homey setting than a hospital and can improve patient health outcomes."
"While Massachusetts has world-class hospitals — and 99 percent of births occur in a hospital — there is only one birth center, Seven Sisters in Northampton. The North Shore Birth Center, run by Beverly Hospital, closed in December, while the Cambridge Health Alliance-affiliated Cambridge Birth Center closed when COVID-19 hit and never reopened."
"With nearly 400 birth centers nationally, Massachusetts’ single birth center makes the state an outlier. It is a problem for a state that prides itself on high-quality care but struggles with high health care costs."
"A birth center gives women with low-risk pregnancies a more homey setting than a hospital, with personalized prenatal care provided by nurse midwives, more natural birth options, and fewer medical interventions. For example, a birth center may offer a tub for a water birth or allow multiple family members to be present, but a center cannot offer medication for pain relief or perform a cesarean section. A 2018 report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services looked at groups of Medicaid patients and found that birth center births were tied to better health outcomes for the mother and infant at an average cost of $2,000 less than traditional settings. The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission found similarly that midwifery care — offered at a hospital or birth center — is associated with better outcomes and lower costs."
"There are steps Massachusetts policy makers should take to make birth centers more financially viable. The Department of Public Health should rewrite its regulations to better suit the care modern birth centers provide. The Legislature should allow the licensing of certified professional midwives, a class of childbirth professionals who could expand the workforce."
We are thrilled to see the Boston Globe Opinion The Boston Globe recognize the powerful benefits of midwifery care, & their urgent call to action for policies to enable access to midwives and birth centers.
Shout out to the phenomenal midwives at Seven Sisters Midwifery & Community Birth Center, the leaders pushing to open Neighborhood Birth Center, and North shore birth center advocates for fighting to create and preserve access and birthing choices in a state that has not supported this. Rally to Save The North Shore Birth Center

Appreciative of the legislators leading on pro-midwifery and pro-birth center legislation in Massachusetts, Kay Khan Brandy Fluker Oakley State Representative 12th Suffolk District Senator Becca Rausch Senator Jo Comerford Manny Cruz State Rep. Chynah Tyler Brendan Crighton Liz Miranda Marjorie Decker

Birth centers give women with low-risk pregnancies a more homey setting than a hospital and can improve patient health outcomes.