About Our Work
Midwifery Education & Equity Study
ACNM strongly believes that diversity within the profession of midwifery should reflect the same level of diversity that exists among the communities that we care for. To address disparities in health outcomes and structural racism, ACNM partnered with Johnson & Johnson’s “Our Race to Health Equity” (ORTHE) fund to develop the Access to Equity in Midwifery Education and Care project.

Midwifery Workforce Study
Midwifery in the United States is underutilized and underfunded (Sakala et al., 2020). Increasing access and integration of midwives throughout the United States can improve equity and outcomes (Vedam et al., 2018). Currently, the United States has approximately 4 midwives employed per 1,000 live births. With over 3.7 million live births a year, at least 22,000 midwives are needed in the midwifery workforce to meet the World Health Organization goal of at minimum 6 midwives per 1,000 live births. Currently, there are about 14,000 midwives in the US including those not in clinical practice, resulting in a gap of at least 8200 midwives. Even at 6/1000 births, we would have a smaller midwifery workforce than other high-income countries with better outcomes.

ACNM Global
Global outreach has been an integral part of the American College of Nurse-Midwives’ (ACNM) mission for three decades. By promoting the health and well-being of women and infants within their families and communities through the development and support of the profession of midwifery, ACNM has partnered with organizations around the world to improve maternal newborn health.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
ACNM formed a Diversity & Inclusion Task Force in 2012 to provide an understanding of the strengths and barriers in our organization related to diversification and inclusion and to begin to develop a strategy to become a more diverse and inclusive organization. In 2013, the Task Force selected Jodi DeLibertis of Greater Good Consulting to assist in developing this strategy. The work of the Task Force and the consultancy included personal interviews, focus groups, and a survey of ACNM members, as well as observations about how ACNM functions as an organization. The Task Force has also provided a number of programs, activities and communications for ACNM members at the ACNM Annual Meeting, Midwifery Works, and Quickening.
In 2020, ACNM formed the Racism in Midwifery Education Task Force. This Task Force was divided into subgroups designed to focus on elements of midwifery education. The Program Content Subgroup (PCS) was tasked to explore how racism is manifested in and rooted within midwifery education program content and to recommend ways to eradicate it and build antiracist curricula.
In the spring of 2021, ACNM embarked on a journey to engage a diversity, equity and inclusion expert to partner with key volunteer stakeholders to create a multi-year strategic plan, reach a consensus on collective goals, develop initiatives around the goals, and determine how to measure success. The project included looking back at previous reports prepared by consultants engaged by ACNM and taking into account other work that had been done to date. ACNM formed the DEI Strategy Team, which included members of the Board, DEIB Committee, and ACNM staff who together formed the goals of ACNM and prioritized the initiatives that we should put in place to advance those goals. The final Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Strategy was presented to the Board and approved during its December Board meeting.