The mission of the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) is to support midwives, promote the midwifery model-of-care and advance the practice of midwifery in order to achieve optimal health for people through the lifespan, with expertise in primary and gynecologic care, promoting optimal pregnancy, physiologic birth, postpartum care, and care of the newborn for the first 28 days. ACNM supports the practice of midwives by promoting education, research, and policies that advance clinical excellence, expansion of a robust and diverse midwifery workforce, and equitable legislation, regulation, and institutional policies that establish midwifery as the standard of care for all communities. All people in the United States should have access to midwives and midwifery-led care, and policies should support and enable the increasing proportion of women who choose midwives as their care providers.
ACNM is committed to protecting, promoting and advancing the practice of midwifery in the United States. ACNM will support the continued growth of the midwifery profession by advocating for policies that reflect ACNM’s standards, expand the midwifery workforce, and increase the visibility and recognition of the value of midwifery care. Specifically, during the 118th session of Congress (2023 – 2024) ACNM will:
Work to Reduce Barriers to the Midwifery Model of Care by:
- Supporting policies that allow Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs) and Certified Midwives (CMs) to practice to the full extent of their education, clinical training, certification and experience. ACNM will support state affiliates in their pursuit of legislative and regulatory reforms that seek to eliminate unnecessary and costly supervision and collaborative agreement requirements in the states and efforts that seek to establish equity in Medicaid reimbursement, guaranteed inclusion in Medicaid managed care plans and equity and inclusion within private insurance plans.
- Supporting the Committee for Midwife Advocates of the Certified Midwife (CMAC) in efforts to establish a licensure mechanism for CMs in states that have expressed an interest in advancing legislation to license CMs and in states where CNMs have independent practice (i.e., full practice authority).
- Modernizing policy surrounding facility credentialing and privileging of midwives by pursuing legislation to amend Medicare’s Conditions of Participation to include CNMs and CMs in the definition of medical staff.
- Working to obtain recognition of the Certified Midwife credential in federal statute.
- Supporting reforms that reduce the incentives for excessive utilization of unnecessary medical interventions and increase the incentives for utilization of measures supporting normal physiologic birth.
- Working to establish a designated funding stream within the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) workforce development programs specific to grants for accredited midwifery education programs. Funding will prioritized for programs who demonstrate their intent to racially and ethnically diversify their student body and for increasing the number of preceptors across the country.
- Ensuring midwives who work in obstetrical training and teaching facilities who oversee services performed by medical residents can be explicitly reimbursed for performing those services by updating Medicare statute to include CNMs and CMs as eligible for reimbursement under Medicare’s Graduate Medical Education program.
- Establishing a pilot project for reimbursing CNMs/CMs for training and supervising student midwives.
- Supporting policies that increase access to student aid and alleviate burdens associated with student debt, in addition to continued advocacy for funding of midwifery education programs.
- Promoting and advancing midwifery as practiced by CNMs and CMs across the continuum of care.
- Branding ACNM and the midwives ACNM represents on Capitol Hill, among maternal health stakeholder groups and within the Department of Health and Human Services an other entities with a vested interest in improving maternal health.