[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 128 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 128
Recognizing March 14, 2025, as ``Black Midwives Day'' and the
longstanding and invaluable contributions of Black midwives to maternal
and infant health in the United States.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 14, 2025
Mr. Booker submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing March 14, 2025, as ``Black Midwives Day'' and the
longstanding and invaluable contributions of Black midwives to maternal
and infant health in the United States.
Whereas recognizing March 14, 2025, as ``Black Midwives Day'' underscores the
importance of midwifery in helping to achieve better maternal health
outcomes by addressing fundamental gaps in access to high-quality care
and multiple aspects of well-being;
Whereas the Black Midwives Day campaign, founded and led by the National Black
Midwives Alliance in 2023, is a day of awareness, activism, education,
and community building;
Whereas March 14, 2025, is intended to increase attention for the state of Black
maternal health in the United States, the root causes of poor maternal
health outcomes, and for community-driven policy, program, and care
solutions;
Whereas the United States is experiencing a maternity care desert crisis in
which 2,200,000 women of childbearing age live in maternity care deserts
where they have no hospital or birth center offering maternity care, and
no obstetric providers;
Whereas maternity care deserts lead to higher risks of maternal morbidity and
mortality as most complications occur in the postpartum period when
birthing people are far away from their providers;
Whereas midwife-led care has been shown to result in cost savings, reduced
medical interventions, lower cesarean rates, decreased preterm births,
and improved health outcomes for both mothers and infants;
Whereas midwives provide essential maternal healthcare services across diverse
settings, including homes, communities, hospitals, birth centers,
clinics, and health units, ensuring accessibility and continuity of
care;
Whereas increasing the number of Black midwives in the workforce is critical to
addressing maternal health disparities, as Black midwives offer
culturally competent care that builds trust, enhances maternal
satisfaction, and improves health outcomes for Black mothers and their
infants;
Whereas incorporating midwives fully into the United States maternity care
system would reduce maternal health disparities and address the
maternity care desert crisis;
Whereas, despite the medicalization of childbirth in the United States, the
maternal mortality rates in the United States are among the highest in
the developed world, increasing rapidly, and disproportionately higher
among Black birthing people;
Whereas Black birthing people in the United States suffer from life threatening
pregnancy complications, known as ``maternal morbidities'', twice as
often as White birthing people;
Whereas deaths from maternal morbidities have devastating effects on Black
children and families, and the vast majority of material morbidities are
entirely preventable through assertive efforts to ensure that Black
birthing people have access to information, services, and supports to
make their own health care decisions, particularly around pregnancy and
childbearing;
Whereas, according to the 2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Report, the maternal mortality rate for Black women in the United States
has continuously increased to 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births,
compared to a decreased rate observed for--
(1) White women, with a rate of 14.5 deaths per 100,000 live births;
(2) Hispanic women, with a rate of 12.4 deaths per 100,000 live births;
and
(3) Asian women, with a rate of 10.8 deaths per 100,000 live births;
Whereas the high rates of maternal mortality among Black birthing people span
across income levels, education levels, and socioeconomic statuses;
Whereas structural racism, gender oppression, and the social determinants of
health inequities experienced by Black birthing people in the United
States significantly contribute to the disproportionately high rates of
maternal mortality and morbidity among Black birthing people;
Whereas Black birthing people are more likely to report experiences of
disrespect, abuse, and neglect when birthing in facility-based settings
as compared to White people;
Whereas Black families benefit from access to Black midwives to receive
culturally sensitive and congruent care established through trust and
respect, backed with the wisdom of time-honored techniques and best
practices;
Whereas the work and contributions of past and present midwives who have ushered
in new life have done so despite a history fraught with persecution,
enslavement, violence, racism, and the systematic erasure of traditional
and lay Black midwives throughout the 20th century;
Whereas the decimation of midwifery across the southern United States reduced
the numbers of Black midwives from thousands to dozens in a 50-year
period from the 1920s to the 1970s, leaving many communities without
care providers;
Whereas some States have criminalized and suppressed direct-entry midwives,
despite rising maternal mortality rates across the United States;
Whereas the criminalization and overregulation of midwifery disproportionately
impacts Black midwives and birthing families, exacerbating maternal
health disparities and reducing access to culturally competent care;
Whereas the resurgence of Black midwifery is a testament to the resilience,
resistance, and determination of spirit in the preservation of healing
modalities that are practiced all over the world;
Whereas the focus on holistic care, which involves caring for the whole person,
family, and community, is what makes a difference in midwifery;
Whereas midwifery honors the right to bodily autonomy of the birthing person and
can be facilitated at home, in a birth center, or hospital, and works in
tandem with doulas, community health workers, obstetricians,
pediatricians, and other maternal, reproductive, and perinatal health
care providers;
Whereas the Midwifery Model of Care has been proven to have better pregnancy
outcomes through preventing infant mortality and morbidity, lowering
preterm births, reducing medical interventions, and providing the
birthing person continuous support;
Whereas, in 2022, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(referred to in this preamble as ``CERD'') of the United Nations
expressed concerns regarding the impact of systemic racism and
intersecting factors on access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive
health services for women, and the limited availability of culturally
sensitive and respectful maternal health care, particularly for those
with low incomes, rural residents, individuals of African descent, and
indigenous communities;
Whereas CERD recommended that the United States further develop policies and
programs to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in the field of
sexual and reproductive health and rights, while integrating an
intersectional and culturally respectful approach in order to reduce the
high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity affecting racial and
ethnic minorities, including through midwifery care;
Whereas, in 2023, the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations expressed
similar concerns as CERD and further recommended that the United States
take measures to remove restrictive and discriminatory legal and
practice barriers to midwifery care, including those affecting Black and
indigenous peoples;
Whereas a fair distribution of resources, especially with regard to reproductive
health care services, is critical to closing the racial disparity gap in
maternal health outcomes;
Whereas an investment must be made in robust, quality, and comprehensive health
care for Black birthing people, with policies that support and promote
affordable and holistic maternal health care that is free from gender
and racial discrimination;
Whereas it is fitting and proper on Black Midwives Day to recognize the
tremendous impact of the human rights, reproductive justice, and birth
justice frameworks have on protecting and advancing the rights of Black
birthing people;
Whereas Black Midwives Day is an opportunity to acknowledge the fight to end
maternal mortality locally and globally;
Whereas maternal health is intractably linked to infant health, and the United
States infant mortality rate rose 3 percent from a rate of 5.44 infant
deaths per 1,000 live births in 2021 to 5.60 infant deaths per 1,000
live births in 2022, the largest increase in the infant mortality rate
in 2 decades; and
Whereas Congress must mitigate the effects of systemic and structural racism to
ensure that all Black people have access to midwives, doulas, and other
community-based, culturally matched perinatal health providers: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) recognizes March 14, 2025, as ``Black Midwives Day'';
(2) encourages the Federal Government and State and local
governments to take proactive measures to address racial
disparities in maternal health outcomes by supporting
initiatives aimed at diversifying the perinatal workforce,
increasing access to culturally congruent maternal health care;
(3) commits to collaborating with relevant stakeholders to
develop and enact policy solutions that promote health equity,
address systemic racism, and support the advancement of Black
midwifery;
(4) calls for--
(A) increased funding for education, training, and
access to Black preceptors;
(B) removing barriers and restrictions to Black
preceptors;
(C) providing financial pathways to support
students and preceptors;
(D) mentorship programs that focus on promoting and
sustaining Black midwifery; and
(E) removing barriers related to accreditation by
recognizing midwives across all training pathways;
(5) encourages the Federal Government and State governments
to authorize the autonomous practice of all midwives to the
full extent of their training;
(6) promotes the authorization or reauthorization of
funding for TRICARE and Medicaid coverage of maternity care
provided by midwives of all training pathways;
(7) encourages the Federal Government and State and local
governments to take active steps to destigmatize and
decriminalize midwifery pathways in the setting of choice of
the pregnant person, including their homes, birth centers,
clinics, or health units; and
(8) supports and recognizes the longstanding and invaluable
contributions of Black midwives to maternal and infant health
in the United States.
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