Susan presents at Senate Briefing

On July 17, 2025, our director, Susan Farrell joined other midwives in Washington, DC, to educate lawmakers and their staff on the importance of midwifery care and birth centers. The briefing, “Solutions for Scaling Up and Maximizing Evidence-Based Midwifery and Birth Center Care in the U.S.” is sponsored by Senator Ben Ray Luhan of Arizona.

Susan spoke passionately about the invaluable care midwives provide, highlighting ours and other birth centers’ unique services and phenomenal outcomes that have been confirmed with research. She also emphasized the great need for midwives in the community and the sustainability challenges facing birth centers.

Two bills were introduced in the Senate in May of 2025 that seek to address these challenges and reduce barriers to midwifery and birth center care – the Midwives for MOMS Act (Senate Bill 1599) and the BABIES Act (Senate Bill 1598). Passing these two bills would help to decrease the current maternity care crisis in the U.S by enabling progress toward expanding the midwifery workforce and sustainability for birth centers.

You can learn about the specifics of both bills, and even watch the briefing here.

We are so proud of the work Susan is doing to advocate for midwives and birth centers. Pennsylvania has one of the highest percentages of families in the nation desiring midwifery and community birth care. We strongly encourage you to join this important work by contacting your senators.

Pennsylvania residents can use the links below to contact both our senators to ask them co-sponsor and/or support these bills.

Senator John Fetterman: Washington DC office: 202-224-4254 or use this contact form.

Senator Dave McCormick: Washington DC office: 202-224-6324 or use this contact form.

In addition, there is a bill in the Pennsylvania Senate, The Midwifery Modernization Act (Pennsylvania Senate Bill 507), that would expand the midwifery workforce in PA to include Certified Midwives (CMs https://midwife.org/certified-midwife-credential/) and add some additional services they and Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) may provide. [This bill does not affect any other midwives in any way.]

Please contact your local senator whom you may find here: https://www.palegis.us/find-my-legislator

You may see the bill here: https://www.palegis.us/legislation/bills/text/PDF/2023/0/HB0507/PN2289