Help Improve Maternity Care

Help improve Illinois maternity care options! Vote “YES” on HB 226, the Home Birth Safety Act Consensus reached with nurses on the Home Birth Safety Act which licenses certified professional midwives for home birth. December 2008 statement from the Illinois Nurses Association: "The INA has changed its position from oppose to neutral because they feel the current proposal adequately protects the public, includes sound education and certification requirements, and does allow women to choose to have a licensed certified midwife to provide prenatal and childbirth services in their homes."

The following provisions in the Home Birth Safety Act create some of the highest standards for professional home birth midwifery in the United States. 1. Strong Educational Requirements Requires that licensed midwives be nationally certified, have completed three to five years of education and training, earning, at minimum, the equivalent of an associates degree in midwifery or nursing, or the equivalent of a general associates degree with specific outlined coursework agreed to by the INA and ISAPN. 2. Extensive Informed Consent Clause The most detailed informed consent requirement in Illinois health care licensure statutes. Requires licensed midwife to inform patients that they must have a physical exam with a doctor or advanced practice nurse during pregnancy and maintaining a patient-specific emergency plan. 3. Detailed Scope of Practice and Rules Defined in statute. Limited to normal healthy birth. Strictly defines the conditions under which a midwife can attend a home birth. Includes detailed description of risks requiring referral to an advanced practice nurse, physician, or hospital during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum. 4. Strictly Limited Medications Very limited medications necessary for safe home birth practice. Exact guidelines for indications, dose, route of administration and duration detailed in the statute. Written in collaboration with the Illinois Society of Advanced Practice Nursing. Meets national standards for midwifery practice. 5. Formalized Collaboration and Referral Requirement to secure a collaborative relationship. Mandates quarterly case review with collaborative physician or advanced practice nurse. Outlines conditions that require referral. Supporters of the Home Birth Safety Act Illinois Society for Advanced Practice Nursing Illinois Public Health Association Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition Health and Medicine Policy Research Group Health and Disability Advocates Coalition for the Improvement of Maternity Services

Illinois National Organization for Women Concerned Christian Americans N’Eastern Illinois Doula Association Doctors for Midwives of Illinois Birthlink Our Bodies Ourselves

For more information contact Colette Bernhard, 773-504-8842, [email protected]