IV
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. RES. 231
Recognizing the longstanding and invaluable contributions of Black midwives
to maternal and infant health in the United States.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH18, 2025
Ms. M
OOREof Wisconsin (for herself, Ms. ADAMS, and Ms. UNDERWOOD)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Armed
Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
RESOLUTION
Recognizing the longstanding and invaluable contributions
of Black midwives to maternal and infant health in the
United States.
Whereas recognizing the day of 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 in 2023
and led by the National Black Midwives Alliance, estab-
lishes Black Midwives Day as a day of awareness, activ-
ism, education, and community building;
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•HRES 231 IH
Whereas this day 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 policies, programs, 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 do not have
access to hospitals or birth centers offering maternity
care or obstetric providers;
Whereas maternity care deserts lead to higher risks of mater-
nal 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 out-
comes for both mothers and infants;
Whereas midwives provide essential maternal health care
services across diverse settings, including homes, commu-
nities, 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 dis-
parities, 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 dis-
parities and help to address the maternity care desert cri-
sis;
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•HRES 231 IH
Whereas, despite the medicalization of childbirth in the
United States, the maternal mortality rates in the United
States are among the highest in the high income coun-
tries, 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 these deaths have devastating effects on Black chil-
dren and families, and the vast majority are entirely pre-
ventable through assertive efforts to ensure Black birth-
ing people have access to information, services, and sup-
ports to make their own health care decisions, particu-
larly around pregnancy and childbearing;
Whereas, according to a 2023 Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention Report, the United States maternal mor-
tality rate for Black women has continuously increased to
50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births compared to the de-
creased rate for White (14.5), Hispanic (12.4), and
Asians (10.7) women;
Whereas the high rates of maternal mortality among Black
birthing people span across income levels, education lev-
els, 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 con-
tribute to the disproportionately high rates of maternal
mortality and morbidity among Black birthing people;
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•HRES 231 IH
Whereas Black birthing people are more likely to report expe-
riences of disrespect, abuse, and neglect when birthing in
facility-based settings as compared to White people;
Whereas Black families benefit from access to Black mid-
wives 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 mid-
wives have ushered in new life have done so despite a his-
tory fraught with persecution, enslavement, violence, rac-
ism, 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 di-
rect-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 re-
ducing 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;
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•HRES 231 IH
Whereas midwifery—
(1) honors a birthing person’s right to bodily auton-
omy; and
(2) 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 pro-
viders;
Whereas the Midwifery Model of Care has been proven to
have better pregnancy outcomes through preventing in-
fant mortality and morbidity, lowering preterm births, re-
ducing medical interventions, and providing the birthing
person continuous support;
Whereas, in 2022, the Committee on the Elimination of Ra-
cial Discrimination (referred to in this preamble as
‘‘CERD’’) of the United Nations expressed concerns re-
garding the impact of systemic racism and intersecting
factors on access to comprehensive sexual and reproduc-
tive health services for women, and the limited avail-
ability 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 eth-
nic 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
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•HRES 231 IH
further recommended that the United States take meas-
ures to remove restrictive and discriminatory legal and
practice barriers to midwifery care, including those af-
fecting Black and Indigenous peoples;
Whereas a fair distribution of resources, especially with re-
gard to reproductive health care services, is critical to
closing the racial disparity gap;
Whereas an investment must be made in robust, quality, and
comprehensive health care for Black birthing people, and
policies that support and promote affordable, holistic ma-
ternal health care that is free from gender and racial dis-
crimination;
Whereas it is fitting and proper on Black Midwives Day to
recognize the tremendous impact of the human rights, re-
productive justice, and birth justice frameworks on pro-
tecting and advancing the rights of Black birthing people;
Whereas Black Midwives Day is an opportunity to acknowl-
edge the fight to end maternal mortality locally and glob-
ally;
Whereas maternal health is intractably linked to infant health
and the United States infant mortality rate rose 3 per-
cent 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 two 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 House of Representatives— 1
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•HRES 231 IH
(1) encourages Federal, State, and local govern-1
ments to take proactive measures to address racial 2
disparities in maternal health outcomes by sup-3
porting initiatives aimed at diversifying the perinatal 4
workforce, increasing access to culturally congruent 5
maternal health care; 6
(2) commits to collaborating with relevant 7
stakeholders to develop and enact policy solutions 8
that promote health equity, address systemic racism, 9
and support the advancement of Black midwifery; 10
(3) calls for increased funding for education 11
and training, increased access to Black preceptors, 12
removing barriers and restrictions to said precep-13
tors, providing financial pathways to support stu-14
dents and preceptors, and mentorship programs that 15
focus on promoting and sustaining Black midwifery 16
and removing barriers related to accreditation by 17
recognizing midwives across all training pathways; 18
(4) encourages Federal and State governments 19
to authorize the autonomous practice of all midwives 20
to the full extent of their training; 21
(5) promotes the authorization or reauthoriza-22
tion of funding for TRICARE and Medicaid cov-23
erage of maternity care provided by midwives of all 24
training pathways; 25
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•HRES 231 IH
(6) encourages Federal, State, and local govern-1
ments to take active steps to destigmatize and de-2
criminalize midwifery pathways in the pregnant per-3
son’s setting of choice, including their homes, birth 4
centers, clinics, or health units; and 5
(7) supports and recognizes the longstanding 6
and invaluable contributions of Black midwives to 7
maternal and infant health in the United States. 8
Æ
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