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WV HB 5491

Certified Professional Midwife
Licensure

Email and Call your state Senators and Delegates today!

Why push for CPM Licensure?
AKA Talking Points for speaking with your Representative!

  • 38 States now license CPMs, we would like to add WV to this list of states working to improve maternal health care

  • Certified Professional Midwife, or CPM is a credential issued by the North American Registry of Midwives to midwives with specialized training and expertise in providing safe, skilled maternity care in out-of-hospital settings, like private homes and freestanding birth centers.

    • The CPM certification includes a rigorous educational and training process generally requiring a minimum of 3-5 years to complete. This includes a verification of knowledge and skills through the successful completion of a national board exam along with a clinical skills assessment process.

    • The CPM requires continuing education and peer review for re-certification every 3 years.

  • CPMs serve a disproportionate number of low-income, rural, immigrant, and uninsured families. Regulation and licensure of CPMs can help bridge large gaps in maternity care across West Virginia, ensuring there are enough well-trained midwives to meet the demand for out-of-hospital birth. CPMs can provide safe and affordable maternity care for underserved populations.

  • Licensure provides a mechanism for families seeking out-of-hospital birth to verify their midwife’s training, skills, and educational credentials. It protects and defends the rights of American families to birth in the environment of their choosing. Licensure ensures continuity of care between CPMs, CNMs, and physicians who collaborate to provide safe maternal and infant care.

  • CPM licensure will expand family-centered care offering individualized education, counseling, screening, and prenatal care. It will increase the number of providers who can give families continuous hands-on assistance during labor and delivery with minimal use of costly interventions. It will ensure that every family can choose their birth provider and setting based on their religious, cultural, and philosophical beliefs.

  • CPM Licensure creates a new pathway for small businesses to serve WV families. It presents a viable profession for our brightest young minds to pursue, one that is in keeping with a long tradition of community midwifery. It makes our state an attractive place for birth professionals to re-locate to, creating new economic opportunities.

 CPM's are legal in 38 other states in the US. 

Find out more here! 
Pushformidwives.org

What this bill won't do:

To be clear, this bill will not make home birth Illegal. 

What it will do:


Bring more Midwives to WV, it will expand homebirth access.

Licensure_for_CPMs 2.jpg

What Can You Do?

Your voice matters. 

A few calls can mean the difference between this bill passing or not! Please take a few minutes to call and email your representatives. At this time the Bill is only active in the house, so we are focusing our efforts on House Delegates. When its time to contact your Senators we will update you!

Thank you so much for supporting our big push for CPM licensure in WV!

Call your local Delegate and ask them to support HB 5491

Contact members of the Government Org Committee to ask them to put the CPM Bill on their Agenda!

We are asking for the bill to be brought to the agenda of the House Gov't Org Committee. If Delegate Phillips does not put it on his agenda, it will not move forward this year. Please call your local delegate AND members of the Committee. 

Committee Chair

Committee Vice-Chair

Minority Chair

Minority Vice-Chair

(304) 340-3362 

kayla.young@wvhouse.gov

Sample E-mail

Dear Representative [last name],

As your constituent, I write to urge your support for passage of HB 5491, a bill introduced by Delegate Summers, which would create a pathway to licensure for Certified Professional Midwives in WV. CPM Licensure would help bridge gaps in maternal care across our state, ensuring that there are enough well-trained midwives to meet the demand for out-of-hospital birth. CPMs provide safe and affordable maternity and newborn care, and this bill would ensure their ability to continue to serve WV families.

Please advise me of the actions you intend to take with respect to this bill, and thank you for your consideration.

From, 

[your name]

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