Catlin is a skilled, respected, credentialed midwife. She serves a rural, underserved, uninsured population. She’s everything the state would want in a care provider. But owing to a decades-old political fight over who can be licensed as a midwife, she’s breaking the law.
n Canada, England, and most other industrialized countries, a “registered midwife” or “licensed midwife” serves as a primary maternity care provider and may attend births in hospital, birth center, or home settings. In the United States, things are more compartmentalized. CPMs attend “community births,” in homes and nonhospital settings, and CNMs (certified nurse midwives) attend women in conventional hospital labor and delivery wards (though some also work in homes and birth centers).
Catlin’s preceptor had encouraged her to go for the CPM rather than the CNM. “She was encouraging me to get my license,” said Catlin, and they...