Facts

CPMs provide a service that no other practitioner in Maine provides, and they do it safely for 1/4 to 1/3 the cost of a typical hospital birth. According to Eugene Declerq, PhD, Professor of Maternal & Fetal Health at Boston University School of Public Health, of the 7 developed countries with over 400,000 births per year the U.S. ranks last in infant and maternal mortality, while spending 2, 3 or even 4 times as much on maternity care. All the other countries that have better statistics than the U.S. use midwives for at least 70% of the births, and the Netherlands, while losing fewer mothers and babies than the U.S., boasts 30% homebirths with direct-entry midwives. The State of Maine could take a decisive step towards improving outcomes, decreasing interventions such as inductions and cesarean sections, increasing breastfeeding success, and lowering maternity care costs overall simply by licensing CPMs and allowing her citizens greater access to trained, knowledgeable, and skilled birth attendants who specialize in out-of-hospital births for low-risk women.