Alaskan women's basic human right to choose midwifery care and give birth where, how and with whom they choose to is under threat.

Alaskan women may face limited affordable options for their pregnancy, birth and postpartum care due to the Governor's Executive Order (EO130) that would dissolve the Alaska State Board of Certified Direct Entry Midwives and reorganize them under the Department of Labor and Commerce.

Out of hospital, CDM/CPMs specialize in prenatal care, labor, birth and postpartum care. 

2023 Statistics for Alaskan Midwifery

528 Births
12% Intrapartum Transfer Rate
92% Intrapartum Transfers were NON EMERGENT
2% Neonatal Transfer Rate
0.02% Neonatal Mortality Rate
3% Postpartum Maternal Transfer Rate
0% Maternal Mortality Rate
6% Cesarean Rate
99.6% Breastfeeding Initiation Rate
99% Breastfeeding rate at 6 weeks postpartum

Help Us Stop EO130 and Pass HB175, it will:

• Protect families from the medicalization of childbirth and disempowerment of women
• Increase access and utilization of out of hospital midwifery care services
• Enable CDM/CPMs to practice to their full scope of training and certification.
• The first major update to midwifery statutes in over 30 years.
  Update title from CDM to LM (Licensed Midwife), so they are recognized by all major insurance plans, which will make birthing out of the hospital more affordable and available to more Alaskan families.
• Update licensure requirements to National Standards.
• Require additional training and CEUs.
• Require preceptors to be Nationally Certified.
• Retain and attract more CDM/CPMs.
• Ensure autonomy for CDM/CPMs.
• Making home birth more affordable and available to Alaskan families.
• Restructure State Midwifery Board by removing competitors
  Midwifery care demonstrates several benefits to Alaskan women.  

These benefits include:

• Significantly lower cesarean section rates with the care of CDM/CPMs. (6% vs 23%)
• CDM/CPMs have had 0 Maternal Deaths vs the Hospital rates of 6-20 per year.
• Significantly fewer low birth weight babies and babies born prematurely with the care of CDM/CPMs, all indicators for improved outcomes, especially for vulnerable populations.
• Significantly higher breastfeeding rates (99% at birth and 99% at 6 weeks postpartum) with the care of CDM/CPMs, with the accompanying demonstrated health benefits for mother and infants extending throughout lifetmes.
• Higher rates of intact perineum (without a tear or episiotomy); Lower rates of episiotomy.
• Lower unneeded medical interventions such as induced labor, continuous electronic fetal monitoring, and cesarean birth.
  Better experiences with community birth with CDM/CPMs. Lower postpartum depression rates due to being more satisfied with the personalization of their care, their care environment, quality of their relationship with their midwife, their ability to have a physiologic birth.

The medical establishment has been claiming for too long that out of hospital, midwifery care and birth is unsafe, and that maternity care and birth must remain obstetric, hospital based. That's not our statistics or the most current studies and statistics prove.

We demand that our State government listen to us - the birthing women in Alaska - once and for all.

Support Alaskan Midwifery - Support Alaskan Families 

Send letters in opposition to EO 130 and in support of HB 175 to your State Representative and Senator and the Governor's office

Let them know you want them to Vote NO on EO130 and Vote YES on HB175