Kentucky Midwifery Taskforce
Because Kentucky families need licensed out-of-hospital birth providers!
"Families who have received midwifery care are among the most effective vehicles for creating changes in the legal status of midwifery."
~ Aviva Jill Romm
The Kentucky Midwifery Taskforce is pursuing state legislation to license Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs). The implementation of licensure creates a quality assurance mechanism for out-of-hospital birth providers by establishing minimum qualification standards and practice guidelines.
CPMs are trained experts in out-of-hospital birth, and the ONLY maternity caregiver whose education requires clinical experience and training in the skills necessary for safe out-of-hospital births. CPMs have completed an educational training program and have met nationally recognized standards required for credentialing by the North American Registry of Midwives, or NARM.
NARM is a nationally accredited certifying agency authorized by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) and the National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA), the agencies that also authorize the American Midwifery Credentialing Board's CNM/CM credentials. (Click here to learn more about why the CPM credential is as valid and reliable as the CNM/CM credentials.) This establishes the equivalent competency of two different, but complimentary, approaches to maternity care.
Kentucky Midwifery Taskforce (KMT) Mission/Purpose Statement
The Kentucky Midwifery Taskforce is a grassroots organization dedicated to the purpose of legalizing Direct-Entry Midwifery. Working through political means and activism, we hope to ensure that women have access to expanded midwifery options in Kentucky. We will strive to create an environment in which Kentucky birth professionals and consumer citizens are able to work jointly towards that purpose. Our goal is that trained midwives, regardless of certification credential [e.g. CPM or CNM], be able to practice legally and with professional autonomy. Our belief is that more women will choose homebirth, birth in free-standing birth centers, and birth with care providers who provide the Midwives Model of Care in mother/baby friendly hospitals if those options are available in their communities. The Kentucky Midwifery Taskforce may act as an umbrella coalition under which other organizations can work together to achieve these goals and further these beliefs.
"Midwives are the most cost-effective and appropriate primary care givers for all childbearing women in all instances and in all settings. Home is the most appropriate setting for most childbearing women. Women choosing this option must be provided with necessary diagnostic, consultative, emergency, and other services as required, regardless of the place of birth."
~ World Health Organization report on health promotion and birth, 1986
