Sponsor
Cory Anthony Booker
Senator · D-NJ
Senator · D-NJ
The resolution highlights maternity care deserts and promotes midwifery and culturally competent perinatal services that could improve outcomes and reduce disparities, but offers mainly symbolic recognition without funding and may face state-level resistance and potential public costs.
About 2.2 million women in rural and underserved communities may gain improved local maternity services because the resolution raises attention to maternity care deserts and could prompt policy or investment to restore local perinatal care.
Black birthing people and other people of color may gain increased access to culturally competent midwifery and community perinatal care, improving trust in care and helping reduce racial disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality.
Pregnant people and infants could experience better clinical outcomes—fewer interventions and cesareans and lower preterm birth rates—if midwife-led care is expanded as encouraged by the resolution.
Women in underserved areas may see little or no immediate improvement because designating a commemorative day creates no funding or enforcement mechanisms to close existing access gaps.
Midwifery providers—including Black midwives—may face legal and political pushback if the resolution's calls to remove state practice barriers conflict with existing state regulations, delaying practical implementation.
Taxpayers and state governments may incur additional costs if investments are required to expand midwifery, doula, and community provider programs without dedicated federal funding.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Designates March 14, 2025, as Black Midwives Day to raise awareness of Black maternal health, promote midwifery access, and call for policies to reduce racial disparities in maternal outcomes.
Introduced March 14, 2025 by Cory Anthony Booker · Last progress March 14, 2025
Designates March 14, 2025, as "Black Midwives Day" to raise awareness about Black maternal health, encourage expanded access to midwifery, and call attention to maternity care deserts and racial disparities in maternal mortality and morbidity. The resolution cites statistics on maternity care deserts and Black maternal mortality and highlights international recommendations urging removal of legal and practice barriers to midwifery and more culturally respectful care. The text emphasizes the benefits of midwife-led, culturally competent, holistic care; documents the historical suppression and criminalization of some Black midwives in parts of the U.S.; and urges investment and policies to improve access to midwives, doulas, and community-based perinatal providers as a way to reduce Black maternal and infant mortality and morbidity.