Our Mission

Better Birth Mississippi is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting midwifery as a safe childbirth option for women and families throughout the state of Mississippi. We are a group of consumers and supporters of midwifery, not a professional organization for midwives.

There has been an effort by lobbying groups over the last several years to make direct entry midwifery illegal.  Because of the current legal status, there are no public protection policies in place for the profession of midwifery.  Any one can practice as a midwife in our state, even with no training.  Midwives who have lost their right to practice midwifery in other states are free to come to our state to provide prenatal and maternal services.  Due to bad outcomes from such midwives in 2010 the Nursing Board introduced a bill essentially making direct-entry midwives illegal by only allowing Certified Nurse Midwives to attend homebirths.

In 2010 legislation was passed in the House of Representative (HB695) which would have limited the practice of midwifery to nurse midwives only. This would have made direct entry midwifery illegal and left homebirth families with no legal options for hiring a care provider. Fortunately, midwives and their clients flooded the capitol with calls and emails and the bill was not brought up for a vote in the Senate. This legislation was the catalyst for the “birth” of former organization MS Friends of Midwives, which rebirthed in 2020 as Better Birth Mississippi.

Better Birth MS supports legislation that would legally recognize direct entry midwives through the process of issuing Licenses. This legislation would require direct entry midwives to become licensed in the state of MS to provide out-of-hospital maternity care. Licensing provides a mechanism for families choosing home birth to verify their midwife’s credentials and includes a grievance process that will provide some protection for families from midwives with known unsafe practices.

38 other states legally authorize CPMs to practice—some for more than thirty years—and not a single one of those states has rescinded its program.

In 2023 and 2024, Better Birth Mississippi introduced a bill to the Mississippi House of Representatives and Senate to license midwives in Mississippi with HB1081 and SB2793. Though our bills ultimately died in the Public Health committees in both chambers, we did have broad support from legislators. In 2024 we have teamed up with The Association of Mississippi Midwives and have high hopes for the 2025 legislative session.