State Representative Kay Khan (11th Middlesex) was recently recognized for her lifetime of advocacy for midwifery at the first ever Midwifery Advocacy Day at the State House on October 5. Maternal and reproductive health care advocates, including the Bay State Birth Coalition, Reproductive Equity Now, the Neighborhood Birth Center, and the MA Affiliate of the American College of Nurse Midwives, rallied on the steps of the State House and met with legislators to address the state’s maternal health crisis.
In July, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released a report that revealed that rates of severe maternal morbidity in Massachusetts nearly doubled over a decade and disproportionately impacted Black mothers in the state. Since 2020, there have been six maternity care centers that closed, including two of the only three birth centers in operation in the state — despite evidence that shows the importance of midwifery, including helping to eliminate racial disparities in maternal health outcomes and lowering rates of C-sections, pre-term birth and low birth-weights, and reduction in healthcare costs.
Margi Coggins, CNM and President of the Massachusetts Affiliate of the American College of Nurse Midwives said that Representative Khan “has been our best advocate in the State House, supporting us and midwifing legislation.” She pointed out that in addition to Representative Khan’s “empathy, trustworthiness, gentleness, and the ability to be REALLY firm when the plans must change,” “patience” has been the “skill most needed by both midwives and legislators.”
Coggins added that Representative Khan has “fought for us for a quarter century, introducing legislation repeatedly until the job gets done.” Since 2009, Representative Khan was essential in giving hospital-based nurse midwives a critical tool to care for post-operative patients, getting all insurers to recognize nurse midwives as providers, and helping nurse midwives to be deemed licensed independent practitioners, effective 2012. Representative Khan has a long history advocating for equal pay for equal work in midwifery, beginning in 2018 and again now with House Bill 1069. She has fought to improve equity among birthing people and successfully sponsored a bill that established the Special Commission on Racial Inequities in Maternal Health and supporting licensed community birth such as House Bill 3616.
In addition, Representative Khan has been a long-time advocate for the creation of a board of registration in midwifery, including most recently with House Bill 2209, An Act Promoting Access to Midwifery Care and Out-of-Hospital Birth Options.
Ed. Note: With regard to Rep. Khan’s actions on a bill that established the Special Commission on Racial Inequities in Maternal Health, we replaced “voted for” with “successfully sponsored.”
