Bill Text: DE HCR157 | 2023-2024 | 152nd General Assembly | Draft
Bill Title: Urging Delaware's Higher Education Institutions To Provide Midwifery Education Programs.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2024-06-30 - Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES [HCR157 Detail]
Download: Delaware-2023-HCR157-Draft.html
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SPONSOR: |
Rep. Minor-Brown & Rep. Baumbach & Sen. Townsend |
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
152nd GENERAL ASSEMBLY
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 157
URGING DELAWARE'S HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS TO PROVIDE MIDWIFERY EDUCATION PROGRAMS.
WHEREAS, the Delaware Code defines a Certified Nurse-Midwife as a registered nurse who provides care for normal maternity, newborn, and well-woman gynecological care; and
WHEREAS, a Certified Midwife is a practitioner who manages women’s healthcare, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum care, family planning, and gynecological services in accordance with the Standards of Practice by the American College of Nurse-Midwives; and
WHEREAS, both types of practitioners licensed in the State are required to be certified by the American Midwifery Certification Board, which requires each potential licensee to graduate from a midwifery education program accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME); and
WHEREAS, there are 46 ACME-accredited or pre-accredited midwifery education programs in the United States; and
WHEREAS, nurse-midwifery has a robust history in the United States as a response to high maternal and infant mortality rates and the need for greater community care; and
WHEREAS, studies have demonstrated that Certified Nurse-Midwives can provide benefits for pregnant people, including lower rates of cesarean births, lower rates of labor induction, lower use of regional anesthesia, decreased infant mortality rates, and decreased risk of preterm birth; and
WHEREAS, Certified Nurse-Midwives can provide a range of care during pregnancy and postpartum periods, as well as gynecological examinations, contraceptive counseling, and prescriptions; and
WHEREAS, Certified Nurse-Midwives can offer personalized and culturally competent care for patients compared to other models of care, including helping to improve outcomes in Black maternal and infant mortality rates; and
WHEREAS, Delaware continues to have maternal and infant mortality rate disparities that disproportionality affect Black and Hispanic mothers and infants; and
WHEREAS, no higher education institute in the State offers an ACME-accredited midwifery education program.
BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring therein, that the House and Senate urge all higher education institutions within our State that have nursing programs to pursue and establish pathways for becoming Certified Nurse-Midwives and Certified Midwives.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that higher education institutions in our State work to ensure these pathways are ACME-accredited.
SYNOPSIS
This concurrent resolution urges all higher education institutions in the State of Delaware having nursing programs to pursue and establish ACME-accredited pathways for becoming Certified Nurse-Midwives and Certified Midwives.
