Y. Tony Yang, associate professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy, co-authored a commentary on reducing the legal impediments to midwifery practice in the United States. The commentary is published in the July-August issue of Women’s Health Issues, the official journal of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health. Yang collaborated with Katy B. Kozhimannil of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health on the commentary.
Yang and Kozhimannil examine the regulatory, legal, and logistical opportunities and constraints around midwifery practice in the United States, particularly because midwifery practice laws and regulations vary from state to state. They cite recent research that suggests midwifery may be one of the most competent maternity care models and that access to midwifery may have a beneficial impact on clinical, psychosocial, and financial outcomes. Read the full commentary.