#  Midwife Shortage Across the US 

 





A poster exploring the benefits of midwives and the policy challenges impacting access to midwives in the United States.



 

March 02, 2026

 

 

Maternal mortality rates are significantly higher in the United States than any other high-income and developed country. While there is no one cause or solution, access to midwives during birth has been shown to improve birthing outcomes and maternal satisfaction while also reducing unnecessary medical interventions. However, access to midwifery care in the United States is markedly lower than in most other developed countries, with approximately 10 percent of U.S. births attended by midwives compared to 50–75 percent in other high-resource countries. This poster explores midwifery in the United States and varying state policies that impact women's access to midwives.

## Artist

Asher Montgomery (2026)

 ![Poster showing midwife shortage across the US.](/sites/g/files/omnuum10866/files/2026-03/MontgomeryAsher_Midwife.jpg)

 

## Artist Lens

This poster centers on the narrative of Jennie Joseph, a Certified Professional Midwife who opened the Birth Center in West Florida providing care to mostly low-income women. Her story showed both the benefits that having access to a midwife can provide to low-income women in providing consistent and quality perinatal, labor, and postnatal care as well as the struggles with insurance and restrictive policies that work against midwives. The research included on the poster compares midwives' presence at births in the U.S., which is around 10 percent of births, to other high income and developed countries where midwives are present at between 50 percent to 70 percent of births. The poster also describes the midwife certifications offered in the U.S. and their scope of practice, as well as the benefits of midwife presence in a community. The poster looks at the restrictive policies that reduce the autonomy of midwives and limit the incentives to becoming midwives that cause the shortages in many states in the U.S. This same study developed a "Midwife Integration Scores System" to assign scores to all the states in the U.S. to find associations with markers of maternal health. Higher MISS scores, which signified higher midwife integration (less restrictive policies, more autonomy, more insurance reimbursement options, etc.), were associated with lower rates of cesarean section and preterm births and higher rates of spontaneous vaginal delivery, vaginal birth after cesarean, and breastfeeding at birth and six months. Lower MISS scores were correlated with higher rates of neonatal mortality. These are correlation relationships, not causal, but they support further research into the impacts of improving midwife access on both lowering medical costs, reducing maternal mortality rates and increasing birth satisfaction.

## Media

Digital

[Download Midwife Shortage Across the US PDF](/sites/g/files/omnuum10866/files/2026-03/MontgomeryAsher_0.pdf "Asher Montgomery - Midwife Shortage Across the US")



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Maternal Mortality/Reproductive Health ](/topics/maternal-mortality-reproductive-health)
- [ Poster ](/type/poster)
 
 

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