04/16/2026
🔥More Hot Legislation News🔥This one is in Ohio🔥See call to action below ⬇️
Dear Families,
On behalf of the Community Midwives of Ohio (CMO), we are reaching out to you with a critical request.
House Bill 537 is currently being considered in the Children and Human Services Committee and is important legislation for midwives, birth centers and families in the State of Ohio. As a family who may have experienced both hospital birth and midwifery-led homebirth, your voice carries a unique and powerful perspective—one that the legislative members of the Committee need to hear. Please consider sharing your truth in writing regarding your provider choices and satisfaction with midwifery care for home birth with the Committee. Your experiences—the care you received, how you were treated, how decisions were made, how you were respected both physically and emotionally, and how your overall satisfaction with the outcome may have differed in other birth settings.
HB 537 is beneficial for Ohio childbearing families and upholds these important key points:
1. Offers an expanded scope of practice for Certified Nurse Midwives and provides a licensing mechanism for Certified Midwives with the same scope of practice as CNM's, to be regulated under the Ohio Board of Nursing;
2. Provides a licensing mechanism for Certified Professional Midwives and Certified International Midwives under the Ohio Board of Commerce with the creation of the Licensed Midwifery Advisory Council to establish rules/regulations/oversight of licensure;
3. Upholds the practice of Traditional Midwives as practitioners and directs the obtaining of a written/signed informed consent document which protects consumers bottom-line rights in all birth decisions;
4. Eliminates the written transfer agreement between a freestanding birth center and a hospital which opens the opportunity for birth centers to thrive in Ohio;
5. Establishes in the law, the rights of parents to have full decision making with regard to the type of maternity care provider they work with, as well as the place they choose to give birth at;
Please promote midwifery by sharing your story and desire for HB 537 to be enacted. There is no need for perfect wording, only honesty. Whether your story is brief or detailed, it has impact. By sharing your experience, you are not only honoring your own journey but also helping protect and expand access to midwifery care for families across Ohio. Personalize your letter with drawings by your children and/or family photos as an impactful addition.
1. Email or regular mail your letter to Chair White and the following representatives:
Rep36@ohiohouse.gov (Andrea White, Chair)
Rep51@ohiohouse.gov (Jodi Salvo, Vice Chair)
Rep11@ohiohouse.gov (Crystal Lett, Ranking Member)
Rep22@ohiohouse.gov (Darnell Brewer)
Rep28@ohiohouse.gov (Karen Brownlee)
Rep26@ohiohouse.gov (Ashley Bryant Bailey)
Rep88@ohiohouse.gov (Gary Click)
Rep54@ohiohouse.gov (Kellie Deeter)
Rep99@ohiohouse.gov (Sarah Fowler Arthur)
Rep30@ohiohouse.gov (Mike Odioso)
Rep66@ohiohouse.gov (Sharon Ray)
Rep86@ohiohouse.gov (Tracy Richardson)
Letters should be received by May 5th to commemorate International Midwives Day! Please help CMO archive consumer letters by sending a copy of your email/letter to ohpam@juno.com.
Here’s a template you might want to use:
(Date)
Representative _________
1 Capitol Square
Columbus, OH 43215
Dear Representative _______:
I am writing to you today in support of HB 537.
(State what you want to say) You could briefly include your birth history, your satisfaction with midwifery care and/or dissatisfaction of any previous care you might have received or just stand up for rights to choose where and with whom to give birth.
I request that the Ohio Legislature quickly move this bill through the steps to passage this year!
Your name,
Address
Contact information
