by Claudia Boyd-Barrett posted in Pregnancy

If you live in a state that supports letting midwives take care of pregnant women and deliver babies, it could be good for both you and your baby's health, a new study suggests..
Researchers analyzed laws regulating midwives in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They found that when states made it easier for midwives to practice, women in those states tended to have fewer C-sections and higher rates of breastfeeding than women in states where it was harder for midwives to provide care.
Additionally, states that supported midwives had fewer preterm births and underweight newborns, according to the study published in the journal PLoS One.
The top-ranked states for midwives included Washington, New Mexico, Oregon, New Jersey and New York. The lowest ranked were North Carolina, Alabama, South Dakota, Ohio, Mississippi and Kansas. (You can check out your state's ranking by clicking on the chart in the study. The rankings took into account licensing requirements, restrictions on what midwives can do and where they can practice, how much autonomy they have to provide care and write prescriptions without a doctor's supervision, and safety regulations for births in hospitals, birthing centers and at home. The top states had licenses for different types of midwives, allowed them to care for women in a variety of settings, and supported midwives writing prescriptions and getting paid for their services under Medicaid, the governme...