The Legislature finds and declares that maternity care providers are in short supply and maldistributed around the state, resulting in what the March of Dimes defines as “maternity care deserts” and “limited-access maternity care areas.” Many major counties are on track to have a critical shortage of maternity care providers by 2025. Maternity care is often the very first primary health care interaction, and the most common primary care interaction over the life of a woman and birthing person‘s reproductive lifespan. Black and Native American individuals and other people of color in particular have significant difficulty in accessing maternity care and family planning services. Black women die from pregnancy-related causes at a rate of three to four times that of White women. Black infants are more than twice as likely to die in their first year as White infants. Access to quality care and resultant outcomes are intricately linked. Racial disparities in outcomes, especially, are connected in part to quality of and ability to access maternity care, especially by care providers whose care models elevate patient-centered, holistic, and culturally sensitive care. This kind of care is the hallmark of the midwifery model.

(Added by Stats. 2021, Ch. 449, Sec. 5. (SB 65) Effective January 1, 2022.)