Hawaiʻi Island lawmakers are considering a measure to ask the state Legislature to expand allowed midwifery practices in the state.
A Hawaiʻi County Council resolution heard Wednesday urges the Legislature to permanently exempt birth attendants from being required to have a state midwifery license and to expand the eligibility criteria for the license.
“It's important for rural areas. It's also important just for choice for women and for people who are giving birth. You need to be comfortable in that situation, and if you can't have the people around you that you trust in that situation, it's not a good thing,” said Councilmember Jennifer Kagiwada, who introduced the measure.
Neighbor island lawmakers have been interested in expanding midwifery practices because they are more rural than Oʻahu, and women on those islands may not have immediate access to hospitals to give birth.
But a law passed by the state Legislature in 2019 required licenses for midwives, effectively prohibiting some traditional birthing methods in Hawaiʻi. That means fewer options for giving birth outside of hospitals.
It also prohibits cultural birthing methods. A recent court ruling has temporarily allowed Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners to legally practice those methods, but lawmakers want to make it permanent.
“If we don't do it, there's a risk of actually making it a criminal offense if you're attending a birth and you don't have correct schooling that you had to get on the continent,” Kagiwada said.
The resolution is actually the second time in about three months that the county has tried to move a measure asking state lawmakers to change Hawaiʻi’s midwifery laws.
The first attempt would have included the measure in the Hawaiʻi State Association of Counties’ legislative package, which will be delivered to the state Capitol once the legislative session starts next month. But HSAC, which is made of council members from all the other counties, requires measures included in its legislative package to be approved unanimously by its members.
Kagiwada said it wasn’t, but that the new resolution is another way to pass the message along.
