The time is now.
Your monthly membership dues will help us take the fight to preserve traditional midwifery in Pennsylvania to the courts – and win it. And your generous additional donations will be targeted to help NATBR pay for the legal and lobbying services necessary to help us protect home births in Pennsylvania.

Please Join TODAY!

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is ground zero in NATBR’s fight to defend birth freedom, preserve traditional midwifery, and restore informed consent and choice in maternity care for present and future generations of American families. Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 by William Penn, a devout Quaker, who established the Commonwealth as a refuge for Quakers to escape religious persecution. He referred to the colony as a “holy experiment” in religious tolerance, and believed everyone had the right to choose their faith and worship without coercion.

Pennsylvania: “Birthplace of our Nation”.

Pennsylvania, the birthplace of our independence and the Constitution, is often referred to as the “Birthplace of our Nation”. Benjamin Franklin and many of our Nation’s founding fathers lived in Pennsylvania, and the first and second Continental Congress (1774-1781), the signing of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and the Constitutional Convention (1787) all took place in Pennsylvania. President George Washington commanded the Continental Army in Pennsylvania, spending the winter of 1777–1778 at Valley Forge.

Founded on a tradition of religious freedom and independence.
Today Pennsylvania is home to people of every race, religion and cultural tradition. This includes approximately 100,000 Amish and 15,000 Old Order Mennonites, who live simply and whose 16th century Anabaptist Christian religious traditions require babies to be born at home – with the assistance of traditional midwives.

It’s not only the Amish and Mennonites – Other Pennsylvanians also need traditional midwives. Other Pennsylvanians across all educational, socio-economic, religious, and geographic strata, are increasingly seeking homebirths. Their reasons include the desire to better control the birthing process in the comfort of their own home; the economic cost of delivering a baby in a hospital; and the way institutional hospitals make some people feel mentally, emotionally, and physically, due to the widespread use of certain medication and surgical interventions. These Pennsylvanians also need the assistance of lay/traditional midwives.

But Pennsylvania law on lay and traditional midwives is in a state of upheaval – and it’s time to fight back.
Lay and traditional midwives are regulated in Pennsylvania by the Midwife Regulation Law, Act of Apr. 4, 1929, P.L. 160, No 155, which has been on the books for almost 100 years. This law requires that the Commonwealth “shall issue” a “certificate” to lay and traditional “midwives” so they can practice midwifery legally. For years, however, Pennsylvania has refused to issue these required certificates. This violation of the law leaves traditional midwivesand families who rely on them for homebirths vulnerable by:

• Exposing lay and traditional midwives to the constant threat of investigation by local and state authorities that can cost thousands to defend and result in the loss of their livelihoods – and worse.

• Incentivizing hospitals, doctors, and nurses to report lay and traditional midwives – who they see as an economic threat to their bottom lines – simply for doing their jobs.

• Threatening the rights of all Pennsylvania families to deliver their children at home – safely and with the assistance of an experienced traditional midwife – as G-d and nature intended, and as women have been doing since biblical times.

Your dues and generous donations will allow NATBR to pay for the legal and government relations/lobbying services required to:

1. Force the Commonwealth to issue certificates to traditional midwives under the 1929 Law, and

2. Educate the Medical Board and other government agencies responsible for writing and enforcing the regulations governing midwifery.

On May 6, 2026, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed Senate Bill 507 into law as Act No. 14 of 2026. Unlike lay and traditional midwives, “nurse midwives” in Pennsylvania are governed by a different law, the Medical Practice Act of 1985, Act No. 112 of 1985, which requires them to be registered nurses and practice under a collaborative agreement with a hospital or physician. As explained by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania in Goslin v. State Board of Medicine (Pa. Cwlth. 2008),n. 11: “The 1985 Act and the 1929 Law do not relate to the same class of persons. Although both relate to midwifery, the 1985 Act relates to the licensing of registered nurses as nurse-midwives and the 1929 Law relates to the granting of certificates to other persons who attend women in childbirth."

The 2026 law amended only the 1985 Law – not the 1929 Law. Though, by its plain language, the 2026 Law did not alter the 1929 Law, it has put traditional midwifery under a microscope in Pennsylvania. Act 14 of 2026 was heavily lobbied for by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), an association of obstetricians, gynecologists and hospitals who want to outlaw traditional midwifery and prevent Americans – and Pennsylvanians – from giving birth at home. And they think they have succeeded.

Confusion, uncertainty and fear for traditional midwives and their clients. Though perhaps unintentionally, in amending the 1985 Law, Pennsylvania’s Legislature and Governor have created an environment of confusion, uncertainty and fear among traditional midwives and their clients throughout the Commonwealth. In addition to nurse midwives, the 2026 Law allows for licensed “certified midwives” to be governed by the Board of Medicine according to regulations that they will develop. This, in combination with the Commonwealth’s ongoing refusal to grant certifications under the 1929 Law, has focused increased attention on Pennsylvania’s lay and traditional midwives.

The Medical Board will promulgate regulations. Under the 2026 Law, only if an applicant for a “certified midwife license” has completed “an academic and clinical program of study in midwifery that has been approved by the Board or by an accrediting body recognized by the Board,” the midwife may practice midwifery “pursuant to a collaborative agreement with a physician or physician group and regulations promulgated by the Board.” (Emphasis added). As we have already seen in Pennsylvania (and around the country,) where nurse midwives are required to have an agreement with a doctor or medical group, they are effectively prohibited from assisting with home births. The doctors require all of the midwives’ clients to give birth in the hospital – where mothers and their newborns must be treated, medicated, and billed according to the standards and conventions of “modern medicine”. Once in a “collaborative agreement,” midwives may no longer assist with traditional home deliveries – even for clients whose religious observance and cultural traditions require it.       

Happy Independence Day.
Act 14 of 2026 takes effect 60 days from the Governor’s signature, on July 5, 2026 – just one day after the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After that, the Medical Board has two years to promulgate whatever regulations it deems necessary to govern the practice of midwifery under the 2026 Law.     

There is no more time to wait.
We expect there will be legal challenges involving both the 1929 Law and the 1985 Law, as amended by Act 14 of 2026.

The regulations matter. 
It is also imperative that the regulations passed by the Medical Board protect all lay and traditional midwives throughout the Commonwealth – and all families in Pennsylvania who require a homebirth or may prefer to give birth at home, now or in the future. We know we must invest the time and money now to educate the Medical Board and other Pennsylvanians about the history, the heritage, and the modern-day practice of traditional midwifery.