Please check out this exciting webinar from the Network for Public Health Law!
Professor at University of Maryland Carey School of Law, Executive Director of the Legal Resource Center for Public Health Policy, and Director of the Network for Public Health Law Eastern Region
Please join the Network for Public Health Law for a free webinar, It Takes a Village: Expanding the Types of Professionals Who Can Provide Reproductive Care for Improved Maternal Health Outcomes, on Thursday, April 18, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. ET. This webinar will focus on issues surrounding maternal health, with a focus on access to reproductive health care and pregnancy-related services to improve maternal health outcomes and reduce health inequities. Haley Campbell Garcia (University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law Class of 2024) will focus on midwife care. Comprehensive access to midwife care could play a critical role in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality. States are working to expand the number of midwives by allowing the licensure of direct entry midwives, which are midwives who may be credentialed without formal nursing education. The training requirements and practice guidelines vary widely state to state. Haley will discuss those varied requirements, with examples from several states, drawing from her Network resource, Direct Entry Midwives Across the Nation. Similarly, Jordan Jekel (University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law Class of 2024) has been examining the role of state law in supporting access to doula services. Jordan’s presentation will focus on the themes in doula regulation across fifty states, including the insurance coverage for doula services and doula certification requirements. She will also explain the importance of doulas and how states can implement new laws or regulations to increase access and improve maternal health outcomes. Dr. Mary Jo Bondy and Dr. Jessica Lee are leading one state’s efforts to expand access to reproductive and sexual health care by expanding the type of health professionals who may provide reproductive health care, specifically including nurse practitioners and physician assistants. As described in Maryland’s Approach to Enhancing Access to Abortion: Expanding Scope of Practice, a Network Law and Policy Insight, Maryland’s Abortion Care Access Act created the Abortion Care Clinical Training Program through which health care providers will be educated and trained on providing reproductive health care, including contraception and abortion care. Drs. Bondy and Lee are leading the efforts to design and implement the education and training program contemplated in the Act. They will describe the program and the efforts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) to increase community access to reproductive health care through the program. Attendees will learn about the law and policy levers than can improve maternal health outcomes and expand access to reproductive health care, with concrete examples that can be implemented in any jurisdiction, regardless of laws regulating abortion care. https://lnkd.in/egx63vvF
