SPRINGFIELD – Illinois lawmakers passed two bills last week that aim to support mothers in the state.
One bill requires employers to give paid time off to employees who pump breast milk at work. The second allows midwives to help with home births, which is the latest attempt by Illinois lawmakers to restore access to maternal health care in the state’s maternity care deserts.
House Bill 2688, sponsored by Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, would allow certified nurse midwives to enter a written agreement with a physician to provide or assist with home births. In designated maternity care deserts, they can enter into such an agreement even if the local physicians don’t provide home births.
The bill only applies to certified nurse midwives, who must be a licensed advanced practice registered nurse, or APRN, and have at least a graduate degree in midwifery. It does not give the same privileges to certified midwives, who are required to have a graduate degree in midwifery.
In recent years, the number of home births across the nation has been steadily rising. The CDC reported that 51,642 home births took place across the country in 2021. That number was a 12% increase from the number of home births in 2020, which the CDC said was the largest increase since at least 1990.
The rise in home births in Illinois is often attributed to the rise in the state’s maternity care deserts, which are counties without a single hospital, birth center, or licensed health care professional who offers obstetric care.
According to a report from March of Dimes, a nonprofit focused on improving maternal health care across the U.S., about 34% of Illinois counties are labeled maternity care deserts. The nationwide average is about 32% of all U.S. counties.
The CDC reported that nearly 35% of women living rural areas that are of reproductive age did not live within 30 minutes of a birthing hospital in 2023.
March of Dimes reported that women living in counties with the highest travel times to a birthing hospital had to travel anywhere between 47 and 59 miles. They also found that women living in maternity care deserts had to travel a little more than 5 times as far as women living in areas of the state with adequate access to maternity care.
“This bill addresses the maternity care deserts that exist in our state to give certified nurse midwives the ability to collaborate with other nurse midwives and APRNs to provide such care,” Moeller said during a House committee hearing on the bill in March.
Illinois’ recent history around the legality of midwives also played a role in the recent increase of maternity care deserts in the state. Although midwives have been used and recognized as health care professionals for centuries, when hospitals began to be recognized as the safest health care settings in the late 1900s, many states stopped licensing midwives and even outlawed the practice altogether.
In Illinois, state officials stopped licensing midwives in the mid-1960s and outlawed the practice in 1992 – making the act a felony with punishments of fines up to $10,000 or three years in prison – according to NPR Illinois.
A law passed in 2021 reversed that decision, making midwifery in the state legal and again allowing for midwives to be legally licensed.
HB 2688 also allows nurse midwives, if they are APRNs, to provide birth services in a licensed birth center without a written agreement if the director of the birth center allows them to. Under the bill, physicians will not be liable for the acts or omissions of nurse midwives solely because of the agreement, unless the physician “has reason to believe” the midwife was unprepared to perform the services or committed willful and wanton conduct.
The bill passed the Senate on Thursday with a vote of 57-1, with only Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, voting no. It now awaits approval from the governor to become law.
Paid time off to pump breast milk
Senate Bill 212 mandates employers to compensate mothers who take breaks at work to pump breast milk for up to a year after their child is born. The bill prohibits employers from requiring employees to use paid leave time for pumping.
“I believe many employers are already doing the right thing, and, you know, we just need to compel a few of them to make sure they are also supporting mothers and babies,” Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, said on the House floor Wednesday.
During a news conference in February, bill sponsor Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, said she would have benefitted from the bill when she had children.
“I know for me, we did not have the generosity of these rules and regulations to allow me to take that break to take care of my child,” Fine said. “So, it would be hiding in a bathroom, getting away when you possibly could and actually having to stop breastfeeding early when it couldn’t work out.”
The bill passed the House Wednesday on a bipartisan vote of 82-27. It now only needs approval from the governor to become law.