ACNM Health Policy Summit & Hill Day
The ACNM Health Policy Summit takes place Monday, May 4, 2026 and Hill Day takes place Tuesday, May 5, 2026 in Washington, D.C.
What is the Health Policy Summit?
Enhanced access to highly trained, nationally accredited, and licensed CNMs and CMs offers the US a viable solution to reducing maternal mortality, filling the workforce shortage gap, and increasing access to unbiased high-quality care. Yet, midwives remain mostly underutilized. Regulatory and legislative barriers that include physician supervision restrictions, prescriptive authority, and out-of-hospital birth legislation, among others, hamper access to midwifery care.
ACNM has an enormous potential to improve this country’s laws as they relate to midwifery, and by doing so, to improve the lives of mothers and infants in the US. Beyond lending its clinical excellence to women and infants through the practice of midwifery, CNMs and CMs must advocate for legislation that will fund accredited midwifery education programs, grow and diversify the maternity care workforce, enhance maternal health care provided by public health programs, and eliminate disparities in access to maternal health care.
The Health Policy Summit is designed to support the advancement of public policy impacting the midwifery profession and the people midwives serve. The meeting will provide midwives with an opportunity to learn how to effectively communicate the importance of proposed legislation impacting the midwifery profession including: Midwives for Maximizing Optimal Maternity Services Act (Midwives for MOMS Act), the Birth Access Benefitting Improved Essential Facility Services (BABIES) Act, the Improving Care and Access to Nurses Act and the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act.
Participants at this educational event will also learn about the health care policies impacting midwifery, and develop the skills needed to advocate for the profession in meetings with legislators during ACNM’s Hill Day and back home at your state capital.
What is Hill Day?
ACNM’s Hill Day allows members and midwifery supporters to engage with congressional offices to discuss their work and share their perspective, as midwives, on how policy impacts the work they do daily and the profession at large. ACNM Hill Day attendees will discuss the association’s federal legislative priorities during the 120th Session of Congress, including:
- Support for the Improving Care and Access to Nurses Act
- Support for the Midwives for MOMS Act
- Support for the PRECEPT Nurses Act
- Support for reauthorization of the Title VIII program and the MatCare grants
- Support for CM inclusion in Federal Statute
- Support for Hospital Privileges for Midwives
We encourage all members interested in moving the policy needle for midwifery to join us on Capitol Hill on Monday, May 5.
Who should attend?
This Summit is intended for new and seasoned midwives, nurses and maternal health stakeholders who are seeking to understand legislative and regulatory trends impacting maternal and infant care, remain informed of the status of legislation affecting midwifery clinical practices and access to care, and utilize their voice and other resources to support ACNM positions on midwifery care.
Questions?
If you have any questions, please email govaffairs@acnm.org.