There is currently a proposed bill in the Vermont Senate Health and Welfare Committee, S. 18 - An act relating to licensure of freestanding birth centers. In the House Health Care Committee the bill is H. 40 - An act relating to licensure of freestanding birth centers. We need your support to get this bill passed!

**UPDATE: S.18, Licensure of Freestanding Birth Centers, passed out of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. It is now being reviewed by the Senate Finance Committee. We will post information about needed action once the bill hits the Senate floor and then the House committees. Please check back shortly - Thank you!

Talking Points

Below are some suggested talking points, but It would be best for you to write in your own words why Vermont should have a freestanding birth center. E-mails to Legislators should be short and to the point.

Subject line should be “Please pass Licensure of Freestanding Birth Centers”.

• Please briefly ask them to support licensure of freestanding birth centers. If you have a personal story or connection with the issue (i.e. you or family members would like to have, or would have liked to have had, the option of a freestanding birth center), please include a brief story in your e-mail.

  • Access to birth centers is an equity issue in that they successfully address health care disparities in vulnerable populations

  • Choice of birth setting is a reproductive right – and Vermonters do not have that right.

  • Numerous studies have shown that, for low-risk women, birth centers have more favorable outcomes than hospitals. Birth centers have lower c-section rates, lower pre-term birth rates, and lower low-weight baby rates.

  • Care by midwives in birth centers is exceptionally affordable to the healthcare system.

  • Act 167, the study mandated by the Vermont Legislature, recommends freestanding birth centers in Vermont.