HB312 Alabama 2024 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Ben HarrisonRepresentative

Republican

Session

Regular Session 2024

Title

To provide further for the practice of midwifery

Summary

HB312 would broaden midwifery in Alabama by allowing freestanding birth centers, creating a State Board of Midwifery, and adding licensing, insurance, and reporting requirements for midwives.

What This Bill Does

HB312 expands definitions to include freestanding birth centers and the practice of midwifery outside hospitals. It creates an independent State Board of Midwifery with seven members to license midwives, adopt rules, set fees, require professional liability insurance, and accept gifts or grants. It requires midwives to provide clients with disclosure and informed consent forms, emergency and transfer plans, and to report births and related data, while restricting practice to non-hospital settings and enumerated procedures. It becomes effective October 1, 2024 and is subject to the Alabama Sunset Law for periodic renewal.

Who It Affects

• Licensed midwives and midwifery professionals who must meet new licensing, insurance, reporting, and disciplinary rules.
• Clients seeking midwifery care in non-hospital settings (including freestanding birth centers), who will receive disclosures, informed consent, emergency/transfer planning, and birth-related data reporting requirements.

Key Provisions

• Expands definitions to cover freestanding birth centers and defines licensed midwife and midwifery scope (primary maternity care during antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum periods).
• Allows midwifery services to be provided in freestanding birth centers and not in hospitals; freestanding centers are not hospitals for purposes of the law.
• Creates a State Board of Midwifery with seven members appointed by the Governor (and confirmed by the Senate), including representatives from certified professional midwives, nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and individuals with midwifery experience, with terms of varying lengths and diversity considerations.
• Board powers include licensing, renewing, suspending or revoking licenses, establishing standardized forms, setting licensure and renewal fees, imposing administrative fines, and adopting rules (including risk assessment, professional conduct, internships, and continuing education).
• Requires minimum professional liability insurance of at least $100,000 per occurrence and $300,000 aggregate for licensed midwives.
• Regulates scope of practice by prohibiting certain obstetric procedures outside midwifery, including epidurals, narcotics, forceps/vacuum delivery, abortion, cesarean sections (except minimal episiotomies), pharmacological induction/augmentation before labor, non-local anesthesia (except local), and VBACs; prohibits hospital-based care for licensed midwives.
• Defines client disclosure and informed consent requirements, emergency/transfer planning, birth certificates, and data collection/reporting to the board and public health authorities; requires compliance with HIPAA and newborn screening programs.
• Requires annual reporting by licensed midwives on births attended, maternal and infant transfers, and maternal/infant deaths; makes data publicly available as permitted by federal law.
• Board may accept gifts and grants and is subject to the Alabama Sunset Law with periodic renewal.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 22, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.

Subjects

Occupational Licensing Boards