This May, NACPM made history. Our first-ever virtual conference, “Centering Midwives, Restoring Care,” brought together midwives, students, birth workers, funders, advocates, and allies from across the country for two transformative days of learning, connection, and community. We started with a goal that transformed into a vision and ended in an event that we will not soon forget!

The National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM) issues this brief to articulate our opposition to proposals that would restrict or eliminate birthright citizenship in the United States. Such policies would have far-reaching and harmful consequences for maternal, infant, and family health, while placing untenable burdens on perinatal care systems and providers.

Too many women still die from preventable causes during pregnancy and childbirth. Skilled care before, during, and after birth can save lives — and midwives are best placed to provide it. Achieving universal coverage of midwife-delivered interventions by 2035 could avert 67% of these deaths. But, the world is short one million midwives. We need urgent action to grow, support, and sustain the global midwifery workforce. This #IDM2026, sign the global petition calling on policymakers for #OneMillionMore

The word “advocacy”, while by definition encompasses an action, can mean many things to different people. I would like to speak to the intention of the why perinatal advocacy is critical to the improvement of perinatal health disparities, and highlight examples of how you can step in, too.

On the plane to Washington, I read bell hooks. Her essay Killing Rage met me where I was. She writes about the particular fury that lives in the body of the oppressed. The rage that we are taught to swallow, to soften, to share only at home among our own. She asks a question I have been turning over ever since: can rage, when connected to our passion for justice, be healthy? Can it heal?