Board members along with Lori Sletten have been working on drafting a detailed bill that would license Certified Professional Midwives and Certified Nurse Midwives to attend home births in South Dakota. After much discussion we decided that because we have so few midwives practicing in SD at this time, having a board to establish rules & regulations would be too expensive. Instead we propose to adopt the practice guidelines of the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) and to send NARM any complaints pertaining to the practice of midwifery.

Implementing this bill will not cost South Dakota any additional money. Application fees for “Licensed Midwives” should cover any office expense required for processing applications and keeping a list of licensed midwives for consumers.