Kansas House votes to free nurse midwives from doctor oversight

Nurse midwives would be able to deliver babies without a doctor’s oversight under a bill passed by the Kansas House on Monday.

SB 402 advanced on a voice vote. It would allow certified nurse midwives to handle routine deliveries without having a collaborative agreement with a physician.

“Nurse midwives would be able to practice independently,” said Rep. Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, who carried the bill on the House floor.

The nurse midwives would be allowed to prescribe medicines, order diagnostic tests and perform birth procedures such as episiotomy, Hawkins said.

The nurse midwives would be directly regulated by the Board of Healing Arts.

The bill would open the door to independent practice by about 85 certified nurse midwives statewide, although the majority already work in centers where they have collaborative agreements with doctors.

“It would be easy to understand this issue as a turf war, but that is simply untrue,” Hawkins said.

Rep. Barbara Bollier, R-Mission Hills and a retired physician, said she usually supports doctor oversight over the practice of medicine, but that it’s not needed in the case of routine births.

She said the bill is “a great first step and a way to help our state find the care they need,” she said.

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 11:31 AM with the headline "Kansas House votes to free nurse midwives from doctor oversight."