Jennifer Crook is a trained and certified midwife living in Birmingham, Alabama, who has presided over about 200 home births. But to do so, she and her pregnant patients had to drive two hours across the state line to Tennessee.
The reason for the border crossing was simple: Alabama is among 22 states that do not license midwives who deliver babies outside of hospitals. And practicing midwifery without a license in Alabama wasn’t worth the risk.
“It’s certainly not a place that you want to practice as an illegal midwife — because the state has prosecuted in the past,” said Crook, whose license to practice is from Tennessee. She began her training in 1997 and practiced until 2012. Now she lobbies for licensing in Alabama.
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