A few midwives seek to uphold Native Hawaiian birth traditions. Would a state law jeopardize them?

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HONOLULU (AP) — Ki‘inaniokalani Kahoʻohanohano longed for a deeper connection to her Native Hawaiian ancestors and culture as she prepared to give birth to her first child at home on the north shore of Maui in 2003.

Supporters of a lawsuit challenging a Hawaii midwife licensure law gather outside a courthouse in Honolulu on Monday, June 10, 2024. Ki’inaniokalani Kaho’ohanohano poses on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Honolulu. She is a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner who is among those suing over a Hawaii law they say penalizes anyone who provides advice, information, or care, during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum who does not have a specific state license.

“To be able to have our babies in the places and in the ways of our kupuna, our ancestors, is very vital,” she testified. “To me, the point of what we do is to be able to return birth home to these places.”US Catholic bishops approve outreach to Native Americans and acknowledge boarding school ‘traumas’in 2019, finding that the “improper practice of midwifery poses a significant risk of harm to the mother or newborn, and may result in death.

Attorneys for the state argued in a court filing that the law “undoubtedly serves a compelling interest in protecting pregnant persons from receiving ill-advice from untrained individuals.” Practicing midwifery without a license, meanwhile, was banned until 1998 — when, lawmakers say, they inadvertently decriminalized it when they altered the regulation of nurse-midwives, something the 2019 law sought to remedy.

 

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