Moms group urges TDLR to tighten midwifery rules after loss and near‑misses

Three women who identified themselves as members or founders of Moms Advocating for Moms Alliance urged the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) commission to strengthen standards, oversight and the complaint process for licensed midwives.

Kristen Cook, introduced herself as a founding member of Moms Advocating for Moms Alliance and a past client of licensed midwives. Cook told the commission that "Texas mothers and babies are suffering" and criticized TDLR oversight. She said midwives are allowed to oversee high‑risk pregnancies while training focuses on low‑risk births and called for evidence‑based standards and faster complaint resolution.

Amanda Calicut, who also identified herself as a co‑founder of the group, said she had direct experience with alarming care at a licensed birth center. Calicut said transfers to hospitals among first‑time mothers at that center exceeded 70 percent and recounted missed diagnoses including preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. She told the commission she was aware of seven infant deaths and one maternal death in the past two years linked to licensed midwives, and she said in some cases midwives with open investigations continued to practice for two years or more while investigations were pending.

Elizabeth Winfrey Keeling, who described herself as a mother of seven and a client who experienced a birth injury, urged mandatory malpractice insurance for certified professional midwives (CPMs), compulsory reporting of home‑birth outcomes to the state and mandatory case reviews in the event of stillbirth, infant death, maternal death or injury. She said victims sometimes cannot obtain doctor statements for complaints and expressed concern that "matter experts" used by TDLR to review complaints may lack independence when they belong to the same professional networks as licensees.

Speakers asked the commission to require that CPMs carry malpractice insurance, require all home birth outcomes be reported to the state, impose harsher penalties for violations including altering medical records, and create stronger ethics rules and independent case review for complaints that involve severe outcomes. None of the speakers asked the commission to abolish midwifery; they said their goal was to increase safety.

Why it matters: Speakers framed the issue as a public‑safety and consumer‑protection concern and asked the agency to change rules and processes they said were slow, opaque or insufficient to protect mothers and infants. The commission did not take immediate action on rule changes during the public‑comment portion of the meeting.