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For the public, accreditation—
- Promotes health, safety, and welfare by assuring that midwives are competent health professionals for the community;
- Uses tax dollars wisely when it is used as a bases for determining eligibility for federally-funded programs and student financial aid; and
- Assures families that when they hire a midwife who graduated from a MEAC-accredited school, they are ready to practice at a certain level.
Occasionally, it is as easy as opening the phone book. You can also check with the Department of Health in your state (or the appropriate licensing authority, or national certification agency, such as NARM) to find licensed or certified midwives. Local La Leche League meetings, parenting groups, health food stores, county health departments, or complementary medicine/alternative health practitioners may have information about midwives in your area. Once you find a midwife, ask for information about her training and credentials and request references from former clients and other health care professionals.
Some health care plans and private insurance companies cover all or part of a midwife’s services if the patient has maternity care coverage; other plans do not. Some plans may only cover lab work and/or complications. In some states, midwifery care is covered by Medicaid healthcare plans and direct-entry midwives save those states millions of dollars. Midwifery services are generally much less expensive than hospital births and obstetrician care. Some midwives are participants in health care plans and bill insurance companies, but others do not.