Midwives have existed around the world for eons as the predominant care provider for those seeking reproductive and sexual health support. Midwives have an extensive history providing comprehensive physiologic and psychosocial support for families. Midwifery care is steeped in a history of looking at not only the physical changes that occur through pregnancy and a lifetime, but engaging with the mental and social evolutions that also follow suit. 

Despite this, currently midwives care for only 11% of birthing people in the United States. As Maine continues to face provider shortages, hospital labor and delivery closures, and the increase of “pregnancy care deserts,” we have to evaluate how we can work as a community to not only protect our families, but also create environments in which they can flourish.

Today, Maine and the United States are facing a pregnancy and newborn care crisis. Maternal mortality rates are 10 times higher in the U.S. than in countries like Australia, Japan, and Spain. These numbers are heavily weighted for BIPOC communities. What’s worse is that research reviews suggest that 80% of these deaths are preventable. 

This portrait series aims to showcase the power of integrating and expanding access to the radical care offered by midwives. Research clearly shows how strengthening a midwifery workforce can not only reduce cesarean rates, lower preterm birth rates, lower episiotomy rates, and increase rates of bodyfeeding, but it can also reduce the cost of care overall. However, what the research can’t as easily grasp, goes beyond the birth. What if we start to look at how pivotal it can be when midwifery care lays the groundwork for continued positive family transformation beyond birth. 

Photojournalist Joshua Langlais interviewed and photographed eleven families that chose to work with midwives for their pregnancy care. Some of these families had home births, some had babies at a birth center, and others in a hospital. While all these births were so different, there was a common thread through the care they received. Their care was person-centered, holistic, and non-judgmental. The care they received offered safe-guarding, while also supporting individual growth and empowerment. Through this series you can see and hear directly from each family’s own lived experience.

We already know that increased access to midwifery care improves clinical outcomes for parents and newborns. This series begs the viewers to think bigger than just positive clinical outcomes. 
What would it mean to recenter healthcare on people? What would it mean to integrate this model of care within existing healthcare institutions? And what would it mean, for this so-called radical care, to no longer stand out and simply become the new standard?

Notes and Further Reading