New legislation in Arkansas is being cited as instrumental in the Community Clinic's new midwifery program, which recently welcomed its first baby.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued an executive order in March 2024 establishing the Arkansas Strategic Committee for Maternal Health in Arkansas in an effort to expand maternal health services. The Community Clinic served on a subcommittee of that group and suggested things like the expansion of Medicaid coverage for doulas and community health workers and creating midwifery education programs, according to a news release from the clinic.

Lawmakers later approved and Sanders signed the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act into law in February, which aimed to provide more efficient Medicaid enrollment for pregnant women and allowed insurance cove

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