How midwives fight vaccine misinformation
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- Mara Evans practices as a nurse-midwife in North Carolina and faculty at Georgetown University’s Berkley School of Nursing, focusing on global midwifery and health equity
- Vaccine hesitancy has extended to maternity care, with some patients refusing blood transfusions if donors were vaccinated against Covid-19, despite no medical risk and no tracking of donor vaccine status
- Measles recently appeared in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina via a tourist corridor from South Carolina, marking the region’s largest outbreak in 30 years amid under-vaccinated populations
- Midwives are uniquely positioned to counter medical misinformation by building long-term trust, listening without judgment, and offering evidence-based guidance while honoring patient autonomy
- The U.S. maternal mortality rate is the highest among high-income nations, with over 80% of deaths preventable and Black women more than three times as likely as white women to die from pregnancy-related causes
- Labor and delivery units are closing at a rate of more than two per month across the United States, worsening access to maternity care as public confidence in medical institutions declines
Why it matters: With measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases resurging and maternal mortality rising—especially among Black women—midwives who combine clinical expertise with trusted community relationships are becoming critical frontline responders in public health, filling gaps that traditional systems are failing to address.
