Safeguarding modern midwifery

About the Author

Uniting clinical expertise and legal perspective to reveal how midwifery is interpreted—and often misinterpreted—across courts and hospitals.

Martha E Merrill-Hall portrait
Martha E Merrill-Hall JD MS CNM

Martha has led CNM practice across private, Indian Health Service, hospitalist, and critical access settings while litigating personal injury and professional malpractice cases.

Today she researches verdict trends, policy shifts, and licensure actions from the Rocky Mountains—equipping midwives, patients, and counsel with grounded legal insight.

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Why midwives & counsel read

Dual license perspective

Decades of private, IHS, hospitalist, and critical access CNM practice pair with JD work representing both plaintiffs and defendants in professional malpractice.

  • Pro bono defense of advanced practice providers facing board actions.
  • Expert witness experience in midwifery negligence claims.

Where I've practiced

Licensed across Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, New Mexico, California, and beyond—spanning CNM hospitalist teams, Indian Health Service care, and cardiology/critical care nursing roots in Vermont and Maine.

Today I research verdicts, legal seminars, and policy shifts from the Rocky Mountains.

What Martha hopes readers gain

  • Historical context for how CNMs/CMs secured hospital privileges and where culture still lags clinical reality.
  • Plain-language breakdowns of licensure boundaries, malpractice myths, and courtroom expectations.
  • Validation for midwives, attorneys, and patients who need equitable framing of the profession’s contributions.
  • Strategies to translate courtroom narratives back into safe bedside practice.

Articles

The Reference Desk

Legal insight, real-world lessons, and grounded guidance for everyone involved in CNM/CM practice.

Utilization of Alternative Therapies in Pregnancy: A Brief Review of the Literature Part I preview image
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Oct 08, 2025

Utilization of Alternative Therapies in Pregnancy: A Brief Review of the Literature Part I

According to the Cleveland Clinic, there is a wide range of natural techniques to relieve various symptoms of pregnancy. Some of these treatments, such as massage, patterned breathing, and oral supplements and herbs, are safe and can help, while others have the potential for harm to the developing fetus. Alternative therapies should always be discussed with your healthcare provider.

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Issues of Venue and the Medical Malpractice Lawsuit preview image
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Aug 17, 2025

Issues of Venue and the Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Plaintiffs Joseph Cohen and Galit Dadoun-Cohen, individually and in their own right as co-administrators of the estate of Ethan Amos Dadoun-Cohen, deceased, appeal from the Court’s Order, dated April 24, 2007, wherein the Court granted preliminary objections of Defendants Eric Carlson, D.O., and Main Line Perinatal Associates, transferring the matter to the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

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