The Perinatal Workforce Act aims to address shortages in maternal health care providers by funding education programs and encouraging hospitals and health systems to build diverse, multidisciplinary teams. The bill recognizes that many pregnant people, especially those from racial and ethnic minority communities, face barriers to quality maternal care and want providers who understand their cultural backgrounds and values.

The law creates two main grant programs. First, it provides $15 million per year (2027-2031) to schools and programs training midwives, physician assistants, and perinatal health workers—with priority given to programs that recruit students from underrepresented backgrounds and teach about implicit bias and racism. Second, it provides another $15 million per year to nursing schools offering scholarships for students pursuing maternal and perinatal nursing specialties like nurse-midwifery and maternal health nurse practitioners.

The bill also requires the federal government to create guidance for states on how to encourage hospitals and insurers to hire diverse maternity care teams that include midwives, lactation consultants, mental health providers, and nutritionists. It mandates studies on best practices in respectful, culturally appropriate maternal care and requires regular reporting on whether these programs successfully recruit providers from minority communities and increase access to care in underserved areas. The goal is to build a maternal health workforce that reflects the communities it serves and reduces health disparities in pregnancy and childbirth outcomes.