Mom who sued the State of Nebraska in home birth case delivers baby

Hope Lindstrom, a mom who filed a lawsuit against the State of Nebraska to have a home birth with a certified nurse midwife (CNM), delivered her baby at the end of April. The family said Lindstrom and her newborn are healthy.

Lindstrom in January filed a complaint against the state, specifically Attorney General Mike Hilgers and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, arguing the state’s restrictions on home births with certified nurse midwives “interfere with deeply personal family and religious decisions, deny access to safe and lawful medical care, and expose expecting mothers to greater risk.”

The Hastings mom and certified pastor sought to change state law to enable a CNM to help low-risk laboring moms deliver their children at their homes. Current state law allows home births but explicitly says CNMs cannot attend a home delivery. State lawmakers introduced legislation in previous sessions to allow CNMs to attend births. An attempt in 2025 made it to the final round of debate but failed mid-session.

Lindstrom’s lawsuit was dismissed when state officials allowed the mom to deliver at home using a CNM.

Her successful at-home delivery marks a significant victory for groups like the Nebraska Affiliate of the American College of Nurse-Midwives that advocate for maternity care. President Libby Mollard, herself a CNM, called Lindstrom's safe delivery a milestone for women who want to deliver their children at home with a medical professional.

“Women should not have to move mountains to be able to have a professional assisting them, which is prudent” Mollard said. “They shouldn't have to go to such great lengths to make that happen.”

Mollard’s organization supports certain medical standards surrounding CNMs and home births, such as requiring that the pregnancy is considered low-risk; the CNM has a transfer plan for taking the mother to hospital if the need arises; the CNM helping is properly trained; and the CNM has access to emergency medical equipment and medications. She said the state’s CNM exemption is allowing some women to seek home births with people who may not be equipped to handle emergency situations that arise during labor.

“Our current system is the most dangerous system that you can have because there's no integration with our healthcare system, so that's another key component to making it safe: having skilled providers, having appropriate candidates and being integrated with the healthcare system,” Mollard said.

Several medical groups have been vocal on the requirements needed in place if allowing CNMs at home births would be allowed. A spokesperson for the Nebraska Hospital Association (NHA), which has offered recommendations on home births, said while hospital leaders recognize the importance of expanding access to maternity services in rural communities, any sort of expansion must ensure it appropriately fits into the broader healthcare system.

“When complications arise in out-of-hospital settings, hospitals become the immediate safety net. Transfers frequently involve urgent or emergent situations requiring rapid engagement of surgical teams, obstetric specialists, anesthesia providers, and more. These teams mobilize to care for patients who arrive in the emergency room with limited clinical information,” the NHA spokesperson said.

The NHA said the downstream responsibilities can fall on hospitals regardless of the circumstances that preceded the transfer, and that can create difficult situations in rural communities where critical access hospitals typically have limited obstetric capacity.

“Unplanned emergency transfers increase these strains on our hospitals and expose them to greater liability without strengthening the overall maternity care infrastructure,” the spokesperson said. “When it comes to childbirth, access without safety is not a solution. Nebraska families deserve both.”

Mollard said she expects several other women to bring lawsuits that challenge Nebraska’s current restrictions against CNMs delivering home births. And she believes if the law is changed, more options could be provided to women in rural areas who often live in counties where there’s little maternal healthcare.

“Especially expanding full practice authority to nurse midwives would really benefit rural communities and the state in general, because not only can you bring birth services, you know, both in and out of the hospital to rural communities, you can keep rural hospital maternity units open, which is really important if you have additional maternity care providers.”