MADISON, Wis. -- Lay midwives can legally deliver babies at home in Wisconsin beginning on Tuesday.

Lay midwives have been working for 25 years to have their profession and home births recognized by the state, as they are in 24 other states. Lay midwives are different from certified nurse midwives who hold master's degrees and are affiliated with a hospital or doctor.

The new law also frees the certified midwives from being tied to a health care provider.

Jane Crawford Peterson holds the first license under the new state law. The Iola area midwife has delivered about 1,300 babies in her 27 years of practice.

About 1,100 babies were born outside a hospital in Wisconsin in 2005. Certified nurse midwife Ingrid Andersson said that the new law "pulls together the sisterhood of midwives."