Delegates who attended the Home Birth Consensus Summit collaborate to receive two grants from the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery, Birth Trust.
Project Title: A matched cohort study of maternity outcomes and midwife-led care in the United States
Principal-Applicant: Kathrin Stoll, PhD
Co-applicants: Profs. Saraswathi Vedam & Melissa Cheyney
Synopsis
Conflict and controversy over the safety and efficacy of planned home birth has persisted over the past 60 years in North America. Evidence from well-designed population-based cohort studies that compare perinatal outcomes across birth settings has contributed to the integration of planned home birth into the maternity care system in Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and New Zealand. However, there are no large, high quality studies that compare birth outcomes across home, hospital and birth centers in the United States. Our team of expert researchers is proposing the most comprehensive analysis of maternal and fetal outcomes by birth place to date, comparing existing MANAStats data on home and birth center births (~ 40,000 records collected between 2004–2012) with a matched cohort of low risk women who planned a hospital delivery (total sample size ~80,000). Findings from this study have the potential to affect public and professional opinion on the safety and efficacy of home birth, policy decisions, health professional education, and may also enable improved working conditions for midwives and increased access to planned home birth for American women.
Project Title: Best Practice Toolkit for Midwifery Regulation and Licensure
Principal Applicant: Brynne Potter, CPM, CEO, Private Practice, LLC
Project Manager: Angela Moore, Project Manager, Home Birth Consensus Summit
Project Synopsis:
To achieve universal access to highly qualified maternity providers in all settings, it is essential to improve conditions and systems for regulation, licensure, and hospital credentialing of midwives who attend home births in the US. Conflict and confusion about educational standards and widely disparate regulatory language between regions are some of the known barriers to access. With support from FAM, we will create a Best Practice Toolkit for Midwifery Regulation and Licensure: an innovative and comprehensive resource for policy makers and legislators that will facilitate a common understanding of the credentials and range and scope of practice expected of midwives. The Toolkit will include i) a complete database describing the existing regulatory framework for midwifery practice in each state; ii) an evidence-based rating system that compares the effectiveness of legislation by state; and iii) a resource guide to model language, and successful precedents for instituting regulation. This much-needed toolkit will enhance consistency and accuracy of information when legislation is under consideration.
from UBC Faculty of Medicine