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The Lancet has devoted an issue to maternal health that includes a systematic review of maternity care practice guidelines entitled: “Beyond too little, too late and too much, too soon: a pathway towards evidence-based, respectful maternity care worldwide.” It joins a growing list of documents published over the years that pretty much say the same thing about ways to improve outcomes. (See the end of this post.) Follow the link to view or download the review for free. Here, for your viewing pleasure, are recommendations aligned with principles of physiologic care:
Recommended Practices
Practices Not Recommended
It’s always good to see authoritative documents that endorse physiologic care, but one wonders when maternity care experts will no longer need to re-invent this particular wheel because providers and institutions will finally put a set of them on a vehicle and drive it off the lot. Until that happy day arrives, the Lancet review provides maternity care reformers and consumers one more impeccable resource to point to in support of policies and practices that produce the best outcomes while minimizing use of medical intervention.
Optimal Care Leverage Documents
American College of Nurse-Midwives, Midwives Alliance North America, National Association of Certified Professional Midwives. Supporting healthy and normal physiologic childbirth: a consensus statement by ACNM, MANA, and NACPM; 2012. (http://www.nacpm.org/documents/Normal-Physiologic-Birth-Statement.pdf)
California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative. Toolkit to Support Vaginal Birth and Reduce Primary Cesareans: A Quality Improvement Toolkit. Stanford, CA: California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative; 2016. (https://www.cmqcc.org/VBirthToolkit)
Childbirth Connection. 2020 Vision for a High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care System. 2010. (http://transform.childbirthconnection.org/vision/)
Coalition for Improving Maternity Services. The Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative. 1996. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2409133)
International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, International Confederation of Midwives, White Ribbon Alliance, et al. Mother-baby friendly birthing facilities. Int J Gynaecol Obstet 2015;128(2):95-9. (https://www.whiteribbonalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/MBFBF-guidelines.pdf)
International MotherBaby Childbirth Organization. The International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative. (http://imbco.weebly.com/uploads/8/0/2/6/8026178/imbci__final_04-05-08.pdf)
Lamaze International. Healthy Birth Practices. (http://www.lamaze.org/HealthyBirthPractices)
Maternity Care Working Party. Making normal birth a reality. Consensus statement from the Maternity Care Working Party – our shared views about the need to recognise, facilitate and audit normal birth. Normal Birth Consensus Statement: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; 2007. (http://mothersnaturally.org/pdfs/UKNormalBirthDocument.pdf)
Sakala C, Corry MP. Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What It Is and What It Can Achieve. New York: Milbank Memorial Fund; 2008. (http://www.milbank.org/uploads/documents/0809MaternityCare/0809MaternityCare.html)
World Health Organization. WHO Recommendations. Intrapartum Care for a Positive Childbirth Experience. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2018. (http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/260178/1/9789241550215-eng.pdf)