When it comes to comparing outcomes with a midwife versus a doctor, research shows that in women with uncomplicated pregnancies, midwives are the better bet. Let’s look at the details of a recent study. Once we do that, I’ll explain why midwives do better than...
A study finds that women planning VBAC feel more in control, are better supported emotionally, and use more options such as upright birth positions and water birth when attended by a midwife of their choice. The press release provides the highlights of the study’s...
The winter issue of Birth includes a study that provides proof positive that physiologic care is superior to medical management. The study reports the results of Strong Start, a program providing care at American Association of Birth Centers free-standing birth...
A study in the most recent issue of Birth provides eye-opening illumination on non-medical reasons for high cesarean rates (Kennedy 2016). Investigators at Yale’s med-school affiliated hospital conducted in-depth interviews eliciting opinions on how the institution...
The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) has published a revised and updated Committee Opinion on “Planned Home Birth.” If you read the media reports on it, you would think the new Opinion is “same-old, same-old,” but there are some...
Amy Tuteur has managed to score a commentary in the Washington Post entitled “How the natural birth industry sets mothers up for guilt and shame.” You would think that the inflammatory rhetoric would have given the Post’s editors a clue that they should get their fact...
Science & Sensibility interviews Rebecca Dekker about her new “Evidence Based Birth” post on the issues of pregnancy and birth in women aged 35 or more. The interview provides an overview of the article’s contents along with context as well as Dekker’s suggestions...
Healio points us to a report from the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) on the results of Strong Start, a package of strategies to improve maternal-child health in low-income women. The package consisted of: “Group Care – Group prenatal care that...
EurekAlert reports on a study finding that states allowing autonomous certified nurse-midwifery (CNM) practice (no requirement for practice agreements or physician supervision) had more midwives per capita, more women attended by midwives, lower cesarean rates, and...
The Toronto Star reports on a large study comparing outcomes between 11,493 low-risk Canadian women planning home birth at the onset of labor and a random sample of 11,493 equally low-risk women planning hospital birth, both cared for by the same midwives. To...
The first in Henci’s new Take Charge of Your Birth Series, Labor Pain: What’s Your Best Strategy? delivers up-to-date access to the best medical research plus practical strategies for developing your plan and putting it into action. Also available in audiobook.
