CIMS Co-Chair Michelle Kendell delivered a bouncing baby girl safely at home on a cool Michigan evening in 2001.  Following two frustrating in-hospital childbirth experiences, Michelle was determined to have her birth, her way.  And she's not alone.  With increasing consumer interest in safe alternatives to hospital-based childbirth, physicians are grasping at straws to keep what's "theirs."
 
On behalf of CIMS, Michelle met with representatives from 13 of the nation's leading childbirth professional and advocacy organizations last month in Chicago, Ill.  The representatives met on Saturday, Nov. 8, to discuss a joint response to a resolution passed by the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates earlier this year.  Resolution 205 would commit the AMA's significant financial and personnel resources in support of state legislation affirming that "the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex..."  Research does not support the opinion of the AMA that hospitals and hospital-based birthing centers are the safest place for all women to give birth.  Participants at the Chicago Birth Summit have formed a Task Force to respond to the AMA resolution.  CIMS will host these leaders and the representatives of CIMS Organizational Members for continued collaborative discussions at the CIMS 2009 Forum. 
  

Leading experts in the field of maternity care will address the challenges of delivering evidence-based maternity care and breastfeeding support to mothers in the United States at the 2009 Mother-Friendly Childbirth Forum and Annual Meeting.  The CIMS Forum will take place March 5-7, in San Diego, California, at the Handlery Hotel and Resort.  The program includes 24 sessions that will cover a broad range of issues affecting childbearing women.  Take advantage of special "early bird rates" through Jan. 16.  Register today!

 

In October, the National Quality Forum (NQF) endorsed 17 perinatal standards to measure and improve healthcare provided to mothers and babies.  CIMS supports these patient-focused measures, which include care provided in the third trimester of pregnancy throughout hospital discharge.  The measures establish a national standard of quality care that consumers can then evaluate, and they provide incentives for improvement.  In comments submitted during the member review period, CIMS strongly urged the NQF to include vaginal birth after cesarean section (VBAC) measures when it considers additional perinatal standards.  NQF endorsement of VBAC measures would lend important weight to proponents' call for increased use of this important alternative to repeat cesareans.  CIMS is pleased that the NQF will continue to look at VBAC measures for future consideration.
 
"The new perinatal care measure set takes a big leap forward for maternity care quality improvement," said Maureen Corry, MPH, executive director of Childbirth Connection and co-chair of the NQF's steering committee on perinatal care.  "With more than 4 million births per year in the United States, these measures will impact a large number of mothers and babies and provide consumers and purchasers with essential information to make informed decisions on maternity care quality and value." 
 

The March of Dimes recently released the first annual Premature Birth Report Card to evaluate how states are doing to meet the Healthy People 2010 goal of reducing the rate of premature births in the US to 7.6 percent or less.  The latest available data (2005) show that the national preterm birth rate is 12.7 percent.  Premature birth is the leading cause of newborn death and a major cause of lifelong disability.  

 

CIMS joins the March of Dimes in calling on elected and appointed officials to commit more resources to this problem and policymakers to support the development of strategies that benefit mothers and babies.  The Report card also calls on hospitals to voluntarily review cesarean births and inductions of labor that occur before 39 weeks--a growing trend tied to the rise in late preterm births.

For more information about your state's ranking, and to join us in signing the 2008 Petition for Preemies, visit the March of Dimes Web site. 

 

Congratulations to CIMS Organizational Member Our Bodies Ourselves.  Their respected guide for childbearing women, Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth, is a finalist in the 2008 Books for a Better Life Awards sponsored by the New York City Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.  

The Books for a Better Life Awards have raised more than $1.5 million for the chapter's support services and educational programs.  Our Bodies, Ourselves was chosen among five finalists in the wellness category from more than 400 entries for each of the 10 categories of books.  Meredith Vieira, co-anchor of NBC's The Today Show, will host the awards ceremony at the Millenium Broadway Hotel Manhattan on Feb. 23, 2009.

 

In September, the Maternity Care Coalition and the Pennsylvania Breastfeeding Coalition recognized six regional employers with exemplary policies that protect and support employees and patrons who breastfeed and/or express milk.  These businesses included Abington Memorial Hospital; Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Graco Children's Products; Laura Solomon, Esq. & Associates; Lutheran Settlement House; and SEI Investments.  The Breastfeeding-Friendly Business Awards 2008 Program and Best Practices highlights the awardees' policies and practices.

  

According to a newly published systematic review by The Cochrane Collaboration, midwife-led care provides benefits for pregnant women and their babies and is recommended.  This review included midwives who provided prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care.  Researchers compared midwife-led care with models of medical-led care and shared care, and included 11 trials, involving 12,276 women.  The review found midwife-led care to be associated with several benefits for mothers and babies, with no identified adverse effects.  Midwife-led care was associated with a reduced risk of losing a baby before 24 weeks, reduced use of regional analgesia during labor, fewer episiotomies, and fewer instrumental births.  Midwife-led care also increased the woman's chance of being cared for during childbirth by a provider with whom she was familiar.  Additional findings include increased chance of spontaneous vaginal birth and initiation of breastfeeding.  Read the review on The Cochrane Collaboration Web site.
 

Intimate Partner Violence (IVP) is recognized internationally as a significant public health concern.  The lifetime prevalence of IPV is between 25% and 30%.  Estimates of the number of women presenting in health care settings with a history of IPV in the prior year vary between 4% and 23%.
 
New research in the Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health (JMWH) addresses the effects of violence and trauma on women's health.  The November 2008 issue of JMWH contains eight original research articles, covering topics from when and how to broach the subject of violence and trauma to the physical and psychological health consequences of IPV.  This issue of JMWH addresses the need for evidence-based research to guide clinicians in attending to the needs of women who experience violence and trauma.
 
Please visit the JMWH's patient education page "Share with Women," for articles that can be copied and distributed at no cost.

 

Information on three new studies reported by The Baby Friendly Initiative add to our knowledge about the superior benefits of breastfeeding and the difficulty of establishing successful breastfeeding for infants born preterm.