Author Archive | Jeanette McCulloch

Over-intervention in maternity care was addressed by experts including the Home Birth Summit’s Saraswathi Vedam at a recent panel held by the Wilson Center, the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum for tackling global issues through independent research and open dialogue to inform actionable ideas for the policy community.

At the panel, Too Much Too Soon: Addressing Over-Intervention in Maternity Care, Vedam and other panelists, including Suellen Miller, Director, Safe Motherhood Program and Myriam Vuckovic, Assistant Professor, International Health Department, Georgetown University, addressed the growing rate of unnecessary interventions in birth in the US and worldwide.

Learn more about the event and view a recording of the livestream here.

A woman’s right to choose a full range of providers and settings for pregnancy and birth was recently affirmed in a position statement on midwifery by the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN). In that statement, AWHONN also emphasized the need for smooth, efficient transfer when planned birth center or home births require a transfer to a hospital setting. The Best Practice Guidelines: Transfer from Planned Home Birth to Hospital, created by the Collaboration Task Force of the Home Birth Summit, were specifically cited.

In the revised, reaffirmed statement, AWHONN states:

Because women may choose different settings for birth (hospital, free-standing birth center, or home), it is important to develop policies and procedures that will ensure a smooth, efficient transition of the woman from one setting to another if the woman’s clinical presentation requires a different type of care. Exemplary best practice guidelines have been developed for transfer from home or out of hospital birth settings to the hospital (Home Birth Summit, 2014; Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). These guidelines present the core elements for transfer policies in each setting and include actions to promote respectful, interprofessional collaboration; ongoing communication; and compassionate, family-centered care.

To read the full position statement, click here.

Giving Voice to Mothers

What do you think is most important for your birth care?

Researchers from the University of British Columbia invite you to participate in an anonymous survey about experiences with care during pregnancy among families that have not yet been heard. The survey will take about 40-45 minutes to complete, and all of your answers will be kept confidential.  If you need to, you can save your answers and complete the survey in more than one session.

Your participation in this survey is entirely voluntary. You do not have to take part and you can decide to stop the survey at any time without any negative consequences to you. For example, your maternity care will be not be affected by whether you participate in the survey or not.

To begin the survey, click here

Or access the survey at: www.voicesofmothers.org

If you encounter any technical difficulties with the survey, please contact: barbara.karlen@ubc.ca

On behalf of the Research Team: Thank-you for your time.

Saraswathi Vedam (Principal Investigator, University of British Columbia)

Eugene Declercq (Co-Investigator, Boston University)