Home Birth Summit III was held September 28-30, 2014 at Cedarbrook Lodge in Seattle Washington. Over the past 3 years delegates from 9 stakeholder task forces have collaborated to translate their shared Vision through transformative initiatives. The focus for Summit III was to disseminate of the work-to-date of each of nine Task Forces. Forty-five new health professional leaders, ethicists, consumers, and policy makers from all sectors attended as invited Delegates.
As former delegates collaborated to create this Summit’s agenda, the Steering Council considered the mandate from Summit II to acknowledge issues of particular controversy and concern: equity, ethics, and evidence.
The Summit III agenda was designed to provide a series of interactive, strategic planning and dissemination sessions addressing shared priorities with discussions centered around the following themes:
• Voices of Women: Emerging Research on Equity, Access, & Experience
• Multi-disciplinary strategies to reduce Risk & Liability across Birth Settings
• Prioritizing Physiologic Birth
• Best Practices Across Birth Settings: Collaboration, Communication, Regulation, & Education
Noting the equity framework, delegates from consumer stakeholder task forces reminded the organizers that the agenda, itself, should highlight the expertise and experience of women and families. Many delegates come to the Summit wearing multiple hats as clinicians, educators, researchers, administrator, systems experts, etc. Most are also past or future consumers of maternity care services. Hence, time was allocated over the three days for delegates who wish to use their own consumer voices to provide formal and informal responses to each day’s sessions.
