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The Rights of Childbearing Women
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News and Features : Health Professionals
New VBAC Guidlines
ACOG has just issued new Guidlines for VBAC. What changed? What continues? We've Moved!
On July 1, 2010, the Childbirth Connection office moved to 260 Madison Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10016. All other contact information is unchanged. "2020 Vision" and "Blueprint for Action" Reports Available
Rising Maternal Mortality
Help Transform Maternity Care!  Please join our efforts to make quality maternity care a top national priority. Your support will help make the transformation possible. View 2010 Supporter Roster 
Updated Maternity Care Statistics Available
US Cochrane Center (USCC)/Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare (CUE)
New Mothers Speak Out National Report Released The latest report in Childbirth Connection's Listening to Mothers series is now available. Get an eye-opening look at the reality of life as a mother of young children in the United States, based on national surveys conducted by Harris Interactive. Learn more, get the report Read the Wall Street Journal story and listen to the podcast Download Quick Facts (PDF) Why does the national U.S. c-section rate keep going up? Current research points to an optimal cesarean section rate of 5% to 10%, but 1 pregnant woman in 3 is giving birth by major surgery in the United States. Why the surge and is this safe? A new page - and a PDF handout for journalists, policy makers, students and others - answer these questions. Read more about the rising cesarean section rate New Content!
March/April 2009 evidence column is now available.
Features: National Quality Forum endorses consensus perinatal performance measures; systematic reviews on induction of labor, environmental tobacco smoke and fetal health, and HPV infection and cervical neoplasia Get the column Popular Pages
"Once my hormones settled down and I got into a routine with caring for my child, it was the best experience I ever had."
Every woman has the right to health care before, during, and after pregnancy and childbirth.
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Every woman has the right to health care before, during and after pregnancy and childbirth. 
Every woman and infant has the right to receive care that is consistent
with current scientific evidence about benefits and risks.* Practices
that have been found to be safe and beneficial should be used when
indicated. Harmful, ineffective or unnecessary practices should be
avoided. Unproven interventions should be used only in the context of
research to evaluate their effects. 
Every woman has the
right to choose a midwife or a physician as her maternity care
provider. Both caregivers skilled in normal childbearing and caregivers
skilled in complications are needed to ensure quality care for all. 
Every woman has the right to choose her birth setting from the full
range of safe options available in her community, on the basis of
complete, objective information about benefits, risks and costs of
these options.*
Every woman has the right to receive all or
most of her maternity care from a single caregiver or a small group of
caregivers, with whom she can establish a relationship. Every woman has
the right to leave her maternity caregiver and select another if she
becomes dissatisfied with her care.* (Only second sentence is a legal
right.) 
Every woman has the right to information about the
professional identity and qualifications of those involved with her
care, and to know when those involved are trainees.* 
Every
woman has the right to communicate with caregivers and receive all care
in privacy, which may involve excluding nonessential personnel. She
also has the right to have all personal information treated according
to standards of confidentiality.* 
Every woman has the right
to receive maternity care that identifies and addresses social and
behavioral factors that affect her health and that of her baby.** She
should receive information to help her take the best care of herself
and her baby and have access to social services and behavioral change
programs that could contribute to their health. 
Every woman
has the right to full and clear information about benefits, risks and
costs of the procedures, drugs, tests and treatments offered to her,
and of all other reasonable options, including no intervention.* She
should receive this information about all interventions that are likely
to be offered during labor and birth well before the onset of labor. 
Every woman has the right to accept or refuse procedures, drugs, tests
and treatments, and to have her choices honored. She has the right to
change her mind.* (Please note that this established legal right has
been challenged in a number of recent cases.) 
Every woman
has the right to be informed if her caregivers wish to enroll her or
her infant in a research study. She should receive full information
about all known and possible benefits and risks of participation; and
she has the right to decide whether to participate, free from coercion
and without negative consequences.* 
Every woman has the
right to unrestricted access to all available records about her
pregnancy, labor, birth, postpartum care and infant; to obtain a full copy of these
records; and to receive help in understanding them, if necessary.* 
Every woman has the right to receive maternity care that is appropriate
to her cultural and religious background, and to receive information in
a language in which she can communicate.* 
Every woman has
the right to have family members and friends of her choice present
during all aspects of her maternity care.** 
Every woman
has the right to receive continuous social, emotional and physical
support during labor and birth from a caregiver who has been trained in
labor support.** 
Every woman has the right to receive full
advance information about risks and benefits of all reasonably
available methods for relieving pain during labor and birth, including
methods that do not require the use of drugs. She has the right to
choose which methods will be used and to change her mind at any time.* 
Every woman has the right to freedom of movement during labor,
unencumbered by tubes, wires or other apparatus. She also has the
right to give birth in the position of her choice.* 
Every
woman has the right to virtually uninterrupted contact with her newborn
from the moment of birth, as long as she and her baby are healthy and
do not need care that requires separation.** 
Every woman
has the right to receive complete information about the benefits of
breastfeeding well in advance of labor, to refuse supplemental bottles
and other actions that interfere with breastfeeding, and to have access
to skilled lactation support for as long as she chooses to
breastfeed.** 
Every woman has the right to decide
collaboratively with caregivers when she and her baby will leave the
birth site for home, based on their conditions and circumstances.** 
