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Milbank Report: Evidence-Based Maternity CareWhat are the key findings of Evidence-Based Maternity Care?
Poor quality care and unacceptable health outcomes affect a very large population — there are over 4.3 million births in the United States every year. And they impact babies during their most sensitive and important period of development and younger, primarily healthy women. Further, private insurers (covering 51% of all births) and Medicaid programs (covering 42%) are getting poor value for their considerable investment in maternity care. This translates to wasted resources for taxpayers, employers and families themselves. Maternity care plays a major role in the health care system. Hospital charges for mothers and babies far exceed charges for any other condition, and cesarean section is the most common operating room procedure in the country. However, there is good news: a large body of rigorous systematic reviews is available now to point the way toward improved care, health and use of resources. The Evidence-Based Maternity Care report (PDF) highlights best evidence that, if widely implemented, would have a positive impact on many mothers and babies and would improve value for payers. The report also identifies barriers to providing evidence-based maternity care, and presents policy recommendations to address the barriers. What are top implications for policy makers, childbearing women and maternity professionals?Policymakers can play an important role in improving quality, health outcomes and resource use by addressing barriers to evidence-based maternity care. Recommendations for addressing barriers in the new report (PDF) fall in four areas: measuring performance and leveraging results, fixing perverse financial incentives, educating the key groups, and filling priority research gaps.Childbearing women need to understand that maternity care that is routinely available often is not in the best interest of themselves and their babies. Pregnant women have the right and responsibility to become informed and make wise choices — for example, their choice of caregiver, birth setting and specific procedures, drugs and tests. Becoming informed and taking responsibility can be a big task — and can have very big pay-offs. Health professionals need to recognize that usual ways of practicing frequently do not reflect the best evidence about safe, effective maternity care. The field of pregnancy and childbirth care ushered in the era of evidence-based practice: many hundreds of currently underutilized systematic reviews point the way to improved maternity practice and outcomes. The Evidence-Based Maternity Care report (PDF) identifies dozens of reviews that are relevant to care of a large segment of the maternal-newborn population. Engaging with the unparalleled move for health care quality and patient safety can improve professional performance and satisfaction and reduce risk of liability. How was the new report developed?The authors of Evidence-Based Maternity Care (PDF), Carol Sakala and Maureen Corry, are senior staff at Childbirth Connection. Their long involvement with evidence-based maternity care includes planning and leading Childbirth Connection's national program to promote such care over the past decade.Childbirth Connection, the Reforming States Group and the Milbank Memorial Fund collaborated in planning, developing and issuing the report, including formulating policy recommendations.
Many national policy, quality and maternity care leaders provided detailed feedback on report drafts and further strengthened the final report (PDF). Most recent page update: 4/20/2010
© 2010 Childbirth Connection. All rights reserved.
Childbirth Connection is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1918 as Maternity Center Association. Our mission is to improve the quality of maternity care through research, education, advocacy and policy. Childbirth Connection promotes safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care and is a voice for the needs and interests of childbearing families. |
News and Features
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. New Pregnancy Video Library Available
Our new Video Library features links to a wealth of resources for health professionals as well as for women who are planning pregnancy, are pregnant or are new mothers. Visit the Video Library  "2020 Vision" and "Blueprint for Action" Reports Available Learn about Transforming Maternity Care project Read the "2020 Vision" Read the "Blueprint for Action" Read the Consumer Workgroup report Help implement Blueprint recommendations Listen to report release event audio, 1/2010 eNews Sign Up
Help Transform Maternity Care! Rising Maternal Mortality
Updated Maternity Care Statistics Available
US Cochrane Center (USCC)/Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare (CUE) Evidence-Based Maternity Care Report Released New Mothers Speak Out National Report Released New Content!
 Journey to Parenthood Full Book Available Online! A family-friendly book covering the trimesters, pregnancy resources, and the latest information on baby's first year of development. Available online (free) and for purchase in the Bookstore. Browse through Journey to Parenthood  Buy this book and learn more
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"I just wish I had more support and kindness from the nurses with trying to breastfeed. I kept it up but I can see how many women stop very soon after giving birth."
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.)
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