American College
of  Community Midwives 

General Content

The word  "midwife"   in 17 languages

Hot Links to 
URLs of Interest for MedLine, Grateful Med & Library of Medicine

British Medical Journal   2005;330:1416 (18 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7505.1416

Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: 
                                                      large prospective study in North America

         Kenneth C Johnson, senior epidemiologist, Betty-Anne Daviss, project manager

Editor's Note: Many of the LMs in California were participants in this study and contributed statistics from our own home birth practices.

March 13, 2006 Press Release:   
Paper on Planned Home Birth in British Medical Journal ~  most popular study published in 2005 

 Peer-Reviewed & Cited Articles 

Deliveries in maternity homes in Norway:
results from a 2-year prospective study
Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 2002 Aug;81 (8):731-7 

British Medical Journal 2002;324:892-895 ( 13 April )
Has the medicalisation of childbirth gone too far?

Canadian Medical Association article
Safety of planned home births versus planned hospital
 births after regulation of midwifery in British Columbia

"Home Birth?  Hello?"
 Poem by Irish Midwife Marie O'Connor

W.H.O. Defines Normal Childbirth

UK Site on Safety Home-based Birth Care 

    12 Fact Sheets on Safety of Midwifery Model of Care 

American Medical Literature on the Safety of Home Birth
17 abstracts from professional, peer-reviewed US sources

Citizens for Midwifery  ~ Link to Midwifery Consumer Group  

  UCSF "Consent for Patients Planning Home Birth"
Sample of Home-birth Friendly Hospital Backup arrangements
 
UCSF Center for the Health Professions - Taskforce on Midwifery

  Search for a Midwife @ MidwifeInfo.com   Consumer Information ~

   Official Plan to Eliminate the Midwife ~

Historical Story Midwifery Politics ~
                                                                                                  1820 & 1881 Hx Documents

Excerpts from Synopsis Cochrane Effective Guide to Pregnency Care Data Base 
Systemic Review of Evidence-based Maternity Care1

  Excellent Book Review ~ Dr. Tom Strong, "Expecting Trouble", an expose
on the failure of current obstetrician-dominated form of maternity care 

Top 15 Discharge Diagnoses 1992 - California Hospitals - OSHPD 1995

Expansion of Reproductive Freedom to Include Mfry Model of Care
Resolution passed by the National Organization for Women, July 1999:

Links to articles on midwifery safety by Dr. Marsden Wagner, 
California perinatalogist, formerly the Regional Officer for Women's 
and Children's Health at the European Regional Office 
of the World Health Organization

     The Safety of Alternative Approaches to Childbirth by 
Dr. Peter Peter Schlenzka, PhD, Stanford University, March 1999

  Home Birth Literature Review -- Bibliography of 74 Peer-Reviewed Studies

Available On-Line: "Is Homebirth For You? 6 Myths About Childbirth Exposed."    
Editor: Janet Tipton,  originally published in 1990 by Friends of Homebirth.

British Medical Journal Editorial documenting the safety of home-based birth services

Comments by family physicians on safety of home-based midwifery care, 
evidence-based medicine and a simple definition of the scope of midwifery

Comments on Home-based Midwifery by David Stuwart, PhD., NAPSAC

Ten Published Studies on the safety of home-based midwifery

Home Birth and Out-of-Hospital Birth: Is it Safe?
A review of literature regarding 
home and hospital birth safety 

The Science & Safety of  Community-based Midwifery 
& the Physiological Foundation of Evidenced-based Midwifery Care, 
with Information on Medical Interface for ACOG members

Why midwives prefer that childbearing mothers 
have unmedicated labors and births

Birth After 40 signals Long Life Ahead Study finds

  Recent Ob.Gyn publication carries 3 articles praising  midwives --
  Midwife's Level of Experience Key plus Rules for Successful Collaboration

MDs find Midwives Offer High Standard of Care

Midwife present Solutions to Arrested Second Stage Labor

Article from Bandolier Evidence-based Health Care web site  
  ~  Oxford for the NHS R&D  /  August 1998 Issue  54 

  The GP's guide to home birth  
~  advise for General Practitioners in the UK

Barbara Harper's Water Birth Site

Ranking Infant Mortality in Industrialized Countries:

The U.S. ranks #23 in infant mortality, meaning 22 other countries have lower infant mortality rates.

 Countries which fare better than the U.S. are 
Japan, 
Finland, 
Sweden, 
Hong Kong, Singapore, 
Canada, 
Germany, 
Switzerland, 
Norway, 
Netherlands, 
France, 
N. Ireland, etc... 

Most of these countries use midwives to attend the majority of normal, healthy births, and homebirth is still quite normal in the Scandinavian countries.

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