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Written for graduate students and professionals in the fields of midwifery, women's health, and public health, this book explores the freestanding birth center model in the United States from its conception by pioneering midwives and others in the early 1970s through the present day. Compared to the hospital-based birth model, the freestanding birth center offers a better documented, healthier, more cost-effective, and more humane way to care for women and newborns, consistent with the goals of health care legislation. This rapidly expanding model of care has many positive implications for high-quality, individualized care and birth outcomes across the United States.
Written by U.S. leaders in midwifery, Freestanding Birth Centers: Innovation, Evidence, Optimal Outcomes offers a comprehensive guide to the evolving role of birth centers, clinical and cost outcomes, regulatory and legal issues, provider and accreditation issues, and the future of the birth center model. Woven throughout the text are descriptions of "exemplar" birth centers, representing diverse geographical, business, and service models. These cases illustrate the possibilities for expansion and replication of this model of care.
Key Features
- Provides a thorough history of the birth center movement from its inception through future expansion of the model
- Serves as an essential resource with up-to-date evidence on clinical and cost outcomes
- Includes case studies linking the unique service focus of individual birth centers to the associated sections of the book
- Provides practical and comprehensive coverage of all issues involved in implementing and operating a U.S. birth center
Contents
Contributors
Foreword by Ruth Watson Lubic, CNM, EdD, FACNM, FAAN, and Kitty Ernst, CNM, MPH, FACNM
Preface
Acknowledgments
SECTION I. The History and Development of the Freestanding Birth Center Model
1. Organizing for Change: History, Pioneers, and the Formation of a National Organization
Kathryn M. Schrag and Kate E. Bauer
2. Meeting the Need for Innovation in Maternity Care
Diana R. Jolles and Paula Pelletier-Butler
3. The Contemporary Birth Center as Part of an Integrated Care Model
Linda J. Cole
SECTION II. Birth Center Outcomes: The Triple Aim
4. Clinical Outcomes in Birth Centers
Julia C. Phillippi and Kathleen Danhausen
5. A Profile of Birth Center Use in the United States and the Potential Demand for Birth Center Use in the Future
Eugene R. Declercq and Erika R. Cheng
6. Cost Outcomes and Finances of Freestanding Birth Centers
Victoria G. Woo and Neel T. Shah
SECTION III. Political and Regulatory Landscape
7. Care Providers in Freestanding Birth Centers
Autumn Versace Vergo and Kaye Kanne
8. Reaching for Excellence: Birth Center Standards and Accreditation
Susan Rutledge Stapleton and Rosemary Senjem
9. Birth Center Regulation in the United States
Jill Alliman
SECTION IV. Envisioning the Future of the Freestanding Birth Center
10. Enhanced Care Services and Health Homes
Alisha H. Wilkes and Jill Alliman
11. The Role of Birth Centers in Promoting Physiologic Birth
Melissa D. Avery
12. Preparing the Workforce
Barbara A. Anderson, Linda J. Cole, and Jesse S. Bushman
13. Launching a Birth Center
Cynthia Flynn and Brianna Honea Bennett
Appendix: Birth Centers in the Global Arena
Kathryn M. Schrag
Index