ACNM Cites Study: Nurse-Midwives Provide Equivalent Maternity Care for Less Money

8/4/2003

From: Shawn Farley of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, 202-728-9876, e-mail: sfarley@acnm.org

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 -- A recent study published in the June 2003 edition of American Journal of Public Health documents that low-risk patients receiving collaborative midwifery care have birth success rates comparable to those who saw only physicians, at far less cost to the health care system.

The two and a half year prospective cohort study, funded by the U.S. Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, utilizing concurrent comparison groups totaling 2,957 women, revealed that mothers receiving collaborative/birth center/midwifery care:

-- Spent less time in the birth center/hospital

-- Experienced fewer cesarean births

-- Experienced fewer vacuum or forceps assisted vaginal births

-- Underwent fewer episiotomies

-- Experienced less induction of labor

-- Experienced less technical intervention

-- Received more services from the California Comprehensive Perinatal Program

The study also revealed similar morbidity, preterm birth, and low-birth weight rates among women receiving collaborative midwifery care and those who saw only physicians.

According to the researchers, "Because these resources and procedures are major determinants of the cost of perinatal care, managed care organizations, state and local governments, and obstetric providers should consider inclusion of collaborative management/birth center programs in their array of covered or offered services."

American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) Executive Director Deanne Williams, CNM, MS, calls the study yet another reputable validation of the value of midwifery care. "If you truly care about what is good for women and our nation's economy we cannot afford to provide intensive medical intervention to women who don't need it, while truly high risk women go without the care they deserve," said Williams.

The number of nurse-midwife attended births has doubled in the past five years, now totaling over 10 percent of vaginal births nationwide. Nurse-midwives are fully licensed in every state, and have prescriptive authority in 48 of the 50 states.

For more information on birth centers, or to find a birth center near you, visit http://www.birthcenters.org. To arrange an interview with a local ACNM member, contact Shawn Farley at 202-728-9876 or e-mail: sfarley@acnm.org.