Birth Centers - Needed now more than ever

Maternity care in the United States is in crisis. Childbearing families face mounting challenges in accessing quality, affordable maternity care. Maternal and infant health outcomes are not improving, and some are deteriorating. In light of the increasing use of technology, with resultant rising cost, and increasing lack of support for physiologic birth, without associated improvements in outcomes, innovative models of maternity care are needed. The birth center offers such a model. Birth centers have 35-years of experience providing high quality care at cost savings. We have built a solid foundation for growth with national standards, state licensure and national accreditation. The midwifery-led, collaborative model of maternity care in birth center is a cost-effective model that promotes physiologic birth with an emphasis on evidence-based maternity care. Data from the American Association of Birth Centers' national data registry, the Uniform Data Set, suggests that this model achieves excellent perinatal outcomes with far less use of expensive interventions that appear to increase the risk of adverse outcomes. We present the first national study of this model of care since the landmark National Birth Center Study. The report describes characteristics of over 70 birth center practices, as well as prospective data from 30,000 women presenting for prenatal care intending birth center birth from January, 2007 through December, 2010, including demographics and medical, social and perinatal risk factors. Care and outcomes are described for 16,000 women admitted to a birth center in labor and their infants, including those transferred to the hospital.