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

Authors

Linda J. Cole, DNP, CNM, has spent most of her professional life in full-scope practice at a freestanding birth center, Lisa Ross Birth and Women's Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Dr. Cole joined Frontier Nursing University in 2012 as an assistant professor in the Department of Midwifery and Women's Health.

Melissa D. Avery, PhD, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, is a professor in the School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and directs the nurse-midwifery education program there.

Instructors

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