Categories: For Midwives

Organizations providing leadership and education in midwifery.

If you need material that will help you explain the rationale for midwifery care to your patients, to other health professionals, to the media, or to your legislators, check in with The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS), a coalition of individuals and national organizations with concern for the care and well-being of mothers, babies, and families. Their mission is to promote a wellness model of maternity care that will improve birth outcomes and substantially reduce costs. This evidence-based mother-, baby-, and family-friendly model focuses on prevention and wellness as the alternatives to high-cost screening, diagnosis, and treatment programs. Their website offers an excellent resource entitled "The Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative," an evidence-based document which provides guidelines for identifying and designating mother-friendly birth sites including hospitals, birth centers, and home-birth services. The Initiative outlines ten steps for mother-friendly care and includes as a requirement that mother-friendly birthing services also qualify as "baby-friendly" according to the World Health Organization's guidelines. A consumer version of the Initiative, "Having a Baby? Ten Questions to Ask" is also available. Both versions can be downloaded, printed, and distributed freely, as long as CIMS is credited.

Another organization that promotes the midwifery model of care and provides excellent educational materials for patients is the Maternity Center Association. They offer a Statement of the Rights of Childbearing Women as well as other patient education materials. Some of these can be copied or downloaded without charge, as long as MCA is credited.

Citizens for Midwifery is the only national consumer-based group promoting the Midwives Model of Care! CfM works to provide information and resources that promote the local midwife, as well as midwives and midwifery care across the country.

The Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the midwifery model of care as the quality health care option for women and families. Its mission is honoring women, changing lives, and building a healthy world through the midwifery model of care.

MIDIRS (Midwives Information and Resource Service) is an English midwifery organization whose mission is "to be the central source of information relating to childbirth and to disseminate this information to midwives and others both nationally and internationally thereby contributing to the improvement of maternity care." This is a great site, updated constantly with research, news, and information about midwifery and childbirth.