Fewer than 1% of families in the United States choose planned home birth, yet the subject of birthing at home has been the subject of intense and polarizing debate. Elsewhere in the world (e.g., Canada and the United Kingdom), the majority of babies are delivered by midwives and collaborative efforts across professions seek to expand access to integrated home birth services. Last month, the Transforming Birth Foundation awarded a grant to the American College of Nurse Midwives intended to underwrite a U.S. Home Birth Consensus Summit.
Already three years in the making this much anticipated meeting will be facilitated by the Future Search Network, a nonprofit organization that is internationally known for brokering lasting agreements and shared initiatives in highly volatile and polarized settings, around issues related to poverty, health care access, regional and ethnic conflict, and education.
The Home Birth Consensus Summit will be a two- to three-day multidisciplinary summit with the goal of developing areas of consensus on the provision of home birth services in the United States. Invited participants will include representatives from a variety of stakeholder sectors in positions to inform and influence a change process, and/or commit to measurable steps, including consumers and consumer advocates, home birth midwives, maternal/child health collaborating providers (including pediatrics and nursing), obstetricians (including at least one family practice obstetrician and one resident), hospital systems and administration, health plans and liability insurers, health policymakers, legislators and regulators, and public health, epidemiology, and research professionals.
The successful grant proposal was submitted under the leadership of ACNM Home Birth Section Chair Saraswathi Vedam, RM, CNM, MSN, Sci D (h.c.), Associate Professor and Director, Division of Midwifery, University of British Columbia. Joining ACNM as co-applicants of the grant were Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), American Pediatric Association (APA), National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM), International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC), Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), Lamaze, and American Association of Birth Centers (AABC).
According to a statement from the American College of Nurse-Midwives, “Invited participants will include representatives from a variety of stakeholder sectors in positions to inform and influence a change process, and/or commit to measurable steps, including consumers and consumer advocates, home birth midwives, maternal/child health collaborating providers (including pediatrics and nursing), obstetricians (including at least one family practice obstetrician and one resident), hospital systems and administration, health plans and liability insurers, health policymakers, legislators and regulators, and public health, epidemiology, and research professionals.”
ACNM will provide additional information about the Home Birth Consensus Summit when the dates are established as well as following the meeting. For details visit their website www.midwife.org
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