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.