Need more information or want to research a specific topic related to midwifery?  Here is a list of resources on midwifery topics ranging from peer-reviewed journals to magazines with a focus on the lay public.

The Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, the official publication of the American College of Nurse-Midwives is the primary source of research and review articles related to midwifery practice in the United States. It is sent free of charge to members of the ACNM; subscriptions are available for $99/year in the U.S. from Elsevier Science, www.elsevier.com. (This company also publishes Obstetrics and Gynecology, familiarly known as “the green journal.) Another outstanding journal in the more general field of perinatal care is Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care. While not specifically about midwifery, this peer-reviewed, research-focused journal generally supports the midwifery model of care. Individual subscriptions are $60/year; call toll-free 888-661-5800.

For those who want practical advice, useful techniques, warm fuzzies, a good laugh, support, encouragement…. you need Midwifery Today, the quarterly magazine from Jan Tritten in Eugene, Oregon for $50/year, www.midwiferytoday.com . In addition to the magazine, Midwifery Today offers great conferences in exciting locations, a newsletter, and reviews of books and articles. Another resource to make you feel good about what you do is Cathy Hartt’s Empower! Women as Leaders, with inspirational quotes, midwifery related news tidbits, announcements about topics related to midwifery, and more. Cathy’s monthly publication can be seen online or in print form for the web-deprived. Email her at cathycnm@qwest.net for information or to subscribe, or see her website at www.HarttWeb.com/empower.html – where current and back issues of the quarterly issues are available in PDF files.

For lactation consultants and those with a special interest in breastfeeding, the Journal of Human Lactation covers many important and controversial issues, and includes original research as well as informal exchanges, clinical perspectives, and insights in practices. For more information, visit sagesciencepress.com or email order@sagepub.com.

You can read Contemporary OB/Gyn online; complete articles are reprinted on their website. They also have CME offerings that you can do from the web. In addition, you can access the PDR and the PDR for Herbal Medicines through this site; it is free, but you have to sign up and obtain a user ID and password to log on.

You can also read some articles from The Lancet, the foremost British medical journal, online. If you work for an institution that subscribes to the print edition of the Lancet, you can read the entire publication online; you will need to get some information from your institutional librarian in order to sign up to do this. Check their site to see what you have to do.

The National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health (NCEMCH) seeks to make maternal and child health (MCH) news and policy more accessible to researchers, policymakers, advocates, teachers, and students in the field through its free weekly electronic newsletter, MCH Alert. MCH Alert provides timely MCH research and findings, policy developments, information about recently released publications, new programs and initiatives, and conferences affecting the MCH community. Each Friday, MCH Alert is distributed to hundreds of subscribers across the country via a listserv. Subscribers to this listserv can review archives of past alerts, find subscription information, link to reports and resources discussed in the alerts, and search through past alerts for specific topics. To sign up, send an email to MCHalert@list.ncemch.org