The COVID-19 pandemic brought new pressure on the healthcare workforce, and midwives were no exception. Because maternity care is essential, midwives quickly reorganized their practices to reduce the risk of transmission. Midwives work within regulations that sometimes restrict their...
700 women die annually in the United States due to conditions caused by or related to pregnancy. For another 500,000 women, severe morbidities or ‘near misses’ complicate their pregnancies, deliveries, or first postpartum year. Women in the US are...
Professional guidelines can have a profound impact on reproductive health. In many cases, prenatal genetic screening is often only recommended for specific groups or individuals who have been historically recognized as high risk. Unfortunately, this approach results in missed...
Routine and universal alcohol screening is an effective strategy to prevent prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE).
The American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) encourages all certified nurse-midwives (CNMs), certified midwives (CMs), and other reproductive health professionals to conduct universal alcohol screening as...
Shoulder dystocia is a phrase that strikes fear in many of us – fear of it happening, fear of not managing the problem fast enough, fear of causing injury while trying to relieve it, and fear of legal ramifications....
Recent national attention combined with a strong body of evidence has recognized the deleterious impact of equating weight with health. For example, James Corden on the Late Late Show responded to a fat-shaming monologue from Bill Maher, arguing that...
The Bumpy Road to Perinatal Health Equity
The Paradox
In 1963, during “A Talk to Teachers,” James Baldwin described the paradox of education as, “precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience, you must find yourself at war...
The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is a well-known screening tool for clinical use in identifying perinatal depression symptoms and risk for perinatal depression. Did you know the EPDS also can be used to identify anxiety symptoms? Three items...
Where is the safest place to give birth? This question was just one of many brought to the forefront of American health care discussions in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for community-based, rapidly evolving healthcare solutions, and...
In March and April of 2020, our home birth practice phone rang constantly and email inquiries through our website came in multiple times a day. This immediate change in demand for community birth care pushed midwives to adapt their practices...