Evidenced Based Care and Informed Consent

Childbirth Connection
Childbirth Connection—formerly The Maternity Center Association—has defined “Evidence-based Maternity Care” and offers resources on Informed Decision Making, Informed Consent and Informed Refusal. This comprehensive site offers articles on evidence-based care on a variety of topics, such as “The Rights of Childbearing Women”.

The Childbirth Connection website offers a full-text version of the 3rd edition of A Guide to Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth, which is an overview of results of the best available research about the effects of specific maternity practices. The book brings together the concerted work of a large international network of researchers, administrators, and consumers.

Childbirth Connection developed the First National U.S. Survey of Women’s Childbearing Experiences called Listening to Mothers , a survey to better understand women’s maternity experiences and ways to improve these experiences. This historic survey is the first time that women in the U.S. have been systematically polled at the national level about their maternity experiences. The survey focuses the discussion of maternity care in the U.S. on the people who care about it most: mothers themselves.

Childbirth Connection also created the comprehensive booklet “What Every Pregnant Woman Should Know About Cesarean Section 2006”

Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth
Founded upon Six Care Practices That Support Normal Birth, the Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth is an evidence-based resource for new and expectant parents and childbirth professionals.

Articles of Interest:
“10 Tips for a Normal Birth”
“Ten Tips for a Healthy Pregnancy”
“What is a Birth Network”?
"Appropriate Use of Interventions"