OB’s Encouraged to Use a More Hands-Off Approach-To Act Like MIDWIVES

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee on Obstetric practice released a Committee Opinion called Approaches to Limit Intervention During Labor and Birth this month.

ACOG’s Well-Written, Evidence-Based Paper Encourages Obstetric Providers to:

• Provide individualized care
• Delay admission when appropriate with patients whose water is broken or in early labor,
• Use treatment modalities other than epidurals and Pitocin
• Stop depending on continuous fetal monitoring as a babysitter and instead, use human beings to care for patients
• Stop telling a woman how to push out her baby, especially when she is not numb

ACOG is essentially telling the doctors and some medically-minded Midwives to practice like MIDWIVES. The Midwifery Model of Care fully recognizes the normalcy of pregnancy, birth and lactation but also recognizes the inherent autonomy associated with childbirth. A provider does not need to be a Midwife to practice according to this Model. One just needs to recognize that the normal physiology of the human body cannot be improved upon. Medical intervention is only appropriate when the pathology is present.

The Cochrane database is the recognized Gold Standard for Evidence-based Medicine. In April 2016, the Cochrane Database published an article called Midwife-led continuity models of care compared with other models of care for women during pregnancy, birth and early parenting.

The Cochrane Paper Found that Women who Received Midwife-Led Continuity of Care:

• Were less likely to have an epidural
• Had fewer episiotomies or instrumental births
• Had an increased chance of a spontaneous vaginal birth and there was no difference in the number of caesarean births.
• Were less likely to experience preterm birth
• Had a lower risk of losing their babies
• Were more likely to be cared for in labour by midwives they already knew

The review identified no adverse effects compared with other models!

The Cochrane Paper Concludes:

Most women should be offered ‘midwife-led continuity of care’

When your friends tell you that they think they should see a doctor so they get the “best” care, remind them that both ACOG and the Cochrane database agree that Midwifery care is a BETTER way to achieve desirable outcomes rather than routine Obstetric care in this country. YAY Midwives!!