Childbirth Connection Reports, Fact Sheets, and Other Original Publications
This page provides access to the many publications available on this website. Topics include the U.S. maternity care system and how to improve it, women's experience of childbearing, best evidence about specific maternity practices, and support for maternity care decision making. These reports, facts sheets, and other documents are for consumers, health professionals, policy makers, and others concerned with the quality of care for childbearing women.
Major Publications
Fact Sheets, Handouts, and Other Resources
Systematic Reviews
About Childbirth Connection
Publications from Others
Major Publications
Transforming Maternity Care Project Childbirth Connection brought together more than 100 health care leaders to develop two direction-setting reports, "2020 Vision for a High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care System" and "Blueprint for Action." These reports were the culmination of over two years' collaborative multi-stakeholder work aimed at reversing troubling trends and achieving high-quality, high-value maternity care.These and related materials are also available on the Transforming Maternity Care website.
- 2020 Vision for a High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care System
- Blueprint for Action
- Stakeholder Workgroup Reports on Priorities for Moving to a High Quality, High Value Maternity Care System from the perspective of:
- Two Birth Stories: An Allegory to Compare Experiences in Current and Envisioned Maternity Care Systems (PDF)
- Diagram: Transforming Maternity Care Planning Phase Process
- Key Informant Interview Summary
- Project Leadership List
- Press Release (PDF)
Listening to Mothers Survey ReportChildbirth Connection's landmark Listening to Mothers surveys polled women in the United States for the first time at the national level about their maternity experiences. The surveys shed light on women's attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and behaviors as well as maternity care practices and outcomes. Survey questionnaires and other related documents are also available in the Listening to Mothers section.
- Listening to Mothers I (PDF)
- Listening to Mothers II (PDF) and New Mothers Speak Out (PDF)
- Listening to Mothers III (PDF)
Maternity Care and LiabilityThis comprehensive report from Childbirth Connection examines a longstanding concern in maternity care: medical liability. Reviewing the best available evidence, it shows that many widely held beliefs about maternity care and liability lack empirical support. Despite these troubling findings, the report presents 10 supported strategies for reform. Simultaneous with its release, Women's Health Issues published related materials.
- Maternity Care and Liability: Pressing Problems, Substantive Solutions (PDF)
- Table of Maternity Quality Improvement Strategies with Potential to Reduce Liability PDF)
- 10 Fact Sheets on Topics of Interest for Maternity Care and Liability (PDF)
The Cost of Having a Baby in the United StatesCommissioned by Childbirth Connection, Catalyst for Payment Reform, and the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, this in-depth report examines the many areas of maternity care that impose high costs on women and payers, often regardless of quality or value. The many separate analyses provided in the study compare variables from across the maternity care spectrum. The conclusions of the report highlight the need to better align maternity care payment and quality.
- The Cost of Having a Baby in the United States, full report (PDF)
- Executive Summary (PDF)
Evidence-Based Maternity CareChildbirth Connection released Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What It Is and What It Can Achieve in collaboration with Milbank Memorial Fund and the Reforming States Group. The report highlights best evidence practices that, if widely implemented, would have a positive impact on many mothers and babies and would improve value for payers.
- Milbank Report - Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What It Is and What It Can Achieve (PDF)
- State-level Milbank table: Performance on maternal and newborn indicators health (PDF)
- Press Release (PDF)
What Every Pregnant Woman Needs To Know About Cesarean Section After carefully evaluating hundreds of studies, Childbirth Connection put together What Every Pregnant Woman Needs To Know About Cesarean Section. This comprehensive booklet aims to help pregnant women to understand the harms and benefits of cesarean delivery compared with vaginal birth and make informed decisions.
- What Every Pregnant Woman Needs To Know About Cesarean Section (PDF)
- Vaginal or Cesarean Birth: What Is at Stake for Women and Babies? (PDF)
Journey to ParenthoodChildbirth Connection prepared Journey to Parenthood to help guide women and their families through the childbearing experience. The booklet details the physiologic processes of pregnancy and birth and provides help understanding many options and choices along the way.
- Journey to Parenthood
- Journey to Parenthood - Spanish Translation (PDF)
- Journey to Parenthood - Mandarin Translation (PDF)
Rights of Childbearing WomenThe Rights of Childbearing Women pamphlet outlines a set of basic maternity rights that Childbirth Connection has adapted from widely accepted human rights and promotes for all childbearing women. Consideration and respect for every woman under all circumstances is the foundation of this statement of rights.
- The Rights of Childbearing Women (PDF)
- Purchase The Rights of Childbearing Women in our Bookstore
- Ask permission to use The Rights of Childbearing Women for educational and advocacy purposes
Fact Sheets, Handouts, and Other Resources
Childbirth Connection fact sheets and resources provide information on pregnancy topics, as well as maternity care quality indicators, interventions, costs, and policy. We have also produced decision tool handouts that can help women make informed decisions and receive care that is in line with their values and preferences.Maternity Care Fact Sheets and Information (PDF)
- United States Maternity Care Facts and Figures (frequently updated)
- Average Facility Labor and Birth Charge by Site and Mode of Birth, United States, 2008-2010 (chart)
- Quick Facts About Induction of Labor
- Listening to Mothers... About Induction of Labor
- Listening to Mothers... About Cesarean Section
- Comparison of Former and Current ACOG VBAC Practice Bulletins
- Childbirth Connection's maternity care in health care reform statement
- 10 Ways You Can Get Good Maternity Care
- Which Due Date Should I Use?
- Questions for a Midwife
- Questions for a Physician
- Questions to Ask When Touring a Hospital
- Questions to Ask When Touring a Birth Center
- Questions for a Caregiver Who May Attend Your Home Birth
- Questions for A Doula
Systematic Reviews
A rigorous systematic review of original studies gives the best possible answers to questions about the benefits and harms of specific health interventions. To foster women's access to informed decision making and evidence-based maternity care, Childbirth Connection fosters uptake of published systematic reviews and commissions and occasionally carries out systematic reviews and other research to fill important gaps in knowledge.- Vaginal or Cesarean Birth? What Is At Stake For Women and Babies (PDF)
- Continuous Support for Women During Childbirth (Cochrane Review) (PDF)
- The Nature and Management of Labor Pain: Executive Summary (PDF)
- Evidence Columns: Current Resources for Evidence-Based Practice
About Childbirth Connection
90 Years, Baby! (PDF)Childbirth Connection celebrated 90 years of maternity care quality improvement in 2008! To mark this special anniversary, we created a timeline highlighting major milestones over nine decades and ending with the organization's current focus on policy as a core strategy for meeting the needs of childbearing women and their families.
Publications from Others
Childbirth Connection has permission to make some publications of others available on our website. These works reflect our mission of promoting safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care for women and childbearing families.
Comfort in Labor (PDF)In Comfort in Labor, Penny Simkin, internationally recognized leader in childbirth education and labor support, shares her wisdom with women, including comfort measures, effective positions, and tips for partners and doulas.
© 2013 Childbirth Connection. All rights reserved.
Childbirth Connection is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1918 as Maternity Center Association. Our mission is to improve the quality of maternity care through research, education, advocacy and policy. Childbirth Connection promotes safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care and is a voice for the needs and interests of childbearing families.
Childbirth Connection is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1918 as Maternity Center Association. Our mission is to improve the quality of maternity care through research, education, advocacy and policy. Childbirth Connection promotes safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care and is a voice for the needs and interests of childbearing families.
Most recent page update: 5/16/2013