MINNESOTA BETTER BIRTH COALITION ENVISIONS SAFER, LOWER-COST MATERNITY CARE
The message is simple:  Better birth, lower cost. 

The Minnesota Better Birth Coalition exists to promote better birth at lower cost for all women in Minnesota by organizing public support for legislation that will remove barriers to evidence-based, woman- and family-centered maternity care.  Click "Read More."   For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Susan Lane at 612-810-1544.

2010 efforts continue to promote the doula model of maternity care. The Coalition is working towards third-party reimbursement for doulas. There is disparity in maternity care, which means women who are poor and non-white suffer pregnancy and infant loss and loss of their lives more often than middle class white women. Doula care improves the health of women and their newborns, whether middle class or poor. So doula care is a good investment for insurance companies and federal and state monies. Healthier births with less money - through the tender loving care of doulas.

According to the report, Evidence-Based Maternity Care:  What It Is and What It Can Achieve, current maternity practices are not governed by evidence-based care, which provides the best care with the least harm.  This report, released by the Childbirth Connection, the Reforming States Group, and the Milbank Memorial Fund, makes the case that, despite paying top dollar, women in the United States do not receive top care when it comes to having babies.  

Childbirth and newborn care represent the highest number of hospitalizations.  Therefore, implementation of evidenced-based maternity care presents a significant opportunity for reducing health care costs while, at the same time, improving the quality of care.  Over 1/3 of births in Minnesota are paid for with public dollars, making maternity care a major public policy issue.  No matter who pays for maternity care, using practices that improve health outcomes will lower the cost of care.

About the Minnesota Better Birth Coalition

The Minnesota Better Birth Coalition exists to promote better birth at lower cost for all women in Minnesota by organizing public support for legislation that will remove barriers to evidence-based, woman- and family-centered maternity care.  The following groups, associations, and organizations support the Minnesota Better Birth Coalition:  Bradley Method Childbirth Educators of Minnesota, the Childbirth Collective, Int’l Cesarean Awareness Network of the Twin Cities, the Community Doula Program, Everyday Miracles, Midwifery Now!, Minnesota Council of Certified Professional Midwives, Minnesota State Group for DONA International, Minnesota Int’l Center for Traditional Childbearing, Pregnancy and Postpartum Support Minnesota, Parenting Oasis, and Ten Moons Rising Holistic Family Education, and SpinningBabies.com

Legislative objectives:

Educate and inform parents by setting standards for evidence-based childbirth education programs in hospitals, and requireing full disclosure of the side-effects of the most common medical interventions in childbirth during prenatal visits with medical caregivers.

Fund community-based doula care for all women who want it, especially low-income women and their newborns, who benefit most from doula care.

Increase midwifery care both in hospitals and in homes, and reduce "primary reliance on specialists for providing maternity care to predominantly healthy, low-risk population."*

Address disparities by providing access to childbirth educators, doulas, and midwives from diverse cultural groups.

Mandate VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) availability at all Minnesota hospitals (all that have maternity care services).

Eliminate barriers to free-standing midwife-directed birth centers, such as biased insurance policies for both clients and caregivers, which are not based on solid evidence and actuarial data.

Decrease the risk of postpartum mood disorders by supporting the above initiatives for better birth and educating about the connection between birth care practices and postpartum mental health.

 Increase transparency in maternity care by requiring more detailed reporting of procedures, morbidity, readmissions, and outcomes by caregivers as well as hospitals.

 Enact a family medical leave program.

 Educate midwives and physicians in order to "restore the core of childbearing knowledge and skills among health professionals."*

Susan Lane, leader of the Coalition, says "All legislation is based on the findings of the Milbank report, and the MN Better Birth Coalition exists to pursue the recommendations in that report." See a legislative update at the Spinning Babies blog.

 Evidence-Based Maternity Care: The Best Care with the Least Harm

*Quotations in this document are taken from Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What It is and What It Can Achieve, published by the Milbank Memorial Fund in collaboration with the Reforming States Group and the Childbirth Connection.  This report can be downloaded from www.ChildbirthConnection.org.

Contacts: Susan Lane, Chair, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
612-810-1544 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it         
Janine Stiles
612-616-5509 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Written by Janine Stiles and edited by Gail Tully. 2009

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