WASHINGTON (June 23, 2009)—Everyday, health care professionals subject laboring women and their babies to harmful, unnecessary practices. To turn the tide in favor of care designed to promote healthy outcomes for moms and their babies, the National Quality Forum (NQF) has proposed a set of 17 new perinatal standards.
The NQF’s mission is “to improve the quality of American healthcare by setting national priorities and goals for performance improvement, endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance…” The new perinatal standards include guidelines for cesarean surgery rates for low risk, first-birth women; exclusive breastfeeding at hospital discharge; and elective delivery prior to 39 completed weeks of gestation.
“These standards are an idea whose time has come,” says Lamaze International President-Elect Sharon Dalrymple, RN, BN, MEd, LCCE, FACCE. “Since 1960, Lamaze International has been championing transparency in maternity care. Part of NQF’s mission is to standardize measurement in care settings and encourage accountability and public reporting. We see this as a giant step forward for holding care providers and hospitals responsible.”
The NQF standards create a unique opportunity for childbirth educators to work with physicians, midwives, nurses and administrators to design protocols. Lamaze International encourages childbirth educators and others with an interest in shaping these protocols to view the Six Care Practices that Support Normal Birth at www.lamaze.org. The Six Care Practices can help care providers understand which evidence-based care practices can yield the most positive outcomes for their patients.
A recent article published in The Journal of Perinatal Education discusses the NQF’s goals as well as the National Priorities Partnership’s report, National Priorities and Goals: Aligning Our Efforts to Transform America’s Healthcare. The National Priorities Partnership specifically identified reducing unnecessary maternity-care interventions, particularly targeting unnecessary cesarean surgeries. As the level of quality maternal care in the United States continues to decline, both the NQF’s and The National Priorities Partnership’s stances should be seen as an alarm call that now is the time for action.
Lamaze International recommends childbirth educators, care professionals and anyone else concerned with these issues contact with their local hospital or birth network to learn more about how they can get involved to start improving the quality of care given to mothers and babies.
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About Lamaze International
Lamaze International promotes a natural, healthy and safe approach to pregnancy, childbirth and early parenting practices. Knowing that pregnancy and childbirth can be demanding on a woman’s body and mind, Lamaze serves as a resource for information about what to expect and what choices are available during the childbearing years. Lamaze education and practices are based on the best, most current medical evidence available. Working closely with their families, health care providers and Lamaze educators, millions of pregnant women have achieved their desired childbirth outcomes using Lamaze practices. Visit www.lamaze.org for more information.
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