Access to Obstetric Newborn Services
Whereas: There is every indication that freestanding birth centers, whether operated by midwives, hospitals, or physicians, and whether for profit or not for profit, will become a widely-accepted community health care facility, and
Whereas: It is critical to the health and safety of the childbearing public that they be established as low cost, low risk ambulatory facilities that are part of the health care and hospital system of the community, and
Whereas: The freestanding birth center requires a joint practice relationship between obstetric/ neonatal specialists and nurse-midwives and/or family practice physicians, and
Whereas: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American College of Nurse-Midwives have adopted a joint statement of Practice Relationships between the two professions which recommends "access to practice within the hospital setting," and
Whereas: Interdependent and shared facility and client services have been agreed upon between hospitals and birth centers through mutually drafted policies and procedures for referral and transfer, or through physician and/or midwife staff privileges, and
Whereas: Each profession and each facility assumes responsibility for setting standards for their own practice and institution, for implementing quality assurance through a review process, for providing individual professional malpractice insurance; therefore...
Be It Resolved That: In order to assure the safety of the childbearing public choosing care in the freestanding birth center, the American Association of Birth Centers (a.k.a. the National Association of Childbearing Centers) recommends that physician consultants and hospital obstetric newborn services assure access to acute care services without discrimination. This assurance may be provided through the customary mechanism of physician and/or midwife staff practice privileges or through mutually drafted policies and procedures concerning referral or transfer of clients from one facility to another.
Adopted by AABC Board of Directors: November 11, 1983
Collaboration is Key
"Collaborative work by the physician and the nurse-midwife gives clients with many types of pregnancy complications the benefits and familiarity of continued midwifery care while adding the needed obstetrical care."