Data Collection for Normal Birth™
The AABC Uniform Data Set (UDS) is an online data registry that will be collecting data for the AABC's "National Study of Optimal Birth." The UDS, developed over the past ten years, is designed to uniformly collect comprehensive data on both the process and outcomes of the midwifery model of care. It is anticipated that a large set of prospective data collected simultaneously from all providers in all settings - hospital, birth center and home - will make an important contribution to our ability to evaluate and improve the delivery of care to today's childbearing women and families. Not only will users of the UDS be contributing to a landmark research project for midwifery but they will also have the ability to use their own practice's data in a multitude of ways.
The "National Birth Center Study," published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1989, has been rated the premiere research on modern midwifery by nurse-midwifery researchers. Wouldn't you like to be part of a more recent and more comprehensive study to support your services?
The National Study of Optimal Birth has the potential to collect and report the data on 100-200,000 midwifery births annually. Think about the value of that information when talking to insurers, legislators, regulators, and the mothers you serve.
This invitation is especially important and timely for providing the factual information so many policy makers are looking for as they work to reform the health care system to make it more responsive to the needs of the people and more affordable for all.
Exciting, Important, and Ambitious!
"The AABC UDS is one of the most exciting, important, and ambitious projects that the AABC has ever undertaken! The ability to have an ongoing collection of comprehensive data on birth center care and outcomes is invaluable to AABC in its role of promoting birth centers as part of the solution to the problems facing maternity care today."
-Susan Stapleton