Natural Pregnancy Resources
Find research, statistics and reading material about natural pregnancy here.
Books | Research | Statistics
Books
- Natural Pregnancy
- Aviva Romm
- Having a Baby Naturally
- Peggy O'Mara
- Rediscovering Birth
- Sheila Kitzinger
- Organic Pregnancy
- Deirdre Dolan
- The Thinking Woman's Guide to Childbirth
- Henci Goer
- Birth Your Way: Choosing Birth at Home or in a Birth Center
- Sheila Kitzinger
- Active Birth
- Janet Balaskas
- Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife
- Peggy Vincent
- Birthing from Within
- Pam England and Rob Horowitz
- The Birth Partner
- Penny Simkin
- Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First
- Marsden Wagner
- The Breastfeeding Cafe
- Barbara Behrmann
- Gentle Birth Choices
- Barbara Harper
- Giving Birth: A Journey into the World of Mothers and Midwives
- Catherine Taylor
- The Official Lamaze Guide: Giving Birth with Confidence
- Judith Lothian and Charlotte DeVries
- Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
- Ina May Gaskin
- The Nurturing Touch At Birth
- Polly Perez
- Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn
- Penny Simkin, Janet Whalley, and Ann Keppler
- When Survivors Give Birth
- Penny Simkin and Phyllis Klaus
- Your Amazing Newborn
- Marshall and Phyllis Klaus
Research
Wax JR, Pinette MG, Cartin A, et al. Maternal and newborn morbidity by birth facility among selected United States 2006 low-risk births. Am J
Obstet Gynecol 2010;202:152.e1-5
CPM 2000 Study Summary: Planned Home Births are Safe - Fact Sheet
CPM2000 Study - CfM Press Release - Press Release
CPM2000 Study Published in BMJ - Press Release
Making Normal Birth a Reality, UK Consensus Statement from the Maternity Care Working Group
U.S. Centers for Disease Control
British Medical Journal
World Health Organization
Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy
Statistics
- Midwives are the most common birth attendants in the world
- In the United States, midwives attended 297,902, or 9.5% of all births in 2000
- Approximately 40,588 or 1% are births at home
- Taos County New Mexico has the highest percentage of home births nationally at almost 25%. This is due to a long history of midwives and their continuity in the health system
- There are 5,700 nurse-midwives in practice in the US
- There are 1,215 Certified Professional Midwives
- There are 10 MEAC accredited direct entry midwifery schools in the US
- There are 47 ACNM accredited nurse-midwifery education programs in the US
- Outcomes of Planned Home births with a Certified Professional Midwife in 2000
- 98.4 % of all the mothers were in good health after birth
- 98.3% of all the babies were in good health after birth
- 99% initiated breastfeeding and 95.8% were still breastfeeding at 6 weeks!
- Episiotomy rate = 2.1% (compared to 33.0%)
- Cesarean Section rate = 3.7% (compared to 19% nationally) - It is now up to 30 % nationally
- Infant mortality rate = 1.7 in 1000 live births (similar to hospital outcomes for low risk)
- No maternal deaths
The Farm Midwives, under the direction of Ina May Gaskin, had a 98.6% success rate for vaginal birth and only 1.4 cesarean rate while nationally the c-section rate was 24.4%! To read more midwives statistics from the Farm visit: www.inamay.com/statistics.php
