The birth center model of care: Staffing, business characteristics, and core clinical outcomes.

OBJECTIVES: Interest in expanding access to the birth center model is growing. The purpose of this research is to describe birth center staffing models and business characteristics and explore relationships to perinatal outcomes. METHODS: This descriptive analysis includes a convenience sample of all 84 birth center sites that participated in the AABC Site Survey and AABC Perinatal Data Registry between 2012 and 2020. Selected independent variables include staffing model (CNM/CM or CPM/LM), legal entity status, birth volume/year, and hours of midwifery call/week. Perinatal outcomes include rates of induction of labor, cesarean birth, exclusive breastfeeding, birthweight in pounds, low APGAR scores, and neonatal intensive care admission. RESULTS: The birth center model of care is demonstrated to be safe and effective, across a variety of staffing and business models. Outcomes for both CNM/CM and CPM/LM models of care exceed national benchmarks for perinatal quality with low induction, cesarean, NICU admission, and high rates of breastfeeding. Within the sample of medically low-risk multiparas, variations in clinical outcomes were correlated with business characteristics of the birth center, specifically annual birth volume. Increased induction of labor and cesarean birth, with decreased success breastfeeding, were present within practices characterized as high volume (>200 births/year). The research demonstrates decreased access to the birth center model of care for Black and Hispanic populations. CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: Between 2012 and 2020, 84 birth centers across the United States engaged in 90,580 episodes of perinatal care. Continued policy development is necessary to provide risk-appropriate care for populations of healthy, medically low-risk consumers.

The Family Health and Birth Center--a nurse-midwife-managed center in Washington, DC.

The Family Health and Birth Center (FHBC) is a family- and community-centered collaborative partnership designed to address the needs of women and families in the geographic area known as Ward 5 in Washington, DC. This community is predominantly low-income and African American; however, in recent years, a growing Latina and middle-income white population have sought out FHBC's services. Based on the midwifery model, FHBC provides prenatal care and midwifery-supported and -attended births in the freestanding birth center or at the nearby Washington Hospital Center. Through the collaborative partnership housed in a former supermarket and known as the Developing Families Center (DFC), FHBC works closely with the Healthy Babies Project and the United Planning Organization's Early Childhood Development Center. The aim of these partnerships is to provide midwifery-supported prenatal and birthing care within a framework of understanding the social context of health care. Together, the DFC/FHBC collaborative partnership provides a comprehensive system of health care for this predominantly underserved population. The purpose of this article is to highlight the FHBC--our perspective on the history of the founding of this center as a nurse-midwife-led model of care. Included in this issue is a comparative case study conducted by Palmer et al at the Urban Institute that systematically contrasts the care provided by three different models of maternity care serving low-income African American women in Washington, DC. Using qualitative methodology, the study analyzes the content and delivery of care, and the cost-effectiveness of FHBC as compared to a large city hospital and a federally qualified health care center. Study findings indicate that the combined elements of nurse-midwife-led maternal and child care with a focus on the social and educational context of pregnancy, birth, and infant/toddler better meet the needs of the population than do the comparison models.