At her confirmation hearing last week, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said she thinks it should once again be optional for health plans to cover maternity care.
A New Look (and Updated Content) for ChildbirthConnection.org
We’re pleased to announce the launch of a completely updated ChildbirthConnection.org – our online hub for evidence-based information on childbirth and maternity care.
Activism Can Change the Landscape for Expecting and New Parents
Cross-posted from Lamaze International's "Giving Birth with Confidence."Just as planning carefully for pregnancy and childbirth is important, so too is thinking about how you will protect your family’s economic security once the baby arrives. That responsibility...
Good News for Women and Babies: New Toolkit Aims to Help Providers and Hospitals Support Vaginal Birth and Reduce Number of Unnecessary Cesareans
On the heels of last month’s Cesarean Awareness Month, there has been robust public discussion about how to reduce the high cesarean birth rate in the United States.
Keeping the Momentum Going as Cesarean Awareness Month 2016 Comes to an End
Cesarean Awareness Month has been an important opportunity to raise awareness about the high cesarean section rate in the United States.
When Less is More: Every Mom Deserves a Healthy Childbirth, Every Baby a Healthy Start
The road to a safe and healthy birth in our over-medicalized maternal care system can be like a drive through a foreign city without a map.
Getting to Zero: Sustained Efforts Needed to Eliminate Early Elective Births Among Medicaid Beneficiaries
Early elective delivery (EED), defined as a delivery before 39 weeks of gestation without medical necessity, places women and babies at risk for harm, offers no benefits to either, and increases costs for taxpayers and for women and their families.
For the Sake of Women and Newborns: Strengthen Midwifery
The preeminent medical journal The Lancet has just released its Midwifery Series, a major project to take stock of the contribution of midwifery to the well-being of childbearing women and newborns.
#WhatMothersNeed This Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is here. That means that if you’re like many people, you’ve recently spent some time asking yourself what your mother (or the mothers in your life) need.
What Do Mothers Need? Tools to Make the Best Health Care Choices
As Mother’s Day approaches, we’re making it easier for women to manage their families’ health by providing tools and information to help them use their health insurance to access affordable, quality care and to make the best possible health care choices.
What Do Mothers Need? Quality Maternity Care
As Mother’s Day approaches, we renew our commitment to improving the quality of maternity care so women can enjoy safe, satisfying pregnancies and births, and babies can have a healthy start in life. We ask you to join us.
Helping Pregnant Women Become Partners in Their Care
The quality of maternity care in our country needs improvement. While transforming the maternity care system will take time, there is progress to report.
Eliminating Disparities in Maternal Health
How does race and ethnicity intersect with other identities (including sex, gender identity, etc.) in ways that compound barriers to health care and lead to health disparities?
The Good, the Bad and the Hope for Breastfeeding Rights
Roughly four million women give birth in the United States every year – and most choose to breastfeed (74 percent). After all, the nutritional value of breast milk is well documented. Numerous studies show that breastfeeding protects mothers and children from a range of acute and chronic health conditions. But with two-thirds of today’s working women returning to work within three months of giving birth, the lack of supportive workplace policies and laws is forcing too many nursing mothers to quit breastfeeding early – or never start.
Real Family Values
Every year roughly four million women give birth in the United States, and most of them (more than three-quarters) start out breastfeeding. Study after study has affirmed the value of breastfeeding in protecting both mothers and children from a host of acute and chronic diseases and conditions, saving billions in health care costs. Breastfeeding mothers also report feeling more closely bonded with their babies—a factor which may lower the risk of postpartum depression.
What you shouldn’t have to expect when you’re expecting
Owning your own home has long been a central part of the American Dream. It’s as American as baseball, apple pie and mom. But according to this column in the New York Times, a lot of moms and moms-to-be are getting short shrift.
New Moms Benefit from Health Reform
“Can’t you just use the bathroom?”
Setting the Record Straight: Best Kept Secrets about Health Reform
Between President Obama issuing a new proposal on health insurance reform on Monday and the White House Health Care Summit Thursday, the beat marches on around this debate in Washington.
Virginia is for … Moms-to-be: New On-Line Tool Helps Expecting Parents Choose Hospitals, Doctors
You’re pregnant, your first language is Vietnamese, and you’d like to find an obstetrician who speaks your language. You had your first baby by emergency C-section, in another state, but you want to try to deliver the second vaginally, and you’d like to find a doctor who seems to use C-sections sparingly. Or you want very much to breastfeed your baby, and you’d like to deliver at a hospital with lactation consultants available.
