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Baby Steps to Improving Maternity Care
By Louise Bastarache, CNM, NP, MS
The hope of improving our country’s Maternity Care is dependent upon the reconstruction of our healthcare system. Motivated in part to decrease the maternal and infant mortality rates, this reform would also save healthcare dollars. The C-section rates, labor inductions, and other hospital interventions have escalated since the 1990’s fueled by the increasing number of malpractice suits. Advocate groups are demanding changes that provide women more control over their maternity care to bring dignity as well as safety to all families birthing in the United States.
There must be mutual cooperation and planning to arrive at a more personal experience. Regardless of social class or any preconceived notion one might have prior to treating a patient, everyone deserves the freedom of choosing what happens to their body and how to bring their child into this world. If one can take the time to educate the mother and family, the experience becomes far less frightening and promotes a healthy outcome to the pregnancy.
Here in Wareham, Massachusetts, we promote quality maternity care with the family-friendly maternity principles of low intervention, respect for women’s choices in labor, and breastfeeding/skin-to-skin bonding practice ideals. Beginning with prenatal care, which we strongly encourage starting in the first trimester, the pregnant woman is encouraged to participate in the decision making of her care and is coached in nutrition, self-care, treatment choices, and other educational opportunities. Monitoring the pregnancy’s progress while promoting trust in the practitioner/client relationship leads to optimal care and satisfaction.
Making the woman comfortable and safe in her birthing environment heightens her confidence and aids in the progression of her labor. Providing non-invasive, common-sense methods of pain relief, such as warm baths, ambulation, and massage increase the odds of a safe, optimal outcome for the birth. Placing the baby skin to skin on the mother’s abdomen right as she births heightens the infant’s ability to bond with its mother and start feeding. This allows the family quiet time to celebrate the first chapter of a new life.
Practitioners who deliver babies need to come together for a resolution. Here in our little seaside town we have started making a difference advocating for women and babies one birth at a time.
Louise Bastarache, CNM, NP, MS
Wareham Nurse Midwives…
Empowering Women to Birth NATURALLY
Wareham Nurse Midwives, PC
332 Main Street
Wareham, MA
If you would like to make an appointment or for more information, please call (508)295-3088.
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