Intrapartum Care and Experiences of Women with Midwives Versus Obstetricians in the Listening to Mothers in California Survey

MCH Faculty Eugene R. Declercq PhD, Candice Belanoff ScD, MPH, and Carol Sakala PhD, MSPH publish “Intrapartum Care and Experiences of Women with Midwives Versus Obstetricians in the Listening to Mothers in California Survey” in the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health.

“Following the initial reporting of the Listening to Mothers in California survey in 2018, Drs. Declercq and Belanoff and I are involved in publishing several secondary analyses from this dataset.” – Carol Sakala

Findings:

• Significant socioeconomic differences by type of intrapartum care provider, with women in California attended by midwives more likely to be well educated and privately insured than women attended by obstetricians.
• Women with midwife birth attendants were less likely to report experiencing various intrapartum medical interventions, less likely to experience pressure to have epidural analgesia, and more likely to report that staff encouraged the woman’s decision making.
• Adjusted odds ratios found that women with midwives were less likely to experience medical interventions, including attempted labor induction; labor augmentation; and use of pain medications, epidural analgesia, and intravenous fluids; and less likely to report pressure to have labor induction or epidural analgesia.
• Women cared for by midwives were more likely to experience any non pharmacologic pain relief measures and nitrous oxide and to agree that hospital staff encouraged their decision making.

READ: Intrapartum Care and Experiences of Women with Midwives Versus Obstetricians in the Listening to Mothers in California Survey