ABSTRACTS OF FEATURE ARTICLES

Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What Is It and Are Women Receiving It?
by Ellen Hodnett
"Evidence-based" care involves a combination of healthy skepticism, a basic understanding of the elements of good research, and the ability to use evidence as a guide rather than an enforcer. Despite the ready availability of high-quality research about helpful and harmful forms of care, there is disturbing evidence that North American childbearing women are not receiving optimum care. ICEA, with its long tradition of advocacy, can play an important role in reversing these disturbing trends.

Maternity-Wise: The Maternity Center Association's National Program to Promote Evidence-Based Maternity Care
by Carol Sakala
The Maternity Center Association (MCA) gives priority to helping women make informed decisions about maternity care, and thus has much in common with the International Childbirth Education Association. This article discusses MCA's long-term Maternity Wise program to promote evidence-based maternity care in the United States, including program areas and resources that may be of interest to childbirth educators and their clients.
To view this article (in pdf format), click here.

March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign
by Cheryl Coleman

Recommending Exercise During and After Pregnancy: What the Evidence Says
by Bonnie Berk
For centuries, philosophers and physicians alike attributed difficult childbirth to a sedentary lifestyle; however, not much was known about the effects of exercise in pregnancy, so it was hard to recommend exercise based on scientific evidence. Research in the area of exercise in pregnancy has evolved significantly over the last several decades. The good news is current research indicates that exercise is not only safe during pregnancy, it is complementary. This article reviews the physiologic concerns of exercising during the childbearing year, maternal benefits of exercise, and offers state-of-the-art guidelines for exercise during and after pregnancy, based on the latest research.

Flaws in FDA Evaluation of Obstetric Drugs
by Doris Haire
Flaws in FDA Evaluation of Obstetric Drugs is a compilation of information gathered from FDA commissioners, officers, and advisory meetings, and from FDA staffers who are willing to share information for the public good. The FDA has always been reluctant to tell the public that the Agency does not guarantee the safety of any of the twelve or thirteen drugs it approves for use in obstetrics. My attempts to prod the FDA into making all official drug labeling available on the Internet has, so far, fallen on deaf ears. But that is just a matter of time. Informing the public of the risks of obstetric drugs would not "tie the physician's hands," as many claim, but would insure that physicians and other health care providers read the drug labeling information before obtaining the mother's informed consent to treatment. Most health care providers admit that they do not read thoroughly the official package inserts of the drugs they administer. They will, once they know that their patients have access to the information.

Informed Decision-Making: The Benefit-Risk Approach
by Cheryl Coleman
"Freedom of choice based on knowledge of alternatives" is the motto and cornerstone of ICEA. Family-centered care and education recognizes that decisions are made collaboratively, and parents involved in the process of making decisions surrounding their birth experience have been found to have greater satisfaction with their birth. So the challenge for many educators is to involve parents in the decision-making process while not becoming the decision-maker. The benefit/risk approach allows parents to become influential, well-informed consumers and enables eudcators to minimize expression of their own biases. This article reviews the process for presenting the benefits/risks approach in an educational setting as well as specific teaching ideas.

Using the Internet: Five Myths You Should Know About Research on the Web
by Sandy Dennedy and Connie Livingston
The Internet is an increasingly powerful tool for researching a variety of topics -- for both the birth professional and the expectant parent consumer. It is important to understand that there are not rules policing the kind of health information that appears on the Internet or the qualifications of the person(s) who put the information there. Therefore, as a birth professional or health consumer, commonsense, sound judgment, and guidelines should be employed to evaluate pregnancy and childbirth websites when accessing evidence-based research.

Teaching Informed Consent in Your Childbirth Classes
by Lisa Johns

COLUMNS

Nutrition News
by Dvorka Monti
Evidence-Based Dieting: Do Diets Work for Postpartum Weight Loss?

Statistics
by Marcy White
Obstetric Procedures and Cesarean Delivery Rates Continue to Rise in North America

Educator's Corner
by Linda Worzer and Marcy White
Straight to the Source: How to Obtain Published Medical Research

Political Issues
by Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam
Knowledge of Alternatives/Alternative Knowledge

Audio Visual Review
by Margery Simchak
Miracle of Birth 2: 5 Birth Stories

The Cochrane Library: What's New and Noteworthy

Resources
by Linda Worzer

Certification Update