Home Birth Summit Research and Data Task Force
The US Birth Place Mapping study will link rates of home birth in each state to regulatory conditions for midwifery practice, access to midwifery-led home birth, and key outcomes. Researchers, clinicians, and legal experts from two multi-disciplinary Summit work groups will analyze and link data from 3 sources (the Regulation and Licensure Database, the CDC databank on actual place of birth and perinatal outcomes, and the US Birth Certificate Comparison database) to describe the landscape of planned home birth in the US. We will produce a Midwifery Integration and Access Report Card, an easily understood graphic representation of the data, using a color-coded US map. This study provides an unprecedented opportunity to help policy makers understand if the rising rates of reported home births are linked to greater access to licensed midwives, and if the status of integration of those midwives can be linked to optimal maternal-newborn health.
