Commentary: Creating a Definition for Global Midwifery Centers

Midwifery centers were developed by communities to increase women's access to acceptable facility-based care during childbirth (Cole, 2017). Midwifery centers are health care facilities that provide birth and sexual and reproductive health care using the midwifery model of care. They provide safe, satisfying, women-centered care, and reduce interventions (Stapleton et al. 2013) (Hermus et al. 2017). While the services offered, and their integration within the health system can vary greatly (Kirkham, 2003), midwifery centers offer a strong alternative for respectful, facility-based birth, in a woman's community.

Benchmarking outcomes in maternity care: Peripartum incontinence - a framework for standardised reporting

To evaluate a framework to facilitate standardised reporting of perinatal incontinence.

Developing and introducing a post birth care plan (PBCP): An action research project

The concept of ‘postnatal’ is open to interpretation both in terminology and meaning and referred to in several ways such as ‘post-birth’ and ‘postpartum’ and in some contexts refers to ‘…the period from childbirth to the 42nd day following delivery…’ (World Health Organization, 2014), and elsewhere extending to 8 weeks post-birth. Generally greater emphasis is placed on pregnancy and less on women's postnatal individual needs and wishes (Kleppel et al., 2016). Post-birth care continues to receive the least focus (Declercq et al., 2013; Zadoroznyi et al., 2015).

“After having a waterbirth, I feel like it's the only way people should deliver babies”: The decision making process of women who plan a waterbirth

To explore the decision making process of women who seek to give birth in water

Impact of parenting resources on breastfeeding, parenting confidence and relationships

Women's contact with health services during pregnancy and the postnatal period offer important opportunities to promote and support maternal wellbeing, breastfeeding and positive parenting practices. Breastfeeding supports the short and long-term health of both baby and mother (Victora et al., 2016). However, the decision to breastfeed is influenced by multiple complex factors at the individual, family, health system, and societal level (Dyson et al., 2009). Several studies have identified breastfeeding self-efficacy, defined as a mother's confidence in her ability to breastfeed her new infant, as an important factor in breastfeeding outcomes including duration and exclusivity (Blyth et al., 2008; Dennis, 2006).