Community Maternity Services history

Washington state first began licensing midwives in 1917, and the original licensure laws required formal education as well as a written exam as a way of discouraging the practice of midwifery.

Midwives in most states practiced without government control until the 1920s.

Midwifery began a slow rebirth in the United States in the form of nurse-midwifery, when the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) was founded in a poor, rural county in Kentucky in 1925.

The foundation of the NHS in 1948 marked a turning point in the history of maternity services and sparked renewed interest in maternal health.

Opposition to the medicalisation of childbirth continued to grow after the foundation of the NHS. Prunella Briance, whose baby had died following conventional obstetric care, launched the Natural Childbirth Association of Great Britain in 1957 to promote Dick-Read's teaching.

After a period of internal conflict it became a charitable trust, changing its name to the National Childbirth Trust or NCT in 1961.

In 1966 the first GP Unit in Oxford was opened, attached to the Churchill Hospital.

In 1967 the Maternity and Midwifery Advisory Committee was asked to consider the future of the maternity services.

While the overwhelming response from women who had home births was that it was a fulfilling experience, a small number experienced difficulties, such as Tina who recalled haemorrhaging after her daughter was born at home in 1971.

They began their training together in 1975 as part of a women’s community health center in Seattle.

By the time Reducing the Risk, a report by the Department of Health and Social Security, was published in 1977, its authors could reflect how, 'The value and increased use of induction has been a source of discussion and controversy for some time among doctors and midwives and the general public.'

To address the need for formal education and licensure, they co-founded Seattle Midwifery School (SMS) in 1978, and both served at times as active faculty, staff, and board members over the following 40 years.

Located in Seattle’s vibrant Columbia City neighborhood, Seattle Home Maternity Service was co-founded in 1980 by midwives Marge Mansfield and Suzy Myers.

1983 - CBCN becomes the American Association of Birth Centers (formerly the National Association of Childbearing Centers) with a multi-disciplinary professional and consumer Board of Directors.

1984 - MCA brings together representatives of birth centers and the disciplines involved in maternity care services in the private and public sectors to write national standards for birth centers and to establish a mechanism for accreditation.

On 24 April 1985 Savage was suspended for alleged incompetence in five cases, accused of having delayed performing caesarean sections; in two of the cases the babies died.

1988 - The Office of Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS) recognizes the National Standards and the Commission for Accreditation of Freestanding Birth Centers for 100 percent reimbursement of services (Federal Register, Volume 53, No.

1989 - Results of National Birth Center Study are published in the New England Journal of Medicine (12/28/89) concluding that, “Few innovations in health service promise lower cost, greater availability, and a high degree of satisfaction with a comparable degree of safety.

1990- National Study of VBACs in Birth Centers proposed by AABC members to provide an alternative for women whose only alternative to hospital confinement or a routine repeat cesarean section may be a home birth with a lay midwife.

1995- Most managed care payment plans are reimbursing birth centers.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997, p.16). In Europe, midwifery care became established as part of the health care system early on in in the 18th and 19th centuries.

1998 - Launch of Birth Centers Online (www.BirthCenters.org) - a joint project of the AABC Foundation and the American Association of Birth Centers.

1999 - The Future of Midwifery - a joint report of the Pew Health Profession Commission and the University of California San Francisco Center for the Health Professions.

2003 - AABC celebrates 20 years! Several centers celebrate 20+ years of successful operation.

2005 - The National Association of Childbearing Centers changes its name to the American Association of Birth Centers (AABC).

2007 - The web-based version of the AABC Uniform Data Set (UDS) goes live creating the first online data registry for optimal birth by all providers in all settings.

2008 - AABC launches the National Study of Optimal Birth.

In 2009, SMS merged with Bastyr University and became the Department of Midwifery, remaining an internationally recognized model for midwifery and doula education.

The percentage of all births that occurred at home that were planned varied from 54.2 percent to 98.1 percent across states[Declercq E, MacDorman M, Menacker F. 2010.

NCT, NCT Policy Briefing: Choice of Place of Birth (Nov 2011)

McIntosh, T., A Social History of Maternity and Childbirth: Key Themes in Maternity Care (London: Routledge, 2012)

New groups such as Birthrights, launched in January 2013 to promote human rights in pregnancy and childbirth, have strikingly similar aims to older organisations such as AIMS, and demonstrate the continued need to promote dignity and choice in birth.

2014 - AABC issues position statements on:

2015 - AABC approves first chapters in Texas and New York.

2016 - After a 2 year revision process, the revised AABC Standards for Birth Centers are approved by the AABC membership.

2017 - AABC clarifies definition of birth center to better reflect the comprehensiveness of the freestanding birth center model and provide consistency with the national AABC Standards for Birth Centers and how birth centers are defined in federal statute.

Suzy left clinical care to serve as Chair of the Department of Midwifery until her retirement in 2018.

2019 - The BABIES Act (HR 5189) is introduced in the House.