Mission Statement

The mission of the Midwives Alliance Division of Research is to increase the capacity for, and dissemination of, rigorous research and innovation in maternal-infant health and midwifery care.

1. Enable transformative research that supports and improves midwifery care.

   • The DOR maintains high-quality data that is unique and describes midwifery care and outcomes of birth that is planned to occur at home and in birth centers.

   • The DOR facilitates rigorous scientific research using this data; we do not conduct research on our own database.

2. Increase the research fluency of midwives.

   • The DOR helps midwives to translate research and integrate it appropriately to improve their own practice.

   • The DOR helps midwives to see and analyze their own data so that they can continually evaluate and improve their practice.

 Projects

• Planning for annual reporting of benchmarking statistics

• Midwifery Data Collaboration with the American Association of Birth Centers (AABC) and the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM)

• Working with state midwifery organizations who want to use MANA Stats data

• Writing/publishing methods papers that help researchers use MANA Stats data

• Laying the groundwork for a future national homebirth study

• Helping midwives to become more fluent in understanding research and applying it to their practices

• Reviewing and verifying data submitted by midwives to MANA Stats to insure accuracy of our data

Interested in getting involved?  Contact us at research@mana.org to find out more.

The DOR envisions a world where midwives work together to ensure that women, infants, families, and communities achieve optimal health.

• We envision a world where every mother believes in her body’s ability to birth; where pregnancy and birth are viewed as normal and natural life events; where women welcome their pregnancies with a visit to a midwife; and where midwives and doctors work collaboratively as necessary.

• Where all women have access to comprehensive midwifery care, unhindered by cost, fear, or misconceptions about the safety of midwife-attended birth; where midwives are compensated adequately and socially valued for their services; where midwifery care is seen as an unwavering human right and therefore is fully covered by private and state-funded insurance companies.

• Where all babies are born gently and treated as sentient beings; where being born into the hands of midwives becomes the norm within the next generation; where infant and maternal mortality are minimized in all nations, while keeping the cesarean section rate below 15%; and where all mothers enter parenthood with a sense of self-assurance and dignity.

Division of Research

The Division of Research is a group of Midwives Alliance members who volunteer to work on various aspects of research education and data collection. It includes midwives with masters or doctoral preparation in a variety of disciplines as well as those without advanced research training.