Research Resources

Are you a researcher interested in accessing the MANAStats data?  See our researcher page for more information.

Homebirth studies:

• Homebirth: An Annotated Guide to the Literature, May 2011. Saraswathi Vedam, Laura Schummers & Colleen Fulton.  This annotated bibliography provides citations and critical appraisal of original studies on home birth.

• Resources for searching for midwifery and homebirth/birth center studies:

• PubMed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
• Cochrane Reviews http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/

How to critically read a research study:

• Studying a Study and Testing a Test: hands-on, step-by-step practice reading clinical research

Research-oriented blogs & websites:

• Science & Sensibility: http://www.scienceandsensibility.org/
• Stand and Deliver: occasional research-oriented posts: http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/
• RH Reality Check:  http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/real-time-blog
• Childbirth Connection:  www.childbirthconnection.org
• Academic OB/GYN:  http://academicobgyn.com/
• Our Bodies, Our Blog:  http://www.ourbodiesourblog.org/
• Women’s Health News (blog by a librarian): http://womenshealthnews.wordpress.com/
• Birth Sense: http://www.themidwifenextdoor.com/

Evidence-Based Practice information:

• Childbirth Connection’s Evidence-Based Maternity Care Resource Directory
• Childbirth Connection’s Quarterly Evidence Columns
• Cochrane Reviews
• NCHS (CDC) birth-related statistics for the United States

Community-Based Participatory Research information

According to ARHQ (2004):  Community-based participatory research is a collaborative research approach that is designed to ensure and establish structures for participation by communities affected by the issue being studied, representatives of organizations, and researchers in all aspects of the research process to improve health and well-being through taking action, including social change.  To expand upon this definition, CBPR further involves:

1. Co-learning and reciprocal transfer of expertise, by all research partners, with particular emphasis on the issues that can be studied with CBPR methods;
2. Shared decision-making power; and
3. Mutual ownership of the processes and products of the research enterprise.

Resources for more information about CBPR:

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Community-Based Participatory Research: Assessing the Evidence (2004)
• Community-Campus Partnerships for Health
• Developing and Sustaining Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships: A Skill Building Curriculum: This evidence-based curriculum is intended as a tool for community-institutional partnerships that are using or planning to use a CBPR approach to improving health.

• Recommended books on CBPR:
• Blumenthal, Daniel S., and Ralph J. Diclemente. 2003. Community-Based Health Research: Issues and Methods. New York: Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
• Israel, Barbara A., with Eugenia Eng, Amy J. Schulz, and Edith A. Parker. 2005. Methods in Community-Based Participatory Research for Health. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
• Minkler, Meredith, and Nina Wallerstein. 2008. Community-Based Participatory Research for Health: From Process to Outcomes. 2nd  Edition. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

• Recommended articles on CBPR:
• Aaron, Kaytura Felix, and Daniel Stryer. 2003. Moving from Rhetoric to Evidence-based Action in Health Care. Journal of General Internal Medicine 18(7):589-591.
• Ahmed, Syed M., with Barbara Beck, Cheryl A. Maurana, and Gail Newton. 2004. Overcoming Barriers to Effective Community-Based Participatory Research in US Medical Schools. Education for Health 17(2):141-151.
• Aronson, Robert E., with Anne B. Wallis, Patricia J. O’Campo, Tony L. Whitehead, and Peter Schafer. 2007. Ethnographically Informed Community Evaluation: A Framework and Approach for Evaluating Community-Based Initiatives. Maternal Child Health Journal 11:97-109.
• Cargo, Margaret, and Shawna L. Mercer. 2008. The Values and Challenges of Participatory Research: Strengthening Its Practice. Annual Review of Public Health 29:325-350.
• Lantz, Paula M., with Edna Viruell-Fuentes, Barbara A. Israel, Donald Softley, and Ricardo Guzman. 2001. Can Communities and Academia Work Together on Public Health Research? Evaluation Results from a Community-Based Participatory Research Partnership in Detroit. Journal of Urban Health 78(3):495-507.
• O’Toole, Thomas P., with Kaytura Feliz Aaron, Marshall H. Chin, Carol Horowitz, and Frederick Tyson. 2003. Community-Based Participatory Research: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Need for a Common Language. Journal of General Internal Medicine 18:592-594.
• Schell, Lawrence M., Julia Ravenscroft, Mia Gallo, and Melinda Denham. 2007. Advancing Biocultural Models by Working with Communities: A Partnership Approach. American Journal of Human Biology 19:511-524.