About the MANA Division of Research (DOR)
What is the MANA Division of Research?
The Midwives Alliance Division of Research is a group of Midwives Alliance members who volunteer to work on various aspects of research and data collection. It includes midwives with masters or doctoral preparation in a variety of disciplines as well as those without advanced research training. The Division of Research is advised by a distinguished panel of researchers and experts in maternal-infant health, public health, epidemiology, and obstetrics.
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.
The Division of Research has developed a web-based data collection tool that allows midwives to easily collect a wealth of information about the care they provide to their clients (see below for more information on the Midwives Alliance Birth Data). This web tool is state-of-the-art and is unique in the field of midwifery; there is no other instrument or database like it.
Why does the Midwives Alliance DOR collect data on midwifery care, birth center and home births?
The DOR's goals include facilitating understanding of the range and value of care provided by midwives as well as the safety and efficacy of various birth settings. Rigorous research on the safety of homebirth and outcomes with midwives can only be conducted with a carefully-designed, robust dataset such as this. This rich nationwide database is unique to the Midwives Alliance; no other entity collects this kind of data to the extent and depth that we do. There are also several hospital-based midwives contributing their data to the project. The DOR provides midwife contributors with their own practice data for the purpose of provision of informed consent to clients, quality assurance, health services planning, and educational projections.
The MANA Birth Data
What kind of data has been entered into the DOR's system?
General categories of data collected include the following:
- general demographic characteristics of women choosing midwifery care and/or birth center and home birth
- current health status
- pregnancy and general health history
- prenatal care by midwives
- data about situations involving consultations or transfer or care to other providers in pregnancy, labor or postpartum
- labor and birth care
- postpartum and newborn care
- maternal and newborn outcomes
- intended and actual place of birth
The first data entry cycle began at the end of 2004 and continued through mid-2009. The data collection tool was updated at that time and a new cycle of data collection began. Data collected prior to 2004 is not available through The Midwives Alliance.
Data collected by The Midwives Alliance is available to researchers.
Data from 2004 through 2007 is available. The Division of Research is also accepting applications for data access for prospective studies.
Interested parties can find more information in the following documents:
Completed forms and additional material must be submitted to the Administrative Director of the Midwives Alliance Division of Research via email. There is a non-refundable $50 application fee. Details are in the Handbook and on the Application Checklist.
Contributors and organizations of contributors (such as state professional midwifery associations) may access summary statistics of their own data at any time.
The Midwives Alliance Division of Research advocates for Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). CBPR is a collaborative approach in which research takes place in community settings and involves community members in the design and implementation of research projects. Such activities demonstrate respect for the contributions made by community partners and for the principle of “doing no harm” to the communities involved.
For further information about access to Midwives Alliance data, please contact research@mana.org.
How can I become a statistics contributor?
Any midwife may contribute data to the MANAStats system. Because the data collection is prospective, she must agree to log all her clients early in care so that no outcomes are missed. For further information, go to manastats.org .
Please send all inquiries about participating in the MANA Statistics Project to:
statistics@mana.org
P.O. Box 6310
Charlottesville, VA 22906
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