About the MANA Division of Research (DOR)

What is the MANA Division of Research?

The MANA Division of Research is a group of MANA 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 goals of the Division are to improve the art and science of midwifery practice and to promote the health of women and families

The Division of Research is advised by a distinguished panel of researchers and experts in maternal-child /public health, epidemiology, and obstetrics

Why does the MANA DOR collect data on midwives and out-of-hospital birth?

No other entity collects data on a nationwide level and to the depth that we do. The MANA DOR's short and long term research goals are to evaluate all aspects of midwifery care in terms of safety, optimal maternal, infant and family outcomes, cost effectiveness. T he MANA DOR provides data to contributors for the purpose of provision of informed consent to clients, quality assurance, health services planning, educational projections .

The MANA Birth Data

What kind of data has been entered into MANA's system?

Data about general demographic characteristics of women choosing midwifery care and/or out-of-hospital 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.

MANA Data entry began at the end of 2004 and will continue through the end of 2008. Another cycle of data collection will begin at that time. Data collected prior to 2004 is not available through MANA. Questions about prior data should be directed to www.understandingbirthbetter.com.

Who has access to this birth data?

Outside access to data is restricted until the current dataset is complete. This will occur after a new dataform is ready to use, which we expect by the end of 2008. At that time, data collected to date (2004-2008) will be made available to researchers via standard data access procedures and after approval by an Institutional Review Board. Contributors and organizations of contributors (such as state professional midwifery associations) may access summary statistics on their own data at any time.

The MANA Division of Research operates under the principles of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR).

How can I become a statistics contributor?

Any midwife may contribute data to the MANAStats system. Because the data collection is prospective, she must agr ee to log all her clients early in care so that no outcomes are missed. For further information, go to manastats.org.

Please note that the address on the old data forms is no longer correct!
Please send all inquiries to :

P.O. Box 6310
Charlottesville, VA  22906

E-mail us with any questions or comments statistics@mana.org.

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