About MANA Stats

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MANA Stats is a project of the Midwives Alliance of North America, an organization inclusive of all forms of midwifery. The MANA Statistics Project web site was originally created by Harris-Braun Enterprises and Bruce Ackerman. The original site was launched in November 2004 with a second version released in 2009. In early 2009, the site launched a new data form developed using a Community Based Participatory Research model. In 2022, the Midwifery Alliance of North America secured the future of MANA stats through the creation of a new modernized interface with the expertise of Fred and Amanda Teye.

The MANA Statistics Registry (MANA Stats) has gathered has over 24,000 records in the initial 2.0 dataset (2004-2009), with more than 15,000 records completed in the second 3.0 dataset (2009-2011). Over 1000 records are contributed monthly to our third dataset 4.0 via a state-of-the-art web-based electronic data collection system. As of June 2016 we passed 100,000 records in the combined datasets.

The overwhelming majority of the records represent planned homebirths or birth center births; around 12% of these mother-baby dyads transport to the hospital either during or immediately after labor. The MANA Stats system has the capacity to capture information for all registered clients regardless of intended and actual place of birth, thereby facilitating research that uses an intention-to-treat model to study the effects of planned place of birth on outcomes.

This web-based system for data collection has been evaluated and commended by national health quality assurance and health statistics agencies, and expert researchers from epidemiology, public health, midwifery, nursing, pediatrics, and obstetrics, including expert consultants from the Centers for Disease Control.

Midwives enrolled in MANA Stats enter their clients into the system early in prenatal care, which helps to prevent selection bias and ensure the validity of the data. Once entered, clients cannot be deleted from the system and a DOR member follows up on all incomplete data. Each of the datasets have been subjected to rigorous data review protocols to ensure accuracy, completeness, and reliability. The 2.0 dataset has been validated (read: Cheyney et al., 2014: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24479670). Validation of the 3.0 and 4.0 datasets are in progress.

Currently, midwives are not required to contribute data to the MANA Stats Registry, except in states that require MANA Stats by virtue of statute or rules. Several states are in the process of evaluating MANA Stats as a tool to facilitate submission of individual midwives’ practice statistics as part of a licensure renewal process.