Mapping Midwifery Efficacy: Using High Tech Tools to Tell our Low Tech Tale
Dr Saraswathi Vedam
University of British Columbia, Canada
Saraswathi Vedam is Lead Investigator of the Birth Place Lab at University of British Columbia. She has been a clinician and educator for over 30 years. Her scholarly work includes the Canadian Birth Place Study examining interprofessional attitudes to home birth; and Changing Childbirth in BC, a provincial, community-based participatory study of women’s experiences of maternity care. She leads the AIMM Study on the impact of integration of midwives across birth settings, and the Giving Voice to Mothers Study that explores equity and access to high quality care among marginalized communities. Her research led to the development of two new person-centred quality measures: the Mothers’ Autonomy in Decision Making (MADM) scale and the Mothers on Respect (MORi) index. In collaboration with a multi-disciplinary expert panel and colleagues from University of Technology Sydney, she designed the Birth Place Research Quality (Resqu) Index, a novel critical appraisal tool.
Professor Vedam has been active in setting international policy on place of birth, midwifery education and regulation, and interprofessional collaboration. She convened 3 national Home Birth Summits, and chaired the 5th International Normal Labour and Birth Research conference in Vancouver.
Abstract
The Lancet Series on Midwifery (2014) concluded that “national investment in midwives and in their work environment, education, regulation, and management … is crucial to the achievement of national and international goals... [ view full abstract ]
The Lancet Series on Midwifery (2014) concluded that “national investment in midwives and in their work environment, education, regulation, and management … is crucial to the achievement of national and international goals and targets in reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health” [1]. Global health experts also recommend improving access to physiologic labour and birth, and respectful maternity care across birth settings. However, midwives are not universally recognized, regulated, or well-integrated into regional health care systems; and significant interprofessional conflict persists around recommendations for safe birth care.
Is no one listening because we live in an era of alternate facts and anti-science? Or do we need to change who we engage to tell the story? This session will illustrate how transdisciplinary imagination may solve “wicked problems” in maternity care.
Our multi-stakeholder Task Forces detailed differences across jurisdictions in scope of practice, autonomy, governance, and coordination of care that affects access to safety and quality across birth settings. Through community-led research and transdisciplinary collaboration we are addressing our most persistent roadblocks. Together we have developed the Midwifery Integration Scoring (MISS) system that links model of care to outcomes; the ResQu index, an evidence-based critical appraisal tool that rates the quality of birth place research; an online interprofessional course on respectful decision making; and two new person-centred quality measures (MADM and MORi).
To make our findings more accessible to policy makers, clinician leaders, and consumers, we applied our diverse talents. The AIMM “Report Cards”, a series of interactive online maps, display how integration of midwives links to optimal health according to WHO Standards for Quality Care. They illustrate effective health human resource allocation in maternity care, based on population-level health outcomes data. The maps, Resqu Index, MADM, and MORi are accessible to consumers, clinicians, and health systems planners in their own “language” via open access online spaces. These innovative knowledge translation tools can transform the narrative on what quality and safety mean in maternity care.
Session
KN-5 » Keynote - Dr Saraswathi Vedam (14:00 - Tuesday, 3rd October, The Grange View)
