10 Steps to Optimal Maternity Services worldwide.

Our home birth midwifery services strive to meet International Mother Baby Childbirth Initiative (IMBCI) guidelines for maternity services.

A Summary of the 10 Steps of the IMBCI are:

- Step 1 Treat every woman with respect and dignity
- Step 2 Possess and routinely apply midwifery knowledge and skills that optimize the normal physiology of birth and breastfeeding.
- Step 3 Inform the mother of the benefits of continuous support during labour and birth, and affirm her right to receive such support from companions of her choice.
- Step 4 Provide drug-free comfort and pain relief methods during labour, explaining their benefits for facilitating normal birth.
- Step 5 Provide evidence-based practices proven to be beneficial.
- Step 6 Avoid potentially harmful procedures and practices.
- Step 7 Implement measures that enhance wellness and prevent illness and emergencies.
- Step 8 Provide access to evidence-based skilled emergency treatment.
- Step 9 Provide a continuum of collaborative care with all relevant health care providers, institutions, and organizations.
- Step 10 Strive to achieve the BFHI 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.

Full details of this initiative is available from: http://www.imbci.org/ . Their website provides the following further information:

"The IMBCI is based on the results of a survey of birth- and breastfeeding organizations in 163 countries (see "History of the IMBCI") and on input from IMBCO's Technical Advisory Group, international representatives, and birth experts all over the world who participated in its construction.

The purpose of the IMBCI 10 Steps is to improve care throughout the childbearing continuum in order to save lives, prevent illness and harm from the overuse of obstetric technologies, and promote health for mothers and babies around the world. "

Purposes of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative

"The IMBCI is both educational and instrumental in purpose.

Its educational purpose is to call global attention to the importance of the quality of the mother's birth experience and its impact on the outcome and the scientific evidence showing the benefits of MotherBaby-centered care based on the normal physiology of pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding and on attention to women's individual needs.

The instrumental purpose of the IMBCI 10 Steps is to put into worldwide awareness and practice the MotherBaby model of care--a woman-centered, non-interventive approach that promotes the health and wellbeing of all women and babies during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding, setting the gold standard for excellence and superior outcomes in maternity care.

The IMBCI acknowledges that women's rights are human rights and that women have a right to informed decision-making and to receive care that is evidence-based for themselves and their babies. The IMBCI recognizes the effects of birth practices on maternal self-confidence and on breastfeeding, and the importance of cultural sensitivity and continuity of care. These Basic Principles, along with the IMBCI 10 Steps, have the ability to transform birth and breastfeeding practices around the world. With infant and maternal mortality and morbidity at distressing rates, the IMBCI is a call to action that will help achieve the Millennium Development Goals to improve the quality of care for mothers and babies of the world. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals  "

Source: http://www.imbci.org/ShowPage.asp?id=182   

Creation of the IMBCI

"In May 2006, the CIMS International Committee held a Steering Committee meeting in Chapel Hill at the University of North Carolina to hear the survey results and to work on the wording of an initial draft of the IMBCI.

In June 2006, CIMS International and Childbirth Connection held a Technical Advisory Group meeting in Geneva, Switzerland to present and refine the initial draft of the Initiative, to gauge the level of interest that other key international organizations might have in supporting and promoting the Initiative, and, if support was high, to make plans for its worldwide distribution.

Invited to the Geneva meeting were representatives from WHO, UNICEF, the WHO/UNICEF Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, UNFPA, USAID, FIGO, CIMS, Childbirth Connection, Lamaze International, DONA International, La Leche League International, Wellstart International, the World Alliance of Breastfeeding Associations (WABA), the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA), the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), the International Council of Nurses (ICN), the International Pediatric Association (IPA), the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, the Partnership for Maternal and Child Health, the White Ribbon Alliance, and JPHIEGO. (Go to "IMBCO's Technical Advisory Group" for the full names and contact information for these organizations.)

There was tremendous support for this Initiative from all present, and many hours were spent refining the wording of the document in a very rewarding group process, as well as discussing possibilities for pilot testing the Initiative around the world and conceptualizing its future.

Over the next year, with additional international input on the document, the wording was finalized in February of 2008, and the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative was launched at the CIMS Annual Meeting in Florida on International Women's Day, March 8, 2008!"

Source: http://www.imbci.org/ShowPage.asp?id=176