Experts say...

"Studies of Nurse-Midwifery practice, past and present, consistently show outcomes as good or better than physicians outcomes, with fewer forceps deliveries, cesarean sections and episiotomies, fewer stillbirths and low-birth-weight babies"

Boston Women's Health Book Collective, The New Our Bodies, Ourselves, Simon and Schuster, 1984.

"Nurse-Midwives may help cut health-care costs and decrease infant death rates by improving access to prenatal care...and allow obstetricians to focus their energies on what they're best trained to do- handle problematic pregnancies and birth."

Chollar, Susan, "A Personal Touch", The New Physician, May-June 1992, p.32. Excerpt taken from "Reports Credit CNM's With Improving Maternal/Child Health", Focus On You, Web site of the American College of Nurse Midwives

Susan Hodges of Citizens for Midwifery says "In the midwifery model of care, the midwife responds to the birthing mother's wants and needs. The mother births her baby. In the medical model of care, the doctor "delivers" the baby. What, then, was the mother doing?" she asks. "This said, I would also point out that when there is pathology, physicians, hospitals and technology can save lives, although doctors might be more effective if they served as consultants to midwives and adopted the midwifery model of care."

Granju, Katie Allison, The History of Midwifery, Minnesota Parents

"Evidence is accumulating rapidly that our basic system of providing obstetric care is not in the best interest of normal pregnant and parturient women and their offspring, nor, in many cases, in the best interest of high-risk mothers and their offspring." Cited as examples for this statement were amniotomy, confinement to bed, and drugs.

Haire, D., "Improving the Outcome of Pregnancy Through Increased Utilization of Midwives", Journal of Nurse Midwifery 1981;26(1):5-8. Excerpt taken from Goer, Henci, Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities, Bergin and Garvey, 1995, p. 312.

"The weight of evidence indicates that, within their areas of competence,...CNM's provide care whose quality is equivalent to that of care provided by physicians. Moreover,...CNM's are more adept than physicians at providing services that depend on communication with patients and preventive actions...patients are generally satisfied with the quality of care provided by...CNMs, particularly with the interpersonal aspects of care..."

United States Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. Nurse-Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and Certified Nurse-Midwives: A Political Analysis Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1986, pp. 5-6. Excerpt taken from "Reports Credit CNM's With Improving Maternal/Child Health", Focus On You, Web site of the American College of Nurse Midwives

"All midwives specialize in understanding normal aspects of the childbearing cycle. They are trained to recognize deviations from the normal, recommend holistic means for bringing the situation back into the realm of normal, or refer to another practitioner when necessary. Midwives believe it is important to provide time for questions, teaching, and time to listen to the concerns and needs of the women they care for."

Sonnenstuhl, Pat, ARNP, CNM, "Midwifery in the United States: What Can Midwives Do?", Midwifery FAQ, 1996.

"In developed countries around world, including the United States, the routine use of obstetrics technology is 2 to 19 times more likely to lead to infant mortality than midwife-attended birth."

Kitzinger, Sheila, Homebirth, Dorling Kindersly, 1991.