The Dutch Solid Start program: describing the implementation and experiences of the program's first thousand days.

Background: In 2018, the Dutch government initiated the Solid Start program to provide each child the best start in life. The program focuses on the crucial first thousand days of life, which span from preconception to a child's second birthday, and has a specific focus towards (future) parents and young children in vulnerable situations. A key program element is improving collaboration between the medical and social sector by creating Solid Start coalitions.

Monitoring the Dutch Solid Start Program: Developing an Indicator Set for Municipalities to Monitor their First Thousand Days-Approach.

Introduction: The Dutch Solid Start program aims to improve the collaboration between the medical and social sector to offer every child the best start in life. Municipalities form local coalitions of partners within the medical and social sector to support parents and children during the first thousand days. The aim of this study was to develop an indicator set for coalitions to monitor their local Solid Start program.

An approach to assessing the quality of birth centres results of the Dutch birth centre study.

Objective: to determine the usability of a recently developed set of 30 structure and process birth centre quality indicators.

Design: an explorative study using mixed-methods including literature, a survey, interviews and observations. The study is part of the Dutch Birth Centre Study.

Quality improvement opportunities for handover practices in birth centres: A case study from a process perspective.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: Handovers within and between health care settings are known to affect quality of care. Health care organizations, struggle how to guarantee best care during handovers. The aim of this paper is to evaluate handover practices in Dutch birth centres from a process perspective, to identify obstacles and opportunities for quality improvements.

Differences in optimality index between planned place of birth in a birth centre and alternative planned places of birth, a nationwide prospective cohort study in The Netherlands: results of the Dutch Birth Centre Study.

Objectives: To compare the Optimality Index of planned birth in a birth centre with planned birth in a hospital and planned home birth for low-risk term pregnant women who start labour under the responsibility of a community midwife.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Low-risk pregnant women under care of a community midwife and living in a region with one of the 21 participating Dutch birth centres or in a region with the possibility for midwife-led hospital birth.

An Approach to measuring Integrated Care within a Maternity Care System: Experiences from the Maternity Care Network Study and the Dutch Birth Centre Study.

Introduction: Integrated care is considered to be a means to reduce costs, improve the quality of care and generate better patient outcomes. At present, little is known about integrated care in maternity care systems. We developed questionnaires to examine integrated care in two different settings, using the taxonomy of the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care.

Development of the Optimality Index-NL2015, an Instrument to Measure Outcomes of Maternity Care.

Introduction: An optimality index is a composite tool to measure maximum outcome with minimal intervention. It focuses on optimality instead of on normality and is useful in comparing differences in processes and perinatal outcomes for women at low risk of complications. The latest Dutch version dates from 2 decades ago, and international versions of the optimality index are not directly applicable to the Dutch maternity system.

Cost-effectiveness of planned birth in a birth centre compared with alternative planned places of birth: results of the Dutch Birth Centre study.

Objectives: To estimate the cost-effectiveness of a planned birth in a birth centre compared with alternative planned places of birth for low-risk women. In addition, a distinction has been made between different types of locations and integration profiles of birth centres.

Design: Economic evaluation based on a prospective cohort study.

Developing quality indicators for assessing quality of birth centre care: a mixed- methods study.

Background: Birth centres are described as settings where women with uncomplicated pregnancies can give birth in a home-like environment assisted by midwives and maternity care assistants. If complications arise or threaten, the woman is referred to a maternity unit of a hospital where an obstetrician will take over responsibility. In the last decade, a number of new birth centres have been established in the Netherlands, based on the assumption that birth centres provide better quality of care since they offer a better opportunity for more integrated care than the existing system with independent primary and secondary care providers.

Typology of birth centres in the Netherlands using the Rainbow model of integrated care: results of the Dutch Birth Centre Study.

Background: The goal of integrated care is to offer a continuum of care that crosses the boundaries of public health, primary, secondary, and tertiary care. Integrated care is increasingly promoted for people with complex needs and has also recently been promoted in maternity care systems to improve the quality of care. Especially when located near an obstetric unit, birth centres are considered to be ideal settings for the realization of integrated care.

Experiences of women who planned birth in a birth centre compared to alternative planned places of birth. Results of the Dutch Birth Centre Study.

Objective: to assess the experiences with maternity care of women who planned birth in a birth centre and to compare them to alternative planned places of birth, by using the responsiveness concept of the World Health Organization.

Design: this study is a cross-sectional study using the ReproQ questionnaire filled out eight to ten weeks after birth. The primary outcome was responsiveness of birth care.

The Dutch Birth Centre Study: study design of a programmatic evaluation of the effect of birth centre care in the Netherlands.

Background: Birth centres are regarded as settings where women with uncomplicated pregnancies can give birth, assisted by a midwife and a maternity care assistant. In case of (threatening) complications referral to a maternity unit of a hospital is necessary. In the last decade up to 20 different birth centres have been instituted in the Netherlands.

Towards an international taxonomy of integrated primary care: a Delphi consensus approach.

Background: Developing integrated service models in a primary care setting is considered an essential strategy for establishing a sustainable and affordable health care system. The Rainbow Model of Integrated Care (RMIC) describes the theoretical foundations of integrated primary care. The aim of this study is to refine the RMIC by developing a consensus-based taxonomy of key features.

Towards a taxonomy for integrated care: a mixed-methods study.

Introduction: Building integrated services in a primary care setting is considered an essential important strategy for establishing a high-quality and affordable health care system. The theoretical foundations of such integrated service models are described by the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care, which distinguishes six integration dimensions (clinical, professional, organisational, system, functional and normative integration). The aim of the present study is to refine the Rainbow Model of Integrated Care by developing a taxonomy that specifies the underlying key features of the six dimensions.