Client Experience with the Ontario Birth Center Demonstration Project.

Introduction: In 2014, 2 new freestanding midwifery-led birth centers opened in Ontario, Canada. As one part of a larger mixed-methods evaluation of the first year of operations of the centers, our primary objective was to compare the experiences of women receiving midwifery care who intended to give birth at the new birth centers with those intending to give birth at home or in hospital.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of women cared for by midwives with admitting privileges at one of the 2 birth centers.

Outcomes for the First Year of Ontario's Birth Center Demonstration Project.

Introduction: In 2014, Ontario opened 2 stand-alone midwifery-led birth centers. Using mixed methods, we evaluated the first year of operations for quality and safety, client experience, and integration into the maternity care community. This article reports on our study of safety and quality of care.

The Integration of Ontario Birth Centers into Existing Maternal-Newborn Services: Health Care Provider Experiences.

Introduction: In 2014, 2 freestanding, midwifery-led birth centers opened in Ontario, Canada. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively investigate the integration of the birth centers into the local, preexisting intrapartum systems from the perspective of health care providers and managerial staff.

Methods: Focus groups or interviews were conducted with health care providers (paramedics, midwives, nurses, physicians) and managerial staff who had experienced urgent and/or nonurgent maternal or newborn transports from a birth center to one of 4 hospitals in Ottawa or Toronto.

The Canadian birth place study: examining maternity care provider attitudes and interprofessional conflict around planned home birth.

Background: Available birth settings have diversified in Canada since the integration of regulated midwifery. Midwives are required to offer eligible women choice of birth place; and 25-30% of midwifery clients plan home births. Canadian provincial health ministries have instituted reimbursement schema and regulatory guidelines to ensure access to midwives in all settings.

Home birth in North America: attitudes and practice of US certified nurse-midwives and Canadian registered midwives.

Introduction: Scope of practice, competencies, and philosophy of maternity practice are similar among midwives in the United States and Canada. However, there are marked differences in intrapartum practice sites between registered midwives (RMs) and certified nurse-midwives (CNMs).

Methods: This study linked data from 2 national surveys: 1) a 2007 survey of CNM members of the American College of Nurse-Midwives (n = 1893); and 2) the Canadian Birth Place Study of maternity providers, including RM members of the Canadian Association of Midwives (n = 451) to compare the demographics, practice experience, and attitudes to home birth between these 2 types of North American midwives.

The Canadian Birth Place Study: describing maternity practice and providers' exposure to home birth.

Objectives: (1) to describe educational, practice, and personal experiences related to home birth practice among Canadian obstetricians, family physicians, and registered midwives; (2) to identify barriers to provision of planned home birth services, and (3) to examine inter-professional differences in attitudes towards planned home birth.

Design: the first phase of a mixed-methods study, a quantitative survey, comprised of 38 items eliciting demographic, education and practice data, and 48 items about attitudes towards planned home birth, was distributed electronically to all registered midwives (N=759) and obstetricians who provide maternity care (N=800), and a random sample of family physicians (n=3,000).

Setting: Canada.

Problems with condom use among patients attending sexually transmitted disease clinics: prevalence, predictors, and relation to incident gonorrhea and chlamydia.

Condom use remains important for sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention. This analysis examined the prevalence of problems with condoms among 1,152 participants who completed a supplemental questionnaire as part of Project RESPECT, a counseling intervention trial conducted at five publicly funded STD clinics between 1993 and 1997. Altogether, 336 participants (41%, 95% confidence interval: 38, 45) reporting condom use indicated that condoms broke, slipped off, leaked, or were not used throughout intercourse in the previous 3 months.

Is HIV/sexually transmitted disease prevention counseling effective among vulnerable populations?: a subset analysis of data collected for a randomized, controlled trial evaluating counseling efficacy (Project RESPECT).

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate counseling efficacy among high-risk groups.

Study: We conducted a subset analysis of data collected from July 1993 through September 1996 during a randomized, controlled trial (Project RESPECT). Participants (n = 4328) from 5 public U.

Condom effectiveness for reducing transmission of gonorrhea and chlamydia: the importance of assessing partner infection status.

This analysis examined the importance of differential exposure to infected partners in epidemiologic studies of latex condom effectiveness for prevention of sexually transmitted infections. Cross-sectional, enrollment visit data were analyzed from Project RESPECT, a trial of counseling interventions conducted at five publicly funded US sexually transmitted disease clinics between 1993 and 1997. The association between consistent condom use in the previous 3 months and prevalent gonorrhea and chlamydia (Gc/Ct) was compared between participants known to have infected partners and participants whose partner infection status was unknown.

Searching for nursing's future? Here's how to turn your vision into reality.

Nurses from the Inova Health System, an integrated care system in northern Virginia, used the Future Search process to create an action plan for their future practice.