Step 1: offers all birthing mothers unrestricted access to birth companions, labor support, professional midwifery care: the coalition for improving maternity services:

The first step of the Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care insures that women have access to a wide variety of support in labor and during the pregnancy and postpartum periods: unrestricted access to birth companions of their choice, including family and friends; unrestricted access to continuous emotional and physical support from a skilled woman such as a doula; and access to midwifery care. The rationales for the importance of each factor and the evidence to support those rationales are presented.

Appendix: birth can safely take place at home and in birthing centers: the coalition for improving maternity services:

Although most women in the United States give birth in hospitals, a substantial body of research suggests that planned home birth or birth in freestanding birth centers have equally good or better outcomes for low-risk women. Out-of-hospital birth often facilitates mother-friendly care. Rationales and systematic reviews of both home birth and freestanding birth center birth are presented.

Step 7: educates staff in nondrug methods of pain relief and does not promote use of analgesic, anesthetic drugs: the coalition for improving maternity services:

Step 7 of the Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care insures that staff are knowledgeable about nondrug methods of pain relief and that analgesic or anesthetic drugs are not promoted unless required to correct a complication. The rationales for compliance and systematic reviews are presented on massage, hypnosis, hydrotherapy, and the use of opioids, regional analgesia, and anesthesia.

History of the Women's Health Movement in the 20th century.

The Women's Health Movement (WHM) emerged during the 1960s and the 1970s with the primary goal to improve health care for all women. Despite setbacks in the area of reproductive rights during the 1980s, the WHM made significant gains in women's health at the federal policy level during the 1980s and 1990s. The WHM became a powerful political force.