All too often our children’s potentials are decided at birth by avoidable birth trauma and injury.
The goal of the ALLIANCE is to bring about a reduction of birth injury and trauma in newborns and their mothers through the sharing of scientific information and public information.
Infant mortality in the U.S. is the highest of all industrialized countries — and can not be explained away merely by lifestyles. We invite you or your organization to join the ALLIANCE if you are concerned that:
- Maternity care could be made safer and more humane for babies and their mothers,
- FDA’s 1974 guidelines for evaluating the safety of obstetric drugs need to be updated,
- The FDA should require a follow-up of children exposed in utero to obstetric related drugs to determine the behavioral and cognitive effects of the drugs,
- A pregnant woman should be told, prior to giving birth, of the risks, as well as the benefits, of the drugs and procedures frequently used in maternity care,
- A pregnant woman and her baby should not be used as teaching or research “material” without the woman’s informed consent,
- Hospitals should be required, as in the State of New York, to provide prospective maternity patients with a brochure that clearly states that respective hospital’s rate of cesarean section, induced or augmented labor, epidural anesthesia, analgesia, forceps extraction, episiotomy, midwife deliveries, etc.,
- The mother should be given a copy of her baby’s hospital/medical records,
- Women consumers, knowledgeable in the area of maternity care, should be included in any city, state or federal body authorized to determine or evaluate maternity services,
- HMOs should be required to reimburse for midwifery services by state licensed midwives for women who wish it,
- A hospital which refuses to provide admitting privileges to state licensed midwives must submit their position to the state department of health for arbitration and settlement.
To learn more, we invite you to
review the various documents listed on our home page, and to
send us a message or add your name to our e-mail list at dh@aimsusa.org