Optimal Care in Childbirth

Henci Goer, award-winning medical writer and internationally known speaker, has made it her life's work to analyze and synthesize the maternity care research in order to determine what constitutes safe, effective, satisfying care in childbirth. An independent scholar, she has become an acknowledged expert on evidence-based maternity care. Her first book, Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities, to which this book is the successor, was a valued resource for childbirth professionals. Wanting to give pregnant women and their families the same access to the research evidence and therefore the ability to make informed decisions about their care, she followed it with The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth. Over the years, she has written consumer education pamphlets and numerous articles for trade, consumer, and academic periodicals. She served as project director and participated as an Expert Work Group member on the document, "Evidence Basis for the Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care" on behalf of the Coalition for Improvement in Maternity Services. Currently, she is a resident expert on Lamaze International's website where she moderates the "Ask Henci" forum and appears as a regular guest blogger on Science & Sensibility. Goer's major in biology at Brandeis University, her teaching experience as a Lamaze certified childbirth educator, and her work as a doula have served her well in her chosen career. Amy Romano has worked in the maternity care field as a clinician, research analyst, educator, and consumer advocate since 2001. In 2010, she joined Childbirth Connection, where she directs the Transforming Maternity Care Partnership, a national effort to improve maternity care quality in the United States. Prior to joining Childbirth Connection, she practiced midwifery in the home, birth centre, and hospital settings and taught in the nurse-midwifery program at the Yale School of Nursing. She also spent six years as a perinatal research and advocacy consultant to Lamaze International, where she analyzed, summarized, and critiqued research for the Lamaze community and launched the award-winning research blog, Science & Sensibility. Romano was also a member of the editorial team for the 9th edition of the landmark women's health book, Our Bodies, Ourselves, released in 2011. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and both a certificate and masters' degree in nursing at the Yale School of Nursing. Romano was the 2012 recipient of the Kitty Ernst Award, one of the American College of Nurse-Midwives' highest honours.