Normal Birth Resources

The Consensus Statement on Normal Birth - published by the Maternity Care Working Party. The MCWP wants to encourage a positive focus on normal birth. This statement calls for a standard definition for normal labour and birth so that normal birth rates can be audited and compared with confidence.

Web-Based Resources
- Royal College of Midwives Campaign for Normal Birth
- The National Childbirth Trust website. The NCT is a national charity, campaigning to promote normality in childbirth through changes in maternity care policy and practices
- The Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services website. AIMS is a consumer organisation campaigning for the recognition of childbirth as a normal physiological process, and for parents’ decisions concerning their own and their baby’s care to be respected.
Articles
- Promoting normality in childbirth by Richard Johanson and Mary Newburn
  BMJ 2001; 323: 1142-1143 Full text or pdf.
- Has the medicalisation of childbirth gone too far? by Richard Johanson, Mary Newburn, and Alison Macfarlane
  BMJ 2002; 324: 892-895 Full text or pdf.
- Labour interventions associated with normal birth by Soo Downe, Carol McCormick and Beverley Beech
  Br J Midwifery 2001;9:602-6 (not available on the web)
Books
- Evidence-based Care for Normal Labour and Birth: A Guide for Midwives by Denis Walsh
Published by the National Childbirth Trust (NCT)
- Help yourself to a straightforward birth by Jilly Rosser - an article first published in NCT's New Generation magazine
- The NCT Birth Policy Full text or Summary
- Making Normal Birth a Reality (MIDIRS Supplement 2003): available from NCT Sales
- Normal Births on the Increase - a leaflet produced jointly by the National Childbirth Trust and BirthChoiceUK (2004)
- The Decline of Normal Birth - a leaflet produced jointly by the National Childbirth Trust and BirthChoiceUK (2002)

Return to the Normal Birth Pages.