The REDUCE Campaign: Research and Education to Decrease Unnecessary Cesarean Sections

• NEW The REDUCE Campaign is an essential step for maternity care providers to consider “how” birth care is provided “with women”. The National Health Service in England has launched a major campaign to examine best birth practices and two resources are provided at the links below. Holly Powell Kennedy, CNM, PhD, FACNM, FAAN, University of California, San Francisco is spending seven months at King’s College London as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar examining how these guidelines are being implemented and will share these with the ACNM membership at the 2008 ACNM Annual Meeting in Boston.
  • NHS Self-Improvement Toolkit to reduce caesarean birth as an innovation to support normal birth
  • NICE Guidelines for Intrapartum Care

• The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued a statement on May 9, 2006 titled 'Patient-Reguested Cesarean Debate': "ACOG continues to review all of the issues surrounding maternal-request cesarean, but at this time our position is that cesareans should be performed for medical reasons," says Stanley Zinberg, MD, MS, ACOG deputy executive vice president, and vice president of ACOG's Practice Activities division.
  

• Read the NIH state-of-the-science conference findings on 'cesarean delivery on maternal request' posted March 30, 2006.
  

• March 30, 2006: 'ACNM Calls for Accurate Reporting on New NIH Findings About Cesarean Delivery' news release
  

• Read an article (and view a photo gallery) about the REDUCE Campaign's March 20th media briefing
  

• Read these news releases:
  
  • 'Risks of Cesarean Delivery Underreported, Benefits Overstated' (March 20)
  • ACNM President Katherine Camacho Carr's remarks from the briefing: 'Unnecessary Cesarean Sections Threaten the Future Health of Mother and Child' (March 21)
    

• Visit the REDUCE Campaign Media Briefing page to learn about the event, and then find links to recent news reports and blog postings related to the REDUCE Campaign.
  

• Want to do something locally for the REDUCE Campaign?  Check out these tips for local media outreach. 
  

• Special Alert from Childbirth Connection (formerly Maternity Center Association) Regarding 2004 Cesarean Section Rate
  

• Consumer-Friendly Information - including new position statements from Lamaze International

• Official ACNM Documents
  

• Other Statements and Documents from ACNM
  

• Letters of Support from Allied Organizations
  

• Recent ACNM News Releases
  

• Recent News & Commentaries
  

• Related Research
  

• Links to Other Informative Resources