Family-centered Maternity Care

Family-Centered Maternity Care is an approach to providing care for women and their families that integrates pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and infant care into the continuum of the family life cycle as normal, healthy life events. The care provided is individualized and recognizes the importance of family support, participation, and choice. Family-Centered Maternity Care offers strategies and methods to bring this philosophy into maternity service operations in hospitals. This text is intended to help physicians and nurses promote quality care for families in their practice. It provides examples for developing Family-Centered Maternity Care programs in hospitals, policies and procedures for implementing such programs, sample forms, and even assessment criteria for hospitals to evaluate their level of compliance with Family-Centered Maternity Care standards. Family-Centered Maternity Care is an effective method of ensuring patient and family education and involvement in care, as well as providing the caregiver with a sense of fulfillment and commitment to care. Family-Centered Maternity Care is an incomparable resource to help all birth centers and hospitals achieve this optimum level of healthcare delivery.