Maternal stress and timing of delivery: Preliminary cortisol data from Puerto Rico and the mitigating role of midwifery care
Maternal stress is associated with nearly half of preterm births globally, however, existing research has yet to determine the best way to measure and sufficiently understand this relationship to be able to devise effective interventions to reduce preterm birth. To gather data for this research, maternal hair cortisol samples were collected across the childbearing year in addition to other maternal stress measures. Horan and Cheyney describe and discuss the possible implications of this data, the role of midwifery care in mitigating maternal stress, and directions for future research. This data was collected as part of a larger, collaborative research project with midwives, doulas, maternity care staff, and physicians in Puerto Rico. Midwifery students also served as research assistants on during this phase of the project. This research is an important piece of the puzzle in demonstrating how midwifery may serve as a model for mitigating maternal stress and reducing preterm birth.
Holly Horan, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama and a birth and postpartum doula. Holly’s research focuses on maternal stress and birth outcomes in Puerto Rico and scaling up maternity care services in Alabama. Holly is a remote member of the research team for the Community Doula Program, a Medicaid-funded program providing doula services to priority populations in three counties in Oregon. She also serves on the Region II Perinatal Advisory Council in Alabama.
Melissa Cheyney PhD, LDM is Associate Professor of Clinical Medical Anthropology at Oregon State University (OSU) and a community midwife. She co-directs Uplift—a research and reproductive equity laboratory at OSU, where she serves as the Primary Investigator on more than 20 maternal and infant health-related research projects, including the Community Doula Project. She is the author of an ethnography entitled Born at Home (2010, Wadsworth Press), co-editor with Robbie Davis-Floyd of Birth in Eight Cultures (2019, Waveland Press), and author or co-author of more than 60 peer-reviewed articles that examine the cultural beliefs and clinical outcomes associated with midwife-attended birth at home and in birth centers in the United States. In 2019, Dr. Cheyney served on the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Birth Settings in America Study and in 2020 was named Eminent Professor by OSUs Honors College. She also received Oregon State University’s prestigious Scholarship Impact Award for her work in the International Reproductive Health Laboratory and with the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) Statistics Project. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care and the mother of a daughter born at home on International Day of the Midwife in 2009.
NACPM Fifth Virtual Annual Membership Meeting 2018
Tuesday, January 8, 2019, 4-6 pm, ET
Our Leadership Team will be sharing higlights and what we have learned over the past year during our Fifth Virtual Annual Meeting. We will include a report and discussion on the 2018 CPM Symposium, the Bigger Table Fund Scholarship Awards as well as our organizational commitments and programs.