Home Birth Clinical Simulation Experience

Most CNMs/CMs graduate without ever seeing birth in any setting other than in hospital. About 94% of CNMs/CMs work in hospitals, 6% in community settings, about half of those at home.  In the recent past, however, the demand for home birth is increasing--over 60%, from 2002 to 2017, and another 20% (39% for African Americans) just during the C19 pandemic.  Midwifery students need and desire home birth clinical experience.  The shortage of home birth clinical sites leaves students without opportunities for experiential learning around home birth. 

This in-person, all-day Home Birth Clinical Simulation Experience allows participants to rotate through 4 areas of clinical practice, and to try on the roles of midwife, client, partner, and birth assistant.  Students will learn about at-home management of respectful care, shared decision-making, labor, birth, perineal repair, complications, routine newborn care, and set-up of supplies and equipment.  They will also learn how to facilitate non-emergent and emergent transfers of care, practicing the roles of transferring midwife, client, and receiving provider. 

Purpose: To provide midwifery students with a clinical simulation experience exploring the differences between home and hospital midwifery management of birth, complications and transfers, client-driven care and shared decision-making, and typical course of care. Utilizing teaching techniques grounded in feminist pedagogy and change theory, students will receive a low-tech, high-fidelity clinical experience that is as close as possible to the real experience of attending births in the home setting.
Intended Participants: Midwifery Education Programs
Time Frame: 9 hours (with lunch and breaks)
Cost Range: $375/participant (minimum: 6), plus travel expenses for HBA faculty