An Alongside Midwifery Unit is a midwifery-led, homelike unit that is located within a hospital but is separate from the Labor & Delivery unit. It is designed for use by women who have a low-risk pregnancy and are anticipating a normal labor and birth. Care in an Alongside Midwifery Unit consists of evidence-based practices that support physiologic labor and birth, and optimal breastfeeding and maternal-newborn attachment.
Benefits of CABC AMU Accreditation
Accreditation from the CABC will help you:
- Demonstrate your accountability and commitment to providing high quality maternity care to:
- Childbearing families
- Insurance companies
- Maternity care colleagues
- Your community
- Learn to develop and use a robust Continuous Quality Improvement program that will allow you to:
- Recognize any quality issues quickly
- Systematically work to resolve issues in order to assure that you provide the very best possible maternity care
- Develop policies and procedures that support the midwifery model of care, enhance risk management, and allow you to provide evidence-based maternity care.
- Strengthen your position when negotiating with insurance companies.
- Learn from experienced experts in AMU operations who want to help your center succeed.
- Enhance pride in your Alongside Midwifery Unit among your staff, consumers, and collaborative physicians.
- Provide support with your collaborative physicians and center or hospital administrators, for your use of:
- Evidence-based maternity care practices and
- Avoidance of inappropriate use of technology
- Improve your bottom line with:
- Discounts on medical liability insurance
- Payment from health insurance companies that require CABC accreditation for reimbursement
Dedicated to Excellence
Alongside Midwifery Units that are already accredited in our 3-year accreditation cycle also enjoy these benefits of our monthly enrollment:
- Access to CABC accreditation experts to get questions answered while completing forms.
- Continually improved forms and site visit experiences.
- One site visit every 3 years.
- Airfare, lodging and meals paid by CABC.
- Review of two Interim Status Reports.
- Use of a CABC Certificate of Accreditation for wall display.
- Use of CABC’s Premium Accreditation Marketing Kit (designed for CABC-accredited AMU clients, collaborating physicians, and policymakers):
- Clickable web badge to verify accreditation status
- Window cling of the CABC accreditation seal
- A set of customized brochures about the value of CABC accreditation, featuring your Alongside Midwifery Unit’s photos, logo & contact info
Compare the Benefits (PDF) available to birth centers moving toward a dedicated relationship with CABC.