Purpose for the program: Our Obstetrical service implemented a Family-Centered Maternity Care program in 2010.  Our facility was known in the region for being very high-tech and medicalized, where a family would want to birth if they had a high risk pregnancy, or desired an induction and epidural.   Families who sought a low intervention, non-medicalized birth often went elsewhere.  We simutaneously suffered a downturn in deliveries.  Some of this was attributable to the economic situation, but also we felt our patients may be going to facilities that offered a different birth experience than the one we were providing. Additionally we were seeing an increase in emergent admissions from nearby lay midwife-run birthing centers.  We wanted to offer our families the opportunity to birth their baby the way they wanted to, but within easy access to our Obstetric Operating Rooms and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) if the need arose.     

Proposed change: We are endeavoring to make a Family Centered Maternity Care culture change within our facility initiating with our Physician's offices and clinics and continuing through our childbirth education programs and hospital services.  All services that interact with the obstetrical services were impacted in some way. 

Implementation, outcomes and evaluation: The physicians and nursing staff underwent training and new practices were implemented on all Obstetrical services.  Changes were seen in physician order sets, policies and procedures, and nursing documentation.   A nursing attitude survey was offered to all staff prior to and 12 months after the start of the program.   Results demonstrated a shift in most of the indicators toward a more Family cenetered maternity care attitude.  A targeted Patient Satisfaction survey was also given to all patients over a 4 week period who delivered a normal newborn (non-NICU admission) about a month after implementation of the program and again eight months after implementation.   The Patient Satisfaction survey demonstrated continued improvements for our patient's experience.   Our facility is planning on offering a follow up patient survey in April of 2012 to determine if we have achieved further gains.       

Implications for nursing practice: Our journey through this program has challenged all of our care providers to examine their practices.  Through these efforts we have seen changes in our marketing, childbirth and lactation services, office/clinic practices as well as all of the inpatient services that interact with our maternity patients and their babies.  

Keywords: Family-centered maternity Care, Labor support, Patient Satisfaction