Clinical/Academic: Services in the Bravewell Clinical Network, Survey of Homebirth Midwifery Educators, Komen Grant to Potomac Massage Therapy Institute Serves Low-Income

Summary:  A presentation on the Bravewell Clinical Network at the recent Health Forum conference provides a window into the types of services which are offered in some of the nation's more visible, academically-affiliated integrative centers ...  Susan G. Komen Foundation stepped out of its usual pattern to make its maximum grant for community clinical services to a Potomac Massage Training Institute. The focus: services to low-income women with breast cancer ... A study published by the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council provides a snapshot into the educational issues of the least known of the 5 complementary healthcare disciplines with a federally-recognized accrediting agency.

1.    Services Offered in the Bravewell Clinical Network

Funders of the network

Ever wonder what kind of natural health, complementary and alternative services are being offered in integrative clinics which are associated with conventional academic health centers? A report at the 5th Annual Integrative Medicine for Healthcare Organizations conference of the Health Forum/American Hospital Association provides a snapshot of services in 8 of these centers. The group profiled is the

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation has awarded $75,000 to the Potomac Massage Training Institute (PMTI) for a pilot project to provide massage therapy to low-income women with breast cancer. Washington, DC has the nation's highest breast cancer rate and 2nd highest mortality rate from breast cancer. The grant is the highest amount Komen awards for projects of this sort. PMTI believes that this is the first significant grant for healthcare services to an institution which is not principally in the conventional medicine fold.

“Research has demonstrated that massage therapy can reduce the severity of symptoms such as pain, fatigue, nausea, anxiety, and depression by as much as 50%. For this reason, many patients with breast cancer use integrative therapies such as massage to mitigate these symptoms. Our goal is to provide an effective therapy that helps to reduce the symptoms of breast cancer and its treatment to women who would otherwise not have access to it.” 

Among the 5 complementary and alternative healthcare disciplines with a federally-recognized accrediting agency, the direct-entry (homebirth) midwives are certainly the least known. (The other four are chiropractic, acupuncture and Oriental medicine, naturopathic medicine and massage therapy.) A recent report in a newsletter of the Midwifery Education and Accreditation Council (MEAC), which lists 10 accredited programs on its website, provides a window into this discipline's world.

The report was written by Jo Anne Myers-Ciecko, MPH, a pillar of that profession for three decades. Myers-Ciecko is past executive director of the Seattle Midwifery School , presently serves as an accreditation specialist for MEAC and is the profession's lead representative to the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care. The report is based on responses to an internet-based survey of school presidents and administrators. While many of the outcomes were qualitative, some quantitative measures can be reported.

"The important thing about the database is not only that it characterizes midwifery practice. It is also the only database in the United States that describes normal birth  - primarily out-of-hospital practice where labor and delivery can progress without undo intervention."