220.000 OBSTETRICS

220.998       Ensuring Physician-Led, Comprehensive Maternal Care Across the State

The Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) advocate that any state-funded maternal health initiative explicitly support physician-led, team-based models of care that integrate midwives and doulas but ensure medical oversight and continuity of care.

Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) urge the Governor and New York State Department of Health to ensure that future maternal health allocations prioritize programs that improve access to comprehensive prenatal, obstetric, and postpartum medical services, expand screening and management of high-risk conditions, and strengthen hospital-community partnerships to prevent avoidable maternal deaths.

Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) reaffirm its commitment to promoting equitable, evidence-based maternal care and advocate for public investment strategies that directly address the medical and systemic causes of maternal mortality in New York State’s most at-risk communities.

(Adopted HOD 2026-59)

220.999         Deliveries Out of Hospital:

Labor and delivery while a physiologic process, clearly presents potential hazards to both mother and fetus before and after birth.  These hazards require standards of safety which are provided in the hospital setting and cannot be matched in the home situation.  We recognize, however, the legitimacy of the concern of many that the events surrounding birth be an emotionally satisfying experience for the family. We support those actions that improve the experience of the family while continuing to provide the mother and her infant with accepted standards of safety available only in hospitals which conform to standards as outlined by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics.  (Council 10/25/79; Reaffirmed HOD 2013; reaffirmed HOD 2023)