Independent Midwives UK Research Database, 2002-2012

<p>The Independent Midwives UK (IMUK) Research Database project was set up in 2002 as a prospective data collection. The aim was to collect a wide range of data from the IMs' case notes, covering antenatal, intrapartum and postpartum care. Each client was asked to sign a consent form giving permission for the data to be used. Research databases are normally designed to provide the minimum dataset that will satisfy the research requirements. The IMUK database took the opposite approach, collecting a wide range of data from the outset, with a 100% sample. This decision was made since it was neither practicable nor possible to contact clients for corrections and additions after the maternity care episode was completed. This has resulted in a dataset both comprehensive in scope and rich in detail. It may be particularly interesting because of the high proportion of home births (over 60%).</p><p><span style="font-style: italic;">Study Author's Acknowledgment:<br></span>In memory of Roger Kistruck, with heartfelt thanks. Without him these datasets could not have been collected or processed.<br></p><p>Independent Midwives UK (IMUK) is a membership organisation for independent midwives (IMs) in the UK. All IMUK's full members are professionally trained midwives, and are regulated by the NMC. IMs work autonomously as lead health professionals for maternity care, booking clients outside the NHS system, although almost all clients booked are also entitled to GP, specialist and emergency care as NHS patients. More than 50% of births attended by independent midwives are home births.</p><p>For the June 2022 release, edits were made to the previous data files to create a standard End User Licence (EUL) access version. Users should note that the documentation may still refer to previous files. The variables contained in the EUL version are listed in the UKDA data dictionary files available in the documentation table.</p><p><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></p>

<p>英国独立助产士协会（Independent Midwives UK, IMUK）研究数据库项目于2002年启动，为前瞻性数据收集项目。其目标是从独立助产士的病例记录中采集多维度数据，覆盖产前、产时及产后护理全流程。所有服务对象均需签署知情同意书，授权数据使用权限。常规研究数据库通常仅设计为满足研究需求的最小数据集，而IMUK数据库反其道而行之，自项目启动伊始便采集全量（100%样本）的宽泛数据。这一决策源于分娩照护结束后，再联系服务对象进行数据修正与补充既不实际也不可行。最终形成的数据集不仅覆盖全面，且细节丰富；尤为值得关注的是，其居家分娩占比超过60%，比例颇高。</p><p><span style="font-style: italic;">研究作者致谢：<br></span>谨以此纪念罗杰·基斯特拉克（Roger Kistruck），并致以衷心谢意。若无他的付出，本数据集的采集与处理工作无从开展。<br></p><p>英国独立助产士协会（Independent Midwives UK, IMUK）是英国独立助产士（Independent Midwives, IM）的会员制组织。其所有正式会员均为经过专业培训的助产士，受英国护理与助产委员会（Nursing and Midwifery Council, NMC）监管。独立助产士作为助产护理的首席健康专业人员自主执业，其服务对象均预约于英国国民保健制度（NHS）体系之外，但绝大多数预约服务对象同时作为NHS患者，有权获得全科医生（General Practitioner, GP）、专科医师及急诊医疗服务。由独立助产士协助的分娩中，超过50%为居家分娩。</p><p>在2022年6月发布的版本中，相关团队对此前的数据文件进行了修订，以生成标准化的最终用户许可协议（End User Licence, EUL）访问版本。用户需注意，相关文档中可能仍提及旧版数据文件。EUL版本包含的变量可在文档表格中提供的英国数据档案馆（UK Data Archive, UKDA）数据字典文件中查询。</p><p><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></p>