P+F was founded in 1988 to improve the delivery of healthcare services to women and their families.

P+F's vision is to help hospitals develop high-quality, efficiently operated programs and facilities for maternity and women's healthcare.

We believe that family-centered care results in:

• Cost-efficient care and quality outcomes that are responsive to the needs of women and their families.
• High patient satisfaction, which benefits physicians, nurses, hospitals, and all others who provide these services.

Phillips+Fenwick developed the following ten principles of operation that summarize the philosophy of family-centered maternity care (FCMC).

• FCMC Principle #1: Childbirth is seen as wellness, not illness. Care is directed to maintaining labor, birth, postpartum, and newborn care as a normal life event involving dynamic emotional, social, and physical change.

• FCMC Principle #2: Prenatal care is personalized according to the individual psychosocial, educational, physical, spiritual, and cultural needs of each woman and her family.

• FCMC Principle #3: A comprehensive program of perinatal education prepares families for active participation throughout the evolving process of preconception, pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting.

• FCMC Principle #4: The hospital team assists the family in making informed choices for their care during pregnancy, labor, birth, postpartum, and newborn care, and strives to provide them with the experience they desire.

• FCMC Principle #5: The father and/or other supportive persons of the mother's choice are actively involved in the educational process, labor, birth, postpartum, and newborn care.

• FCMC Principle #6: Whenever the mother wishes, family and friends are encouraged to be present during the entire hospital stay including labor and birth.

• FCMC Principle #7: Each woman's labor and birth care are provided in the same location unless a Cesarean birth is necessary. When possible, postpartum and newborn care are also given in the same location and by the same caregivers.

• FCMC Principle #8: Mothers are encouraged to keep their babies in their rooms at all times. Nursing care focuses on teaching and role modeling while providing safe, quality care for the mother and baby together.

• FCMC Principle #9: When Mother-Baby Care is implemented, the same person cares for the mother and baby couplet as a single family unit, integrating the whole family into the care.

• FCMC Principle #10: Parents have access to their high-risk newborns at all times and are included in the care of their infants to the extent possible given the newborn's condition.

From: Phillips, C. (2003). Family-Centered Maternity Care. Sudsbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.