Table 1. Inclusion and exclusion criteria.
| Inclusion criteria | Exclusion criteria |
|---|---|
| Health facilities providing childbirth care in low- to middle-income countries as defined by the World Bank | Health facilities providing other types of health care, or health facilities providing childbirth care in high-income countries as defined by the World Bank. |
| Midwives or nurse-midwives are the lead professionals for childbirth care (whether a single midwife working alone, in a small team of midwives, a caseload model, or within an interdisciplinary team) | Midwives provide care under the leadership or direction of a doctor or other health professional, or midwives are the lead professional only by default (i.e. the midwife is the only available professional but there is no obvious commitment to the philosophy of midwife-led care), or the lead professional is a nurse without formal midwifery training, an auxiliary or associate midwife,2 a community health worker, or a traditional birth attendant |
| Childbirth care is provided in a dedicated (midwife-led) space either within or outside of a health facility1 | Care is provided in another type of space within a health facility (e.g. a maternity ward or obstetric unit) or outside of a health facility (e.g. at the birthing woman’s home) |
| Item is a research study, report of activities, opinion piece, or conference abstract | Item is a review of the literature |
| Year of publication was 2012 or later | Year of publication before 2012 |
| Published in English, French or Spanish | Published in other languages |
1We did not exclude facilities if they did not fully meet the ICM working definition of an MLBC, because one of our aims was to identify and describe their characteristics, rather than to assume that the working definition applies in all contexts.
2 We were particularly interested in the role of midwives or nurse-midwives who usually have similar levels of education and generally can take leadership or higher level roles. Associate-level cadres usually have less formal education or training and were not the focus of this study.