Laura Duberstein Lindberg

State‐level investment in midwifery education strengthens the workforce by addressing long‐standing structural barriers in training and clinical education. We describe the development, implementation, and early outcomes of the New Jersey Midwifery Education Project (NJ‐MEP), a state‐funded initiative designed to sustain, expand, and diversify the midwifery workforce through targeted improvements in educational and training infrastructure. The NJ‐MEP's successes illustrate how policy engagement, advocacy, and sustained public funding are effective mechanisms to support midwifery workforce development and diversification. Core components of the NJ‐MEP include (1) financial and educational support for clinical preceptors; (2) financial investment in midwifery students through scholarships, mentoring, and academic coaching; (3) the creation of a dedicated midwifery simulation center; and (4) the development of a coordinated research agenda focused on clinical education quality and workforce development. Preceptor initiatives combine financial support with educational programming, including in‐person workshops and an online learning platform. Student scholarship funding, combined with mentoring and academic coaching programs, reduces financial strain and supports student success. The simulation center expands access to hands‐on learning across routine and high‐acuity clinical scenarios while supporting interprofessional education. Finally, a growing body of research conducted under the auspices of the NJ‐MEP reframes clinical precepting as a central educational and workforce system, thereby shaping training quality, equity, and long‐term workforce viability. Together, these 4 components demonstrate the positive impact of a state‐funded investment in midwifery education.

The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) has been a cornerstone of U.S. sexual and reproductive health research for five decades, providing nationally representative data on fertility, contraception, and sexual behaviors. However, recent changes to NSFG data collection raise new challenges for data quality, generalizability, and interpretation. In the 2022–2023 cycle, the NSFG implemented a multimodal design with the majority of respondents completing the survey online and experienced a dramatic decline in response rates, falling to 26.8%—nearly forty percentage points lower than in 2017–2019. In response, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) advises against comparisons between the most recent data and earlier NSFG waves.Using a synthetic cohort approach, we examine whether the 2022–2023 NSFG exhibits patterns suggestive of selection bias that extend beyond challenges to comparisons over time. We assess consistency across survey waves for demographic characteristics that should remain stable within cohorts and for lifetime measures that should only increase with age. While estimates from 2011–2019 display expected stability, the 2022–2023 data show implausible shifts, including increases in socioeconomic advantage and declines in lifetime contraceptive use, even after application of NCHS-provided survey weights. These patterns suggest that weighting adjustments may be insufficient to address nonresponse bias in the most recent NSFG.Our findings reinforce existing guidance against temporal comparisons and raise additional concerns about the interpretation of cross-sectional estimates from the 2022–2023 NSFG. We discuss implications for researchers and policymakers relying on NSFG data and offer guidance for cautious use of recent estimates. More broadly, we highlight the need for renewed investment and methodological innovation to sustain high-quality national surveillance of sexual and reproductive health in an era of declining survey participation.

Introduction: Clinical education is a cornerstone of midwifery training. Although international studies highlight the importance of preceptor support, predictability, and a positive learning environment, little is known about which aspects of clinical education in the United States best support or hinder student learning. Methods: We conducted a national, cross‐sectional survey of certified nurse‐midwives and certified midwives certified between 2019 and 2024. Eligible participants were recruited via email through the American Midwifery Certification Board. The survey included 46 items, including 23 items about their clinical education experiences and 23 items about their current practice and demographic characteristics. In this article, we have analyzed 3 open‐ended questions that asked participants to describe the best and worst parts of their clinical education using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: We received 640 completed surveys resulting in a response rate of 16%. From our analysis, we identified 3 themes. The first was the centrality of the preceptor as a make‐or‐break component of clinical education. Participants overwhelmingly emphasized the central role of preceptors in influencing the quality of their experiences, describing supportive mentors as crucial to building confidence, independence, and professional growth. Conversely, negative preceptor behaviors, including bullying and discrimination, hindered learning. The second theme, the need for diversity in setting and care to produce a full‐scope midwife, highlighted the various clinical experiences needed to create a full‐scope midwife. The third theme described participants’ desire for clinical education that fits within their lives. Discussion: Findings demonstrate that the quality of clinical education hinges on supportive preceptors and diverse learning environments; yet students frequently encounter mistreatment and systemic barriers. Midwifery programs and professional organizations must enhance oversight of clinical placements, invest in accessible preceptor training, and provide structured support for students navigating challenging sites. Strengthening clinical education is essential to sustaining a well‐prepared, resilient midwifery workforce that can provide equitable, evidence‐based care.

A growing body of research documents contraceptive discussions on social networking sites (SNS) such as TikTok, but offers limited insights due to reliance on small samples of videos. Improved methodological approaches are needed to support innovative and informative research. We present an approach for data scraping and thematic analysis of videos about female-controlled contraceptive side effects on TikTok informed by a Youth Advisory Committee. Two third-party data scrapers on Apify were used to obtain a large sample of TikToks (n=3,506) scraped using contraception-related search terms and hashtags. These videos were screened for eligibility, and we used a hybrid deductive and inductive thematic approach to analyze eligible videos (n=712). A youth advisory committee was formed to guide and interpret the research. Central themes include contrasts between user experiences of side effects and clinical evidence, anti-hormonal sentiment, empowerment, and trust/mistrust in healthcare. This research provides a case study for analyzing TikTok videos to understand emerging population chatter about reproductive health experiences that can be applied to other research topics. Population health researchers can leverage SNS data, building on established qualitative methods, for meaningful and timely insights.

This article has now been published in the journal, Contraception: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2024.110384 Objective: Access to information about abortion is essential for ensuring reproductive autonomy, particularly post-Roe. TikTok, a popular video-sharing application, may be a source of information about abortion, yet little is known about the tone and content of such videos. To analyze the most liked abortion videos on TikTok three months following the U.S. Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.Study Design: We downloaded the top 200 most liked TikTok videos when searching “abortion” and recorded key video characteristics. We then qualitatively analyzed for content, tone, and speaker type.Results: The top 200 videos were liked by more than 156 users, bookmarked nearly 12 million times, and averaged 42,000 comments each. Most videos were supportive of abortion and presented information that was political or personal in nature. Only two videos contained health information about obtaining or completing an abortion, and only five videos featured or were created by a medical provider. Conclusions: Findings reveal the broad reach of TikTok and the high degree of engagement, underscoring the importance of analyzing online sources of information about abortion. However, our analysis indicates that TikTok is a source of abortion news, political opinion, personal stories, and debate rather than a source of health information for abortion seekers.