Fabulous

Amy Gates — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:38:55 -0500

Thank you for doing whatever you can to help spread the word, Kelly. :)

Amy
Crunchy Domestic Goddess
BlogHers Act contributing editor

This is an excellent idea.

mamarussell — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:00:19 -0500

This is an excellent idea. I will be passing the word around.

Kelly

Happy wife and contented mother

Wisdom Begun

I'm glad you will be taking

Amy Gates — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:42:34 -0500

I'm glad you will be taking it and hope you will pass it along to other women you know who've recently had kids. It certainly has the potential to be a great tool for so many. :)

Amy
Crunchy Domestic Goddess
BlogHers Act contributing editor

I tried to take the survey

amamasblog — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:28:21 -0500

I tried to take the survey but couldn't figure out how to get past a certain point- it kept kicking me out. Now that I know what the problem was (user error) I will be taking it soon. This will be a great resource.Heather* A Mama's Blog- A Mama's Blog

Rate your doctor, midwife & hospital on The Birth Survey

Amy Gates — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:09:24 -0500

If you've given birth in the United States in the past three years, you are eligible to participate in The Birth Survey. Thanks to The Birth Survey: Transparency in Maternity Care, "women can now give consumer reviews of doctors, midwives, hospitals, and birth centers, learn about the choices and birth experiences of others, and view data on hospital and birth center standard practices and intervention rates." If enough women take this survey, it could have a serious impact on maternity care in the U.S.

The survey was developed by The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services or the CIMS. "Our goal is to give women a mechanism that can be used to share information about maternity care practices in their community while at the same time providing practitioners and institutions feedback for quality of care improvement efforts."

From The Birth Survey:

We are dedicated to improving maternity care for all women. We will do this by 1) creating a higher level of transparency in maternity care so that women will be better able to make informed decisions about where and with whom to birth and 2) providing practitioners and hospitals with information that will aid in evaluating and improving quality of care.

Can I just say I really wish this type of resource had been available when I was pregnant with my daughter? If I had been able to read about my OB's episiotomy rate for one, I think it may have helped me pass her by and find another doctor who's intervention rates were more in line with the type of birth I was hoping to have. My doctor may be a great surgeon, but I felt that she was cut-happy and performed an unnecessary episiotomy that I still doesn't feel right 4+ years later. Since my daughter was born more than 3 years ago I cannot complete the survey to rate this particular doctor, but boy, oh boy, do I wish I could to help other women with their choices.

However, on a positive note, I was able to rate the midwife that was in attendance for my son's home birth 20 months ago. She received a glowing review from me and I am hopeful that the information I shared in the survey will influence women as well, just in the opposite direction.

The survey itself goes into quite a bit of detail about your prenatal care, labor, birth, and postpartum care with a doctor or midwife as well as asks you to rate the hospital or birthing center in which you gave birth (though you may complete it for home births as well - as I did - you just aren't rating a facility in that case). I believe it took me about 30 minutes or so to complete. A very nice feature, especially for busy moms, is you have the option of saving your answers and returning to it later, something I definitely took advantage of.

I believe The Birth Survey has the potential to make a real impact on the maternity care in this country and I hope that many, many women will take advantage of it to share their experiences and their knowledge with other women. I really feel it is every woman's duty to share her experience in an effort to educate others and, in turn, hopefully improve the quality of care. As Citizens for Midwifery points out, "For years, consumers have enthusiastically shared online reviews of movies, restaurants, products and services, but readily available information about maternity care providers and birth settings was nearly unattainable--but no longer." Doesn't it just make sense that there should be some sort of resource to compare care providers so that we can all make educated choices for our health and the health of our babies?

Heather at Meet the Heathons shares my excitement and optimism about the survey:

I am SO excited that this is FINALLY getting done. It was my dream as a public health graduate to do something like this. I've heard rumors that there are efforts to do this sort of thing for ALL types of medicine. So that say you needed a knee replacement, you could look up the hospital/doctor and see their success rate, compare prices, methods, etc... How AWESOME would that be. It would be one step towards changing health care in America-- but I won't get started on that one!

Giving Birth With Confidence says, "Hats off to the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, the incredible women working within community based birth networks throughout the US, and to all the women who are sharing their birth stories. Finally, there is hope that birth, and women’s decisions about care provider and place of birth, will no longer happen 'in the dark.'"

Upon completion of the survey, I found it interesting and helpful that there were additional resources listed for women who may have experienced negative feelings about their birth while taking the survey. Had I been taking it for my daughter's birth instead of my son's, I am sure a lot of the anger and negative emotions I have had in the past about the care I received during that time may have been brought to the forefront. (Heck, I'm experiencing some of them just writing the little bit that I did about it.) While it sucks that women may experience these feelings, it's good to know there are resources available to help them deal with them.

If this survey brought up traumatic feelings for you regarding your labor, birth, or postpartum experience we encourage you to seek help from a licensed mental health professional who specializes in birth trauma. The following resources may also be helpful to you www.postpartum.net, www.ican-online.org, and Solace for Mothers.

Now let's spread the word. Activistas says, "Share your story, voice your opinion, mamas. It's important, and it feels really good (kind of like having a baby!). If you don't, how will your experience help others?"

If you've given birth in the past three years, will you take The Birth Survey? Will you forward it on to your friends? Will you add a button to your blog? Let your voice be heard!

Other bloggers who have written about The Birth Survey:
Think Mama Think
Faith Walker
Mama Knows Breast
Finally Living Deliberately
...And a doula, too

Contributing editor Amy Gates blogs about green living, attachment parenting, activism and photography at Crunchy Domestic Goddess.

BlogHer - Rate your doctor, midwife & hospital on The Birth Survey - Comments

Fabulous

This is an excellent idea.

I'm glad you will be taking

I tried to take the survey

Rate your doctor, midwife & hospital on The Birth Survey