Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a site that contained information and reviews of hospitals, birth centers, doctors, and midwives? Guess what? There is! The Birth Survey has been up and running for a few years now and it is turning out to be quite the useful tool.
Resource Spotlight: The Birth Survey
The Birth Survey believes that all women should be able to access information in regards to maternity care providers and locations. Through this site, you can look up information on hospitals or birthing centers that you might be considering, you can check out what others think of the doctors or midwives who are on your potential provider list.
This site is not just about getting information however; it’s also a place for mothers to give information. If you have given birth in the last 3 years, you can fill out a survey on your prenatal care, labor and delivery, postpartum care, how you felt about your providers and so much more. By filling out the survey, you not only provide more information for other women to benefit from but your information may also be used by providers and facilities to help them evaluate how they are doing.
I wish there had been such a resource as this when I was pregnant with my first. It would have been wonderful to see what others had to say about the doctor I had decided to go with and the hospital I delivered at.
In addition to giving and getting survey results, The Birth Survey also provides intervention rates. Statistics on deliveries is something that should be required of providers to well…. provide. However, there are only a few states in the US that require providers to tell their patients their rates of c-sections, interventions, VBAC’s and so on. I don’t know about you but if I was provided with that kind of information it would definitely influence which provider I choose to deliver my baby.
The Birth Survey is doing a wonderful job of sharing the information and allowing women to better choose their maternity providers and facilities. I encourage you to check it out; see if your provider or facility is on there and see the reviews. Have you given birth in the last 3 years? Take the time to fill out the survey. It only takes a few minutes but this simple task with share your reviews and ratings with others and will help The Birth Survey become an even greater resource.
Deliciously Simple Meatballs – Grain Free
Natural Wood Cleaner and Restorer
Why You Should Switch to Family Cloth and How to Start
Homemade Natural Face Powder
6 Folding Methods for Menstrual Cups
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Ah, Elise I'm so sorry. I went to hit reply and accidentally hit remove comment! Sorry!
So if I remember correctly you were wondering where your hospital was on The Birth Survey's list?
First off I recommend searching for your hospital by typing in your zip code and selecting a wide search radius. That will give you all the surrounding hospitals (I've found this easier then typing in the actual city or name of the hospital.) Sometimes the hospital is named slightly different they you wrote and it won't come up….for instance my hospital was Stevens but they changed names when my 3rd was born… however they do not have the new hospital name in their database yet (although they hopefully will soon as I just did my daughter's survey. 🙂
Secondly, if your hospital isn't listed it's just because not too many people know about the site. Plus it started out as a site open to just New York and then they eventually went nation wide. The more people who know about it and fill out the surveys the better the info will be.
As for finding specific info such as c-section rates for WA it's a bit difficult. This link http://www.theBirthSurvey.com/dev/Results/learn_state.shtml will take you to The Birth Survey's state by state resource page where they have links to each states available stats. WA has a DOH link which unfortunately only goes up to 2009 (why is beyond me) then there's a link to ICAN which will give you a bit of info on which hospitals allow VBACS and related info. There's also a "mothers and babies" link which takes you to March of Dimes which has c-section percentages but only for WA as a whole not individual hospitals and only till 2008.
As I happen to know you are in WA – here's a site that has the hospital c-section rates per hospital (as of 2009)http://www.theunnecesarean.com/blog/2010/8/23/washington-state-cesarean-rates-by-hospital-2009.html
Hope that helps a bit. Sadly it's not as nice as clearly stated as it should be. Everyone should have access to easy to read, thorough records and stats.
Awesome, never heard of it before!
Thank you so much for this information. I am curious as I had a C-sec and after watching the documentary "the business of being born" I feel as though I am left with a lot of questions. I will be looking into that!
My first was a c-section and I've now had 2 successful VBACs. 🙂 You can always email me if you have any questions for me you can always email me.