DMV low C-section rates?
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Anonymous
| Which hospitals in the DMV have low C-section rates? |
Anonymous
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It's a much more complicated question than just the rate. The best hospitals deliver the most complicated pregnancies, often those end in c-section. You should chose a practice you like that's delivers at a hospital you like. My first was delivered at the hospital with the highest c-section rate in the state, because they were the best hospital in the state (best NICU, best MFM practice). The rate is just one small part of the picture.
And...if you do end up needing a c-section, wouldn't you rather be at the place they do them the most? |
Anonymous
| Why does this matter to you? Rates are highly dependent on the patient population. Sibley has a high rate because many older moms deliver there and many choose the hospital for a planned C section. GW has a lower rate in part due to the midwife practice. But the rate alone is not a measure of quality. Low rates mean providers may pursue vaginal births when it’s not safe, and these births may injure moms and babies but still may be perceived as “successful” if you are just looking at the vaginal birth rate alone. What isn’t measured in that is the rate of severe maternal tears, pelvic floor injury, fetal injury, mental health issues parents experience as the result of birth injury, future surgical correction costs for moms who endure birth injury (eg pelvic floor reconstruction), pelvic floor PT costs, etc. Looking at C section rare is sort of a red herring. Far more important than how the baby was born is: was mom injured in the process? Was baby injured in the process? Did anyone experience significant trauma from the birth? Did baby undergo risk that was unnecessary - eg oxygen deprivation? Etc. it’s a lot more complex than just c section rate versus vag rate. |
Anonymous
| Lots of ama in the dmv. |
Anonymous
What is ama? |
Anonymous
| My friend and her DH really felt bullied into a C-section at Sibley on their first birth. They did a home birth on the 2nd baby -- 2 pounds larger and a much happier experience. |
Anonymous
Your friend is an irresponsible idiot. |
Anonymous
| Midwives have lower c section rates. I am with a midwife now despite being a VBAC. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| VHC has drastically lowered their c-section rate by basically putting in an after-action reporting mechanism to try to figure out why *unplanned* c-sections are happening. Not “baby is breech we’ve been scheduling a c-section for weeks” but why people who were good candidates for vaginal birth and wanted one were getting c-sections. I would deliver there, because the doctors doing the delivery are aware that “convenience” c-sections are not in the cards, so if you have a c-section there that you didn’t want, you at least know you needed it. |
Anonymous
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I had both my kids with the midwives at GW. During my 2nd labor, the midwife bought me a few extra pushes to get the baby out myself and for that I am thankful. My husband said the OB team was literally in the doorway ready to wheel me to surgery.
My first labor I was the last L&D bed at GW before they started diverting to Sibley. My labor was long and my doula told me frankly “if you had gone to Sibley, that baby would not have come out of your vagina” |
Anonymous
Older moms. Advanced maternal age. |
Anonymous
NP and you are truly the idiot. You might wish to check your bias at the door if you want to be a productive contribution to this board and probably society as a whole. OP- you're better off focusing on a midwife or OB practice that has low c-section rates and low interventions. |
Anonymous
This is true because OB GYNs are not trained on uncomplicated births. They are only trained on managing risks- real or perceived. To a hammer everything's a nail. Go with midwives if you want to avoid a c-section. |
Anonymous
Home birth is irresponsible. It’s people’s choice to have one, but the infant mortality rates of home birth in the US and the fact that in an emergent medical situation you will not have access to the full scope of medical care and services you may need (forceps, vacuum, C section, blood in the event of you hemorrhaging, imaging, etc) should be a reason to avoid it. Is an uncomplicated homebirth likely to be a better experience for mom? Sure. But making the quality of your experience in one day the focus of your decision making (rather than the bigger goal of having a healthy child for the rest of your life and your child’s life) is a mistake. You have no idea if your birth will be complicated or not until is is over. And while there are things you can do to stack the deck in your favor to have an uncomplicated birth, at the end of the day it is a huge roll of the dice as all sorts of problems can come up from out of the blue during delivery, which you often cannot anticipate. And that have nothing to do with if you did prenatal yoga, ate well, and exercised. Also, midwives have low C section rates because they cannot perform them. They also don’t do vacuum or forceps births. This can mean they use more creative techniques to get babies out vaginally, but it can also mean they do crazy things (like purple push for HOURS!) that can damage women and their pelvic floors permanently for the goal of getting the baby out the vagina. Your vagina is going to be with you the rest of your life - if you injure it or your rectum during birth, it is often not easily fixed and can mean incontinence (flatal, urinary, fecal), severe tears, difficult recovery, chronic pain, dissatisfying sex, inability to wear tampons, pelvic organ prolapse, and a bunch of other stuff. Not to say these things don’t sometimes happen with C sections, but with a scheduled C section if you don’t go into labor you will absolutely not risk tearing your vagina or pelvic floor muscles. |