Hospital Stats and Labor/Delivery Policies

[HokieGirl]

Hi,

How does one go about finding out what a hospitals birth stats (epi, c/s, fetal monitoring, etc.) are? And what their labor and delivery policies are?

I really want a homebirth and I know all the research and data, but dh has not taken the time to get himself informed, despite all the info I have provided him. And he really wants me to check out the hospitals in the area too. Which is fine and makes sense, but do you just ask what their policies are? Do they actually have this stuff written down?

[applejuice]

Hospitals are in the business of making money and they fudge on their numbers in every way they can.

[Henry's_Mamma]

You can probably contact the hospital's public relations or OB depts. If you do, I would ask VERY specific questions. For example, if you want to know about c/s rates, ask what the hospital's c/s rate is for non-high risk, singleton, first time mothers. Otherwise you're likely to get a "not real" number.

As far as procedures ... ask direct questions about things like IVs & fetal monitoring -- do you require continuous fetal monitoring? Do you have telemetry monitoring (allows you to move around)? Can your OB/mw make different orders? etc.

Be prepared to get a smoke screen. In many states hospitals aren't required to keep records of procedure rates, or they're not required to share this info. w/the public.

GL!

[HokieGirl]

Thanks - that's helpful. We're considering 3 hospitals. One is associated with a university that has a midwifery pgm. Another has a birth center attached (that'd be my preference if we use that hospital) and the other has a midwife that does home births and hospital births. And 2 of these hospitals allow waterbirths - so hopefully that increases the odds of us having the kind of birth we want.