If you are or have been pregnant, how did you choose your hospital? Was it the one that you went to when you broke a bone or other injury and received good care? Is it the shiniest newest building in your area? Is it the biggest? Had you heard good things about it? Is it the one that your chosen care provider has rights to? How, also, did you choose your care provider? Was this the doctor that most of your friends went to (even if their birth experiences were not what you desired)?
But what if you could choose your care provider and hospital on actual statistics – cesarean rates, perinatal mortality statistics, induction rates, intervention rates, episiotomy rates, breastfeeding support information, and much more?
You will be able to soon, if women like you help.
The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) has a new project that promises to put an end to all this guesswork. At The Birth Survey, they are collecting data on specific hospitals and care providers and the experiences of women with each during their birth.
Please go here and share your stories, and give the women more information than you had to choose their maternity care. Then pass this link along to any women you know who have given birth, especially in our own community.
(And once you complete the survey, the CIMS Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative is also great reading.)