Strollerderby : OBs

Move Over Angie's List: It's the Birth Survey

Miriam Axel-Lute — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:30:00 GMT

The Internet is a wonderful thing for making our opinions known: We can rate our professors, our Amazon purchases, our contractors, and our favorite blog posts (hint, cough). Why not our midwives and doctors and hospitals?

After a pilot in New York City, the Coalition for the Improvement of Maternity Services has launched The Birth Survey to collect detailed information about mothers' experiences with their pre-natal, labor and delivery, and post-partum care. If you've given birth in the last three years, I strongly urge you to go fill it out. The sooner they get a volume of responses, the sooner other parents can get meaningful information on the options in their area. (NYC parents can already view the pilot data here.)

The survey is anonymous, and takes about 20 minutes (longer probably if you're ranking more than one care giver, which you have the option to do). It gives you almost entirely questions that are relevant to you based on your previous answers, which makes it much more pleasant to fill out than many surveys, especially on something that can go as many different ways as birth.

The questions focus on issues that feed into CIMS's 10 Steps to Mother-Friendly Childbirth, especially things like how much support and information care providers gave and how well they listened and respected parents' wishes, as well as breastfeeding support provided and what sorts of procedures were done during labor and delivery and what rationales were given for them.

I also took the demo survey to see what kind of questions they asked about hospital births, and though it's clear they are concerned about high c-section rates, for example, I think they did a good job of being non-judgmental and focused on the mother's experience and assessment. And in case the survey brings up bad memories for anyone who had even half as miserable an experience as Catherine Skol (the Chicago mom suing her abusive OB), they also provide links to networks of counselors experienced in helping with birth trauma at the end of the survey.

If you've always wanted to officially record your displeasure with or your gratitude for (or ambivalence about) your birth attendants, now's the time!

Photo by peretzpup.

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Mother Sues OB Who Said She "Deserved Pain"—And Gave It to Her

Miriam Axel-Lute — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Catherine Skol, former Chicago cop and mother of five, is suing her OB for abusive treatment during the birth of her fifth, nine months ago. If you've heard of the case, and the arguments that she's "just suing over rudeness" and should quit it because she's going to make malpractice rates go up, I suggest you go here, and read the details of the allegations.

I don't suggest you read it if you are pregnant and about to head into a hospital delivery however.

According to the suit, defendent Scott Pierce, who was filling in for the Catherine Skol's primary OB, was so incensed that she hadn't called him before heading to the hospital (an instruction her main OB had never given her) that he decided she "deserved" pain, refused an epidural, put her in intentionally painful positions, insisted she push before she was sufficiently dilated, kept telling her she was going to hemorrhage, wouldn't give her enough anesthesia before stitching her up and told her husband to "hold her down" instead, and talked loudly and crudely on a cell phone about an abortion in the room. There's more. It's truly astounding, in a nauseating kind of way.

(Confidential to "Linka" who called Skol a wimp for complaining about not getting her pain meds: I'm no fan of routine epidurals and had my kid with none, but I would never claim to know out of context when one was appropriate. And I'd like to see you get stitches for a severe laceration on your vulva without anesthesia, not mention all that other crap.)

As much as I've heard plenty of horror stories about OBs and their attitudes, I have to say that this is a category all its own, and sounds to me like the sort of extremely aggressive behavior that arises when people are on something illegal or are having, shall we say, certain brain chemical imbalances. Not that there aren't people out there who are just that awful, but they don't generally keep a job like doctor very long.

In fact, his behavior bothers me less than the commenters who say that because she and the baby are physically healthy, she should shut up and deal. Aside from being cruel, the behavior described was dangerous. If it's anything like she described, he should have his license revoked. People sue all the time for doctors failing to prevent problems they couldn't have prevented—that's one of the reasons our c-section rate (and malpractice insurance) is so high. Here's a case where the doctor was actually in the wrong rather than just getting the blame for a tragedy. This is what lawsuits are for.

Photo by Bloomsberries.

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The Doctors Does Fair and Balanced

Miriam Axel-Lute — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:36:00 GMT

So perhaps you expected Dr. Phil to be fear mongering about home birth, but how about The Doctors? Their home birth show featured an undecided couple, an OB, and Dr. Sears, who supports home births. It was supposed to be an open dialogue. Guess who got to speak for 95 percent of the time? OB Dr. Lisa Masterson (pictured, who, apparently often provides sex advice on Dr. Phil. Oh well).

On the shows' forums, viewers are ripping into the show for not having a midwife participate. Wendy Gordon, a certified professional midwife from Portland, Oregon, also spells out all of their astounding inaccuracies, complete with footnotes, and suggests that the producers and the OB read the latest Listening to Mothers survey to find out what their experiences really are. Another midwife blogger suggests wryly, "Have Dr. Masterson call me. I'll tell her how to avoid a 10-15% shoulder dystocia rate."

This has got me wondering, though, is home birth getting so much negative publicity specifically because Ricci Lake and all the other folks questioning the U.S. medical model of birth actually have OBs scared? Are they worried about the competition? Is this the big backlash before a big breakthrough?

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Australia Looks to Midwives to Handle Baby Boom

Miriam Axel-Lute — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Apparently birth rates are booming down under, and to handle the demand, Australia's federal government is looking to expand midwifery care, giving licensed midwives more access to insurance, prescribing rights, and ability to get paid through public health subsidies even if they aren't working directly under a doctor's supervision. The goals of the review will also include "how to cut medical interventions such as caesarean sections and forceps deliveries. Alternative birth options will also be examined, including the possibility for more home births."

Australian OBs aren't thrilled, but it seems that in a country that has a "chief nurse and midwifery officer," who is leading the overhaul, that they don't have quite as much power as they do stateside.

Photo by salimfadhley.

Strollerderby : OBs

Move Over Angie's List: It's the Birth Survey

Mother Sues OB Who Said She "Deserved Pain"—And Gave It to Her

The Doctors Does Fair and Balanced

What Does It Mean for Midwives, or Home Birth, to Be Illegal?

Tell Dr. Phil About Your Home Birth—If You Dare

Australia Looks to Midwives to Handle Baby Boom

Australia Looks to Midwives to Handle Baby Boom