Review Your Maternity Care Provider Online
OCTOBER 29, 2010
Bloom Spokane believes that women of childbearing age must have access to information that will help them choose maternity care providers and institutions that are most compatible with their own philosophies and needs. This includes being able to access patient feedback on doctors, midwives, hospitals and birth centers.
If you’ve given birth in the United States in the past three years, you are eligible to participate in The Birth Survey. Thanks to The Birth Survey: Transparency in Maternity Care, “women can now give consumer reviews of doctors, midwives, hospitals, and birth centers, learn about the choices and birth experiences of others, and view data on hospital and birth center standard practices and intervention rates.” If enough women take this survey, it could have a serious impact on maternity care in the U.S. [...]
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Changing Prenatal Care Providers
How do pregnant women and their partners go about choosing a prenatal care provider? Often, they have not given it one bit of thought until they see two pink lines on a pregnancy test. Then it’s a mad dash to find someone you can trust to care for you during your pregnancy and give you guidance about how to birth your baby. You are not alone if somewhere down the line you realize that maybe you hadn’t initially given enough thought to who that person should be (I’ve been there!). Perhaps half way through your pregnancy you have become more educated about birth than you were when the baby was conceived. You may have changed your own views about what type of birth is right for you and now require the guidance and care of a provider who will support your vision. [...]
Choosing a Doctor or OB
Since Bloom was launched a few weeks ago, I have had a couple of inquiries from women wanting recommendations for local doctors and obstetricians (OBs) who have good reputations for attending natural births. While I believe midwives are the best care providers for low-risk, normal pregnancies I understand that there are women who require the prenatal medical care of a physician but are still interested in a natural labor and delivery. I have heard it said that most OBs may only give lip service to “natural birth” or consider any vaginal birth—even those with induction, medication and other interventions—a natural birth.
However, there are a few doctors and OBs who gain reputations for being supportive of natural childbirth. I have spoken to a few of our local doulas with a lot of hospital birth experience and done some online research to be able to provide these recommendations to Bloom readers. [...]
