I'm very proud of my students -- however their births went, because they made the best, safest choices possible.
So, because I think consumers should have access to honest and transparent data in order to make good decisions, I'm doing something very unusual here: sharing my stats.
My students recently had a run of 15 in a row -- all vaginal births, and only 4 of those moms needed any drugs!
As of August, 2018, counting 249 mothers, here they are:
How many labors were induced?
Only 9 (of 240) had their labor induced. That's 0.03 %.
The usual rate of induction in this country is 25%. (Such a high rate is neither normal nor safe.)
Who caught the babies?
An Obstetrician 38% of the births,
a Certified Nurse Midwife 54% of the time,
a Licensed, Professional Midwife 7% (home births generally),
and 2 Dads (and they handled it beautifully!)
The remaining births were attended by combinations of these Health Care Providers.
Where were the babies born?
92% of them were in a hospital,
1% in a birth center, and
7% at home.
And now, a drum roll, please................
How natural were these births?
My students'
Vaginal rate is 82% and
Cesarean rate is 18%.
How many of my students used drugs during labor?
18% had drugs (of course) during C-section surgery.
17% used drugs during labor, but still had vaginal births.
65% used no drugs at all, having completely unmedicated, normal births.
I'm working hard to help couples have wonderful, safe, joyful births, and to avoid C-sections. Choose your doctor or midwife carefully; there's only so much I can do! Consider carefully where you want to give birth. My goal is to get my students' C-section rate down to the World Health Organization's recommended 10-15%. I'm not there yet, but my 18% is much better than RI's average of 32%!
Curious about RI hospital stats? Here's the link for the latest!
http://www.health.ri.gov/data/cesareansectionbirths/index.php
