The Birth Survey

I was very excited to read on Kathy's blog a couple of days ago that the results from The Birth Survey have been posted on their website! Check it out here.

I took this survey so long ago that I don't remember much about the actual questions, but as far as I can remember, the purpose of this survey is to provide a database of care providers and birth places so that this information will be available on to the public. On their website, they state:

"Our goal is to give women a mechanism that can be used to share information about maternity care practices in their community while at the same time providing practitioners and institutions feedback for quality of care improvement efforts.

"At the heart of the project is an on-going, online consumer survey, The Birth Survey, that asks women to provide feedback about their birth experience with a particular doctor or midwife and within a specific birth environment. Responses will be made available online to other women in their community who are deciding where and with whom to birth. Paired with this experiential data will be official statistics from state departments of health listing obstetrical intervention rates at the facility level."

I immediately went and checked out my midwife's rating, which was (not unexpectedly!) very high! She also got the most client responses of any midwife in our area - 38 (avg. was 0-5). It looks like we got a pretty good response from people in our area - there are a lot of responses about care providers and hospitals, though not as many as would be ideal. (I felt sorry for the doctors I saw who were rated 1-2 stars (out of five) based on one response only!)

However, this project is not over! It is ongoing! So if you have given birth in the past 3 years, PLEASE take a few minutes and take this survey! It's well worth your time and will be invaluable for women who come after you and for all the people in this country who are trying to improve our maternity care.