Birthrites: Healing After Caesarean.

Birth Survey Introduction.

This Birth Survey is designed to collect information about your past birth experiences, what was good or bad about them, and also collect info' about how you want to manage your future births. ie, What sort of maternity care you have experienced/expect.

*Please do not hesitate to send the survey to us, we continue to collect the data so that we can continue to 'recognise' what women need (and experience) during their caesarean and VBAC births. This allows us to continue to inform health professionals of women's needs and the impact of their loss of expectations.

The data I collect will be invaluable in researching what maternity care woman want/need, specifically during VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean), to make their birth experience empowering.

I will use your feedback in the lobbying that Birthrites' continually does in it's endeavour to decrease the c/section rate and increase awareness of the viable option of VBAC birth, in most situations.

By pooling our knowledge, gained by your personal experiences, and presenting the collective views of all women associated with Birthrites', I hope to add your many voices to my own in requesting evidence-based, woman-centred care during our VBAC's. This unity will strengthen my arguments, in that it won't only be Jackie Mawson requesting this sort of maternity care, it will be hundreds of women world-wide.

I hope the feedback from this survey will demonstrate what women want, from their professional carers, during future VBAC births.

I also hope this survey will show what interventions women attempting VBAC, consider inappropriate. Specifically the interventions that may introduce an unnecessary negative psychological influence to their VBAC labour.

Lastly, I hope to show the hospitals, in enforcing accepted routine VBAC policies, are denying women the right to make informed choices about where, and how, their child will be born. I believe, in regard to this, that our birthing choices are restricted, and our safety may even be considered to be jeopardised, as we are often forced to turn away from the option of hospital birth in our search to avoid unnecessary technology/interventions being involved in our VBAC's.

Please take the time to print out and fill in this valuable survey and return it to the address listed at the end of the survey. Your contribution is extremely valuable. Join your voice in demanding evidence-based, woman-centred care during our VBAC's. You can make a change.

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Birth Survey.

Compiled by Jackie Mawson
Convenor of Birthrites: Healing After Caesarean Inc.

I have left enough space for women to answer the questions, to a total of four births, about their children. If you have more children than this, then please feel free to be creative in how you get your answers to me (eg, an extra sheet of paper would be great). I apologise to anyone who feels insulted by my limiting the results to 4 children. SORRY! I just didn't want to send women reams of paper in trying to cover this possibility, so I've assumed that any more than 4 children and you are probably too busy to fill out this survey anyway!.

Feel free to add personal comments on the back page, or beside questions. Anything, and everything, that you send back to me will be valued. Thankyou for participating in this survey! Please see attached letter for more information.

Your Details:

Name:
Address:
Postcode:
Phone:
Email:

 

1). How did you birth your children? (ie, by caesarean or vaginally?) Please list your children's births in order, using their date of birth and including their date of birth: (eg, c/section - 11/09/91)

1.
2.
3.
4.

2). If any of your children were born in hospital; what was the name of the hospital and in which city and state/country was it?

1.

2.

3.

4.

 

3). Which of the following did you use as your primary professional carer, during your pregnancy and labour:

*For each Birth: (1. 2. 3. 4.)

  • Obstetrician
  • Obstetric GP
  • Independent Midwife
  • Hospital Midwifery Team
  • Independent Midwife

 

4). Were your children born in hospital or at home?

1.
2.
3.
4.

 

5). If any of your children were born at home, what factors made you opt for this choice of birth environment and professional carer?

 

 

 

6). How would you rate each of your birth experiences, from one to ten (one being really bad, ten being excellent)?

1.

2,

3,

4.

7). What were the factors that most contributed to the ratings, for each birth, which you gave above?

1.

 

2.

 

3.

 

4.

 

8). Did you feel traumatised by any of these births? (Yes or No).

1.
2.
3.
4.

 

9). If so, was it physical or emotional trauma that you felt, or both?

1.
2.
3.
4.

 

10). What were the specific contributing factors that you think made each/any of the birth experiences traumatic?

1.

 

2.

 

3.

 

4.

 

 

11). Do you feel you experienced continuity of care for each/any of your children's births? (Yes or No)
(ie, Continuity of care is being cared for by the same person throughout pregnancy and labour.)

1.
2.
3.
4.

 

12). If attempting a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean) what safeguards do you think are necessary, in regard to the preferred professional carer and the birthing environment? (Home, hospital, birthcentre?)

 

 

 

 

13). Which interventions do you feel are necessary during a VBAC attempt?
(Please tick those you agree with)

  • Early arrival at the hospital/delivery suite 
  • Maternal blood taken for a group and hold serum or cross matching if appropriate 
  • Fasting 
  • Continuous Electronic Foetal Monitoring 
  • Intravenous access: (either of 2 ways)
    • With a drip 
    • Or with a bung  (ie, Catheter placed into vein, then taped in place without attaching the actual fluid line, so that access is immediately available should an emergency arise.)
  • Time restrictions on each phase of labour 
  • Regular vaginal examinations to determine progress 
  • X-rays to determine pelvic diameters, and size of baby, during the third trimester 

 

14). Which of these interventions do you think may 'affect' your labour, and thus may reduce the likelihood of a successful VBAC?
(Please tick those you think may have an affect).

  • Early arrival at the hospital/delivery suite 
  • Maternal blood taken for a group and hold serum or cross matching if appropriate 
  • Fasting 
  • Continuous Electronic Foetal Monitoring 
  • Intravenous access: (either of 2 ways)
    • With a drip 
    • Or with a bung  (ie, Catheter placed into vein, then taped in place without attaching the actual fluid line, so that access is immediately available should an emergency arise.)
  • Time restrictions on each phase of labour 
  • Regular vaginal examinations to determine progress 
  • X-rays to determine pelvic diameters, and size of baby, during the third trimester 

 

15). If a hospital insisted on some (or all) of these interventions, as part of their hospital policy, would you be comfortable with these routine VBAC practises?

Yes 
No 

 

16). Are there any interventions, either listed above or others that you know of, that you would be comfortable with during your VBAC labour/pregnancy? Please list them if there are:

 

 

 

 

17). If a hospital insisted on some (or all) of these interventions, as part of their hospital policy, would you endeavour to negotiate the use of these interventions:

  • Before labour starts? (ie, during pregnancy).
    • Yes 
      No 
  • During labour should the need arise?
    • Yes 
      No 

 

18). When researching your options, during your pregnancy, if a hospital insisted on some (or all) of these interventions, as part of their standard hospital policy, would you alternatively choose the option of a birth-centre VBAC, or a homebirth VBAC, to avoid the interventions?

  • No 
  • Yes  If yes, would your first choice be:
    • Birthcentre VBAC 
    • Homebirth VBAC 

 

19). When researching your options, during your pregnancy, if you were refused admittance to a Birthcentre, due to your previous c/section/s, would your final choice be?

  • Hospital birth, agreeing to the interventions listed as policy during your VBAC 
  • Homebirth VBAC 

 

20) If the hospital remained insistent on some (or all) of the above interventions would you feel that your birthing choices were limited, and your rights to make informed decisions in regard to your care, during labour, were being ignored?

Yes 
No 

 

21) Please make any further relevant comments, in regard to your past maternity care, or your needs for future maternity care, in the space below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Please attach another page to this survey if you have more to comment on.

 

22). In what way does/has our organisation, Birthrites: Healing after Caesarean Inc. helped you in healing from your past birth experiences, or in planning for future birth experiences?

 

 

 

 

 

We sincerely Thank You for taking the time to participate in this study. We would appreciate your permission to display the results in our quarterly magazine, and on our Website, as well as in our lobbying.

I ______________________ give permission for the information I have supplied

(choose one, or more, of the list below)

  • To be used by Birthrites, in our lobbying to reduce the c/section rate and increase the awareness of 'What women want' during a VBAC birth, only 
  • To be displayed within the Quarterly Birthrites: Healing After Caesarean Magazine. 
  • To be displayed within the quarterly Birthrites: Healing After Caesarean Magazine and on the Birthrites: Healing After Caesarean Website. 

*NB - Confidentiality will be maintained. All information would be used in a statistical sense only, with no identifying details involved.

Signature: _________________Date: ____________________

Thankyou!!!

Please return this survey, ASAP, to:

Webmaster@birthrites.org

As an attachment, or pasted within the actual email.