Transparency in Maternity Care - The Birth Survey

[1stimestar]

Help Promote “Transparency in Maternity Care”

From the Seattle Midwifery School.

The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) is inaugurating
the Transparency in Maternity Care Project, and they need your help.
The project will provide women with insight into maternity care
practices in their community through the Moms to Moms Birth Survey, an
ongoing, on-line consumer survey that asks women to talk about their
birth experiences specific to the particular practitioner and birth
environment that served them. Responses will be made available on-line
to other women in the community who are deciding where and with whom
to birth. Paired with this experiential data will be official
statistics from the Department of Health listing obstetrical
intervention rates at the facility level.

CIMS is asking for feedback from the public, especially moms, on what
information they would like included in the survey. Please take this
quick poll yourself, and pass this message on to as many moms as you
can. Your help is greatly appreciated.
www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=563423173899

[AussieDoula]

The Birth Survey was successfully launched in New York, and has been operating for several months now. There are plans to launch nationally this Summer, and internationally during the Summer of 2009.

Quote:

The Transparency in Maternity Care Project was birthed in February of 2006 by the Grassroots Advocates Committee (GAC) of the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS). We are a volunteer group dedicated to ensuring public access to quality of care information specifically related to maternity care providers and institutions. It is our intention to extend the current social trend toward transparency in health care into the virtually overlooked maternity care arena. The Birth Survey is structured around the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) evidence-based 10 Steps to Mother-Friendly Care and other quality of care indicators. The creation of The Birth Survey has been inspired by Childbirth Connection's Listening to Mothers Survey (Harris Interactive, October 2002) and the A-CAHPS (Ambulatory Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) program and surveys. We believe 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. We hope that the Transparency in Maternity Care Project will provide information that will help women make fully informed maternity care decisions. We also believe that maternity care practitioners and institutions must have access to feedback from their patients. We hope that doctors, midwives, and hospital administrators will find the information generated through the Transparency in Maternity Care Project useful in quality improvement efforts. Women need accurate, objective data in order to make fully informed choices about birth settings and providers. Practitioners and hospital administrators also need data to evaluate whether they are delivering quality care. We hope this project will fill a void by providing much needed information that benefits all parties engaged in maternity care.

You can find out more information - including how to become an Ambassador for your state - by visiting their website (click underlined link to view):
The Birth Survey

[earthangel]

Hello friends! In August, The Transparency in Maternity Project will kick off nationwide.

The Birth Survey was created as a mechanism for sharing and accessing information about maternity care practices in each community. The Birth Survey invites women who have birthed babies within the past three years to provide feedback about their birth experience with a particular doctor or midwife and within a specific birth environment. Responses are available on the site to other expectant parents in their community who are deciding where and with whom to birth. In addition to the experiential survey results, when obstetrical intervention data for each facility is provided by each State's Department of Health, it will be made available to the public on the Birth Survey website.

The Birth Survey will be made available in the contiguous United States in August 2008. At that time, women will be invited to log in to the site and participate in the confidential survey, thus providing the results that will serve, along with the data provided by the State Departments of Health, as a resource for expectant parents in communities nationwide. The Birth Survey also provides practitioners and institutions feedback (via the survey data) for their own quality of care improvement efforts. Initial survey data will be available beginning in Fall 2008.

Please join me in taking this survey and spreading the word. This survey is intended to act as a 'Consumer Reports' for birth. It can be easier to get consumer satisfaction and quality information about a car or an appliance than it is to get information about health services. Consumers have the right to compare the practices and attitudes of health care providers and institutions, and that includes maternity care.

www.thebirthsurvey.com
www.motherfriendly.org

[Breathe Easy Doula]

It seems they are only catering to the New York area.

[earthangel]

Not August yet

[helpinghands]

I am soooo looking forward to the national debut in August; I have such high hopes. Many props to all the talanted, committed individuals on team with the GAC/birth survey.

[DoulaMegz]

I like this! I especially like the hospital stats, I can't wait till it goes nationwide! What a GREAT resource!

[earthangel]

It's August! The Birth Survey has had such an enormous response that is crashed their server They are resolving the problemo. Awesome! (except the crash part.)

www.thebirthsurvey.com
www.motherfriendly.org

[helpinghands]

Quote:

Originally Posted by earthangel It's August! The Birth Survey has had such an enormous response that is crashed their server They are resolving the problemo. Awesome! (except the crash part.) www.thebirthsurvey.com www.motherfriendly.org

I am so excited! Women want their voices to be heard and hopefully this project will continue to grow and thrive. I am so thankful to all the women who have given of their time and talant to bring this to fruitation.

[DiscoDoula]

I took the survey!! Now I get to pass it on to my former clients!!