Science & Sensibility

I taught hospital based childbirth classes for 6 years prior to changing gears and teaching independently in my community.  Teaching evidence-based information and current best practice in my hospital class always left me feeling anxious and on edge.  Eventually, I made the decision to hang out my own shingle, and after just a few of my “own” classes, I knew I had definitely made the right choice for me.

If you have ever struggled with the same challenge, are considering what your teaching options are or feel alone in your attempts to cover the best evidence in your hospital classes, then Lamaze International has a free webinar for you that you won’t want to miss. 

Kathryn Konrad, MS, RNC-OB, LCCE, FACCE will be leading a webinar, “How to Teach Evidence-Based Childbirth Classes and Still Keep Your Job” on Wednesday, May 22, 1:00-2:15 PM EST.

Childbirth educators including RNs, LPNs lactation consultants, midwives, doulas and others who teach childbirth education in a hospital setting may find it challenging to push for safe and healthy birth outcomes. The purpose of this webinar is to examine the conflicts that may arise when hospital-based childbirth educators teach evidence-based content that is in conflict or inconsistent with hospital and/or provider policies and practices, and to investigate strategies for promoting best practices.

After attending this webinar, learners will be able to:

• Identify potential conflicts of interest when teaching childbirth education classes in a hospital setting;

• Describe strategies for empowering pregnant women to advocate for their preferences regarding evidence-based maternity care and;

• Develop strategies for promoting evidence-based birth practices within a hospital setting.

Contact hours are available.  This program has been planned by Lamaze International for 1.1 hours of CNE credit. To earn credit, attendees must register for the event, attend the entire 75 minute webinar, and complete an online evaluation within the specified time period.  This program has also been approved for 1.0 Lamaze contact hours.  See the registration page for more details.  You do not have to be a Lamaze member to attend the webinar, but you are asked to create a profile in order to register.

This is a great opportunity to learn how to be successful as a hospital based childbirth educator and navigate some of the challenges that occur when you teach for a hospital.  You will not want to miss this webinar scheduled for tomorrow.  Make some time in your schedule, and register now!  Come back and share your thoughts in our comments section on the topic and your experiences as a hospital based childbirth educator.  I know the discussion will be lively.

Kathryn Konrad has educational experience overseeing the development and presentation of childbirth, breastfeeding and parenting classes in both hospital and community settings.  Currently she is an instructor at The University of Oklahoma College of Nursing.  She received a Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2000 and a Masters of Science degree with an emphasis in Nursing Education from The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in 2008.  She has been Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator since 2006, an RNC-OB since 2005 and a labor and birth nurse since 2000.  She was inducted as a Fellow in the Academy of Certified Childbirth Educators in 2011. She offers workshops on evidence-based labor support for nurses and nursing students.

Sharon Muza Childbirth Education, Continuing Education, Evidence Based Medicine, Healthy Birth Practices, Healthy Care Practices, Lamaze International, Maternity Care, Medical Interventions, Uncategorized, Webinars Childbirth Education, Continuing Education, continuing education for nurses, Evidence Based Medicine, hospitals, Kathryn Konrad, Lamaze International, Lamaze webinars, Sharon Muza, Webinars

Childbirth Connection’s Listening to Mothers Initiative just released the Listening to Mothers III (LTMIII) results late last week.  For the third time in the past 11 years, this organization has gone out and queried women on a variety of topics related to pregnancy, birth, postpartum and breastfeeding.  They have questioned thousands of women to accurately assess how the actual experiences hold up against what we know to be best practice and evidence based maternity care. I have relied on the past two survey results frequently during my professional career in maternal health and am thrilled to have the new survey results now available.

I thought it would be interesting to run some of the LTMIII results through the filter of Lamaze International’s Healthy Birth Practices.  The Healthy Birth Practices were most recently updated by Lamaze in 2009, and consist of six simple, evidence based practices that greatly contribute to keeping birth safe and healthy for mothers and babies. Each easy to remember practice has its own short video that parents can watch that talks about that specific care practice and safe alternatives.  Additionally, each Healthy Birth Practice has an accompanying Practice Paper with all the citations for the peer-reviewed, gold standard research that supports that particular practice.

Some useful links and information upfront

Listening to Mothers I

Listening to Mothers II

New!  Listening to Mothers III

Survey Questionnaire 

Major Study Findings

Interesting facts before we get started

While the LTMIII survey only looked at 2400 women,  please be aware that one percentage point change in results would represent approximately 40,000 mother/baby pairs, based on a US birth rate of around 4 million births a year.

35% of women had not intended to be pregnant at the time of this pregnancy, including 5% who stated that they had never intended to become pregnant at all.

52% of those planning to get pregnant did have a preconception meeting with a health care provider, (which could be viewed as a wonderful time to determine if this health care provider might be a good match for their maternity care needs.)

85% of women based their maternity care provider on insurance requirements or restrictions.

78% of women worked with an obstetrician (this has dropped over the course of the three studies.)

9% of women worked with a family practice doctor

8% of women worked with a midwife who practiced in a hospital, as one of the requirements of the study was that the mother was having a hospital birth.

The average length of time spent actually in a prenatal appointment, with health care provider or their nurse was 32 minutes.  (OB: 31 min, Family Practice/MW 35 min.) I was pleasantly surprised that it was this long, I expected less.

Over the course of the three studies, the cesarean rate of study participants went up, (24% to 31%), the VBAC rate went down and labor augmentation was cut in half from 53% to 26%.  More women used nitrous oxide for pain relief during their labor in the most recent study (6%, up from 2% in the first study)

30% of the women chose not to ask a question that they wanted answered at least once during their prenatal appointments.

Overall, women were unable to make choices in line with the Healthy Birth Practices, and did not know that deviating from these practices was not evidence based and resulted in increased interventions.

Let’s see how things stack up

Healthy Birth Practice 1: Let Labor Begin on Its Own

Research shows that in the absence of medical issues, mothers, babies and labors do best when labor starts spontaneously on its own. The final few weeks of pregnancy are vital for the putting the “finishing touches” on baby and helping to make the transition to life on the outside as smooth as possible.

41% of all women surveyed attempted a medical (involved a care provider) induction and of those induced, 74% were successful, (the woman went into labor) for an overall medically induced labor rate of 31%

Reasons why women were induced

• 44% were full term
• 19% wanted to get the pregnancy over
• 11% wanted to control the timing of birth
• 16% were induced for a large baby (note: the average weight of these babies induced for suspected macrosomia was 7 lbs 15 ounces.)
• 18% were induced for being “overdue” (note: the average gestational age of those babies induced for being overdue was 39.9 weeks)
• 18% were induced for a maternal health problem

Interestingly, 26% of women had their due date changed toward the end of their pregnancy; 66% of those were given an earlier due date and 34% were given a later one.

68% of women had a late third trimester ultrasound to estimate fetal weight

Healthy Birth Practice 2: Walk, Move Around and Change Positions in Labor

Women with the ability to move and change positions are able to use this movement to help cope with the pain of labor.  Access to water in the form of a shower or tub can be a valuable coping technique.  Having access to intermittent fetal monitoring or telemetry movements can facilitate movement and promote labor progress for many women.

Only 43% of women walked around after being admitted to the hospital in labor

40% of women used position changes and movement for non-pharmacological pain relief

Healthy Birth Practice 3: Bring a Loved One, Friend or Doula for Continuous Support

Many women will thrive in labor if surrounded by a caring, supportive birth team.  Adding a skilled birth doula to the team has been shown in many studies to improve the outcome of birth and reduce interventions and cesareans.  While more and more birthing women are aware of a doula, many are still not having one in attendance at their birth.

99% of mothers had at least one support person present, (most often this was a partner, then a family member or friend)

6% women used a doula

75% of mothers were aware of what a doula does and of those 75% who knew, 27% would have liked a doula supporting them at their birth.

Healthy Birth Practice 4: Avoid Interventions That are Not Medically Necessary 

Although research shows that routine and unnecessary interference in the natural process of labor and birth is not likely to be beneficial—and may indeed be harmful—most U.S. births today are intervention-intensive.

98% of the women had at least one ultrasound during pregnancy and 70% had three or more over the course of their pregnancy

68% of women had a late third trimester ultrasound to estimate fetal weight.

83% of women had some type of pain medication

67% had an epidural or spinal, and 92% of those who did reported this to be “very helpful” or “somewhat helpful.”

62% of women surveyed had an IV during labor

51% of women had one or more vaginal exams in labor. (I was surprised at this, I would have suspected higher)

47% had bladder (Foley) catheters

31% of women had a labor augmented with pitocin

50% of birthing women had their labor either induced or augmented with pitocin

20% had their membranes ruptured artificially (AROM)  after labor began

36% of women had their labor started or augmented by AROM

1% of women requested and had a maternal request cesarean for non-medical reasons

40% of women drank fluids during their labor

21% of the women ate during labor

85% of women birthing vaginally did so without forceps or vacuum

87% of women responding had at least one of the five big interventions (attempted labor induction, epidural, pitocin augmentation, assisted delivery with vacuum or forceps or cesarean.

60% of the women had at least two of the above five interventions listed above

Healthy Birth Practice 5: Avoid Giving Birth on Your Back and Follow Your Body’s Urges to Push

Women push most effectively when permitted to push in the positions that feel best for them.  Allowing the baby to “labor down” even after reaching full dilation until moms feel the urge to push can help women to push a baby out quicker and under their own steam.  Pushing in positions that allow the pelvis to open as much as possible and making space by getting the sacrum out of the way can help promote descent during pushing.

68% of women surveyed birthed on their backs

23% birthed in a semi-sitting position

8% gave birth in a position off their back, either side-lying, squat or hands & knees

Healthy Birth Practice 6: Keep Mother and Baby Together; Its Best for Mother, Baby and Breastfeeding

Experts now recommend that right after birth, a healthy newborn should be placed skin-to-skin on the mother’s abdomen or chest and should be dried and covered with warm blankets. Any care that needs to be done immediately after birth can be done with your baby skin-to-skin on your chest.  This early time together promotes breastfeeding, helps stabilize the newborn’s temperature and blood sugar and also offers a unique chance for high levels of natural oxytocin that promote bonding and help with immediate postpartum bleeding.

47% of mothers responding had their baby in their arms within the first hour

40% of mother-baby pairs were not skin to skin when they were first held

33% of all babies were with hospital staff the first hour

60% of mother-baby pairs roomed in together

18% of babies spent time in the NICU

25% of babies spent their days with mom and their nights in the nursery

49% of mothers who stated that they intended to exclusively breastfeed were given formula samples or offers.

29% of newborns were supplemented with water or formula during the hospital stay

Summary

After reading through the LTMIII report, I found myself discouraged by the current results.  It was clear that women were making choices and/or being informed by their care providers to choose practices that have long been known to create a cascade of interventions, do not improve outcomes for mothers or babies and are not evidence based.  For the majority of the women who responded to this survey, the Healthy Care Practices are still a pipe dream and not a reality in their hospitals and with their current providers.  I know change comes slowly, and it can take years for protocols to catch up with the evidence but frankly, after reading the summary of how things did or did not change over the course of the three studies I was still shocked.

Have you had a chance to go through the study yet?  What were your thoughts?  Anything surprise you?  Can you share a bright point that you noticed?

Join us later this week as I examine what the LTMIII survey had to say about childbirth education and how women are receiving pregnancy and birth information and from where.

 

 

 

 

Sharon Muza Breastfeeding, Cesarean Birth, Childbirth Education, Doula Care, Epidural Analgesia, Evidence Based Medicine, Healthy Birth Practices, Healthy Care Practices, Lamaze International, Maternal Quality Improvement, Maternity Care, Medical Interventions, Midwifery, New Research, Newborns, News about Pregnancy, Research, Transforming Maternity Care, Uncategorized Childbirth Connection, Healthy Birth Practices, Lamaze International, Listening to Mothers III, Listening to Mothers surveys, research, Sharon Muza

Childbirth Connection has just released the Listening to Mothers III study today, and will holding a press conference shortly to share the results.  I plan to listen in and read the study thoroughly to see what the mothers have to say!  Look for a complete post early next week evaluating the current state of pregnancy care, labor, birth postpartum and breastfeeding and how it stacks up to Lamaze International’s Six Healthy Birth Practices.  In the meantime, consider joining the press conference, or reading this new study.  You can also check out the previous two LTM studies to see if things have changed.

Listening to Mothers I

Listening to Mothers II

New!  Listening to Mothers III

Sharon Muza Babies, Cesarean Birth, Childbirth Education, Depression, Healthcare Reform, Healthy Birth Practices, Healthy Care Practices, informed Consent, Maternal Quality Improvement, Maternity Care, Medical Interventions, New Research, Research Childbirth Connection, Healthy Birth Practices, Healthy Care Practices, lamaze, Listening to Mothers, research, Sharon Muza

Occasional Science & Sensibility contributor Rebecca Dekker of Evidence Based Birth has spent the last month writing a blog article about Group B Strep and it is finally here! In her painstaking but clear review of the evidence on GBS in pregnancy, Rebecca came to the conclusion that universal screening and treatment for GBS is more effective than treating with antibiotics based on risk factors alone. She also found that although “probiotics, chlorhexadine, and garlic have the potential to reduce vaginal and newborn colonization with GBS, we do not have evidence yet to show that these strategies can prevent early GBS infections, since GBS infection usually occurs when GBS gains access to the amniotic fluid and gets into the fetus’s lungs during labor.”

To read Rebecca’s just released article, Group B Strep in Pregnancy: Evidence for Antibiotics and Alternatives in its entirety, click here.

Today, Rebecca joins us on Science & Sensibility to talk about her latest addition to Evidence Based Birth.

Sharon Muza: What inspired you to write this article?

Rebecca Dekker: I received more requests to write about Group B strep than any other topic! Over the past few months, I had weekly, sometimes daily emails and Facebook messages from women—all asking me to provide them with evidence about antibiotics, hibiclens, or garlic for preventing GBS infections. After about the 50th request, I figured I better set aside my other plans and focus on this topic, because it was clearly weighing heavily on many women’s minds! 

SM: What was the most difficult thing about writing this article?

RD: Probably the most difficult thing was sorting through the stacks and stacks of research articles that have been published about Group B strep in pregnancy. This was one of the reasons it took me almost a year of blogging before I decided to dive into group B strep. I knew it would be a monumental task. And it was. But I was fortunate enough to have an expert in GBS who helped point me to the most important or “landmark” studies.

SM: Who was this expert?

RD: I met Dr. Jessica Illuzzi via email earlier this year. She and I had corresponded about a different blog article, and at that time I found her to be incredibly helpful. I knew that in addition to being an OB, Dr. Illuzzi was a research expert in GBS. So I asked her if she would review my article for me. To be honest, I could not have written this article without her guidance. She read my first draft and basically told me that I needed to go back to the drawing board. She encouraged me to dig deeper into the evidence so that I would really understand it. Whenever I had questions about something, she sent me research articles that immediately answered my question. In the end, I knew the article was ready when she said it was a great summary of the state of the science of GBS. 

I was also lucky enough to have 2 other GBS experts give me feedback on the article—a GBS researcher and a microbiologist. And then I have several physicians who faithfully review all of my articles and give great suggestions. I am very grateful to all of them as well!

SM: I know that you usually begin your articles with an exploration of your own biases, in order to tease the bias out of your writing. Did you have any pre-existing biases about GBS? 

RD: To be honest, I actually had no biases up front. I was fortunate to always test negative for GBS myself, and so I never had to struggle with this issue before. I was pretty open-minded to the entire issue. I was open-minded to antibiotics. I was open-minded to hibiclens or other alternatives. I had no personal agenda. I simply wanted to get to the facts. Hopefully this lack of bias will shine through and help people respect the article even more.

 SM: What surprised you most as you wrote this article?

RD: One of the things that surprised me was how people have such different reactions when they read the evidence about GBS. I had several friends preview the article for me. Some of them instantly said, “Oh yeah, that sounds like a really high risk. I’d definitely take the antibiotics to prevent an infection in my newborn.” Others would say, “Really? That’s all? That’s not a very high risk at all. I wouldn’t take antibiotics for that level of risk.” This is a great example of how everyone perceives risk differently. But at least in this article I have been able to put some evidence-based facts out there. Let people interpret the risks as they may. I only ask that they talk with their health care provider before making any decisions!!

 SM: What do you think is the future of GBS evidence?

RD: Ten years from now I am guessing that I could write a very different article. I would like to think that by then we may have a vaccine on the horizon that could prevent both early GBS infections and GBS-related preterm birth. It would also be nice if the rapid test was affordable and widely available by then. I would also LOVE to see some solid research evidence on the use of probiotics for decreasing GBS colonization rates in pregnant women. As far as I know, probiotics for decreasing GBS hasn’t been studied yet in pregnant women, and I think it deserves further inquiry.  

SM:What makes your blog article about GBS different than all the other blog articles out there on this topic?

RD: I purposefully didn’t look at any of the other GBS blog articles out there until I finished my article. Yesterday, I read through a variety of blog articles (there are a lot!). Most of them were about 90-95% accurate in their facts. A couple of them had serious errors (in particular, I found one blog article that had inaccurate information about hibiclens). Most didn’t list any references, and I could tell that most of the blog authors had used secondary sources (other blogs or summary articles) instead of looking at the research evidence themselves. This can be fine, but sometimes it’s a bit like playing telephone: You just keep repeating the same facts over and over without checking to see if the evidence has changed or if the summary you are parroting was accurate in the first place. I’d like to think that my blog article is a very accurate assessment of the research evidence on GBS in pregnancy—translated into regular language so that women and their family members can understand the evidence. 

SM: What are you going to write about next?

RD: I don’t know!! What would YOU like to see me write about?

SM: I want to thank you Rebecca, for your contributions to Science & Sensibility and for sharing Evidence Based Birth with the world!  I know that these articles take a huge amount of time and you are very diligent and conscientious about researching the literature and providing only the best analysis possible,  and seeking out experts on the topic to help you really be sure that you are offering the best of the best of information.  I always enjoy reading your blog and find it a great source of information for my doula and CBE students and my birth doula clients as well. I know that I speak for all the readers here on Science & Sensibility when I say, keep on keeping on!  Do please let Rebecca know what you would like her to write about next!   

Sharon Muza ACOG, American Academy of Pediatrics, Babies, Childbirth Education, Evidence Based Medicine, Guest Posts, informed Consent, Maternity Care, Medical Interventions, New Research, Newborns, NICU, Push for Your Baby, Research antibiotics, Evidence Based Birth, GBS, group B strep, guest post, informed Consent, newborns, prenatal testing, Rebecca Dekker, research, Sharon Muza, tests in pregnancy

 Regular contributor Henci Goer, author of several books including Optimal Care in Childbirth as well as the expert on Lamaze International’s “Ask Henci” site, takes a look at a recent study that examines the wide divergence in cesarean rates amongst U.S. hospitals.  Read Henci’s take and see what she concludes might be behind this rate variability. – Sharon Muza, Community Manager, Science & Sensibility

__________________

 

If any doubt remained that the likelihood of cesarean depends mostly on care provider philosophy and practices, a study of variation in cesarean rates in U.S. hospitals has laid it to rest. Investigators plotted cesarean surgery rates during 2009 by their percentile at 593 U.S. hospitals with at least 100 deliveries, comprising 817,318 women in all (Kozhimanni 2013). Rates ranged from 7% to 70%, a 10-fold variation.

Thinking that hospital factors might explain some of the variation, the investigators compared rates according to hospital size, whether the hospital was a teaching hospital, and whether it was rural. None had any effect. Average cesarean rates were similar to the overall average rate regardless of hospital characteristics.

Variation in population characteristics likewise could explain variation in cesarean rates. Accordingly, investigators looked at a more homogeneous low-risk subset of women who were at term (37 weeks or more), carrying one head-down baby, and who had no prior cesareans. This, they reasoned, should reduce the variation in rates. Wrong again. The range widened. Rates among low-risk women ranged from a little over 2% to nearly 37%, a 15-fold variation instead of a 10-fold one.

The investigators stopped with expressing concern over the large variation in cesarean rates, writing: “There is an urgent need to address maternity care quality in general and rising cesarean rates and variation in practice patterns in particular” (p. 531), but their data tell us something more: few hospitals had anything close to reasonable rates.

The mean cesarean rate among women overall was 33%. The World Health Organization holds that cesarean rates should not exceed 15% because research shows that as cesarean rates rise above this threshold, they necessarily are performed in less clear cut situations, and the risks of the surgery begin to outweigh its benefits. Beyond 15%, maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality rise in parallel with further increase. Only 2 of the 593 hospitals had cesarean rates of 15% or less. Indeed, only 21 hospitals had rates of 20% or less.

In the low-risk population, the mean cesarean rate was 12%. The recent analysis of 18,084 women planning birth center births gives us a fix on whether this is a reasonable rate for low-risk women (Stapleton 2013). Of the 14,881 women admitted in labor to the 79 participating birth centers, 6% delivered by cesarean, and perinatal outcomes were equivalent to those in similar women planning hospital birth. Only 23 of the 593 hospitals had a cesarean rate of 6% or less in their low-risk cohort.

To be fair, the low-risk hospital dataset wasn’t able to identify women with problems that would increase their likelihood of cesarean but who would have been excluded from birth center care. The birth center data, however, provides a handle on the possible effect on cesarean rate. Six percent of women planning birth at the birth center were risked out because of pre-eclampsia, non-reassuring fetal testing, postdates, or prelabor rupture of membranes and no labor. Let us assume that these problems occurred at the same rate in the low-risk hospital population. Let us further assume that all women with these problems ended up with a cesarean, which is highly unlikely. Those assumptions would boost the birth center baseline cesarean rate of 6% by another 6% or to 12% for the low-risk hospital population. Even making this extreme assumption, 271 hospitals, nearly half, had rates greater than 12%.

What’s the take-home? Practitioners with appropriate cesarean rates are thin on the ground. Women need to seek out care providers whose judgment on when a cesarean is indicated can be trusted. (I should add that they are likely to have better luck with a midwife, but it isn’t a sure thing.) Women free of medical or obstetrical risk factors may wish to plan to birth in a free-standing birth center or at home because while individual practitioners’ rates may vary within institutions, a high hospital rate—true of nearly all of them—creates a cesarean–friendly culture.

How would you use this research study when teaching classes or working with clients or patients?  Do you think that women do enough research and investigation when selecting a provider and a birth facility? Please share your thoughts. – SM

References

Kozhimannil, K. B., Law, M. R., & Virnig, B. A. (2013). Cesarean Delivery Rates Vary Tenfold Among US Hospitals; Reducing Variation May Address Quality And Cost Issues. Health Aff (Millwood), 32(3), 527-535. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1030 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23459732

Stapleton, S. R., Osborne, C., & Illuzzi, J. (2013). Outcomes of care in birth centers: demonstration of a durable model. J Midwifery Womens Health, 58(1), 3-14. doi: 10.1111/jmwh.12003 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23363029

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henci Goer Cesarean Birth, Guest Posts, informed Consent, Maternal Quality Improvement, Maternity Care, Medical Interventions, New Research, Push for Your Baby, Research birth centers, cesarean, cesarean rates, guest post, Henci Goer, research, WHO