But when you believe that every cesarean performed is necessary, you don’t need to be held accountable. Numbers, schmumbers.

@jill Maybe one could look at it as the midwives are doing all the vaginal births because only the complicated, high risk, necessary c/s get “kicked up” to the OB!!! (is that my dream world??)

Ooh, good call. Or maybe this is a hospitalist that only does c/s and a few vaginal births if midwives aren’t available. You never know.

That’s my dream world too. Of course, in my dream world the “lost art” of catching a breech baby has been regained, and competent birthing centers/home birth attendants are easy to find, for those who want them. I don’t get why some of the same people who want lots of choices in other areas insist my birthing choices should be so cramped and limited!

well, there’s no way to tell about that OB but I know someone in my area whose OB has a 70% cesarean rate in a city where midwives don’t practice in the hospital and 90+% of deliveries are in the hospital. My sister’s OB said that she personally has a ‘very low’ cesarean rate and a ‘midwife like’ practice, but her cesarean rate is close to 40%. I have found that when looking for an OB they often tell me they have no idea what their cesarean rate is.

I have found that when looking for an OB they often tell me they have no idea what their cesarean rate is.

Oh, so true. Where I live, I don’t think any of the OBs know what their c-section rates are; the closest I can get to some real statistics are the ones provided by my state government in regard to hospital births (organized on the report by hospital, not care provider), and the most recent report provided was from 2006.

Oh, I think they do know what their C/S rates are and how many they’ve done. They’re just not willing to share them.

Well OBs are a surgical branch of medicine so they should really only attend surgical births, or at least births at very high risk of needing surgical intervention.

I know its a dream world but maybe he really does leave all the births up to the midwives in his practice unless he is really needed. Dare to dream, eh.

You’d have to ask the midwives if they believe he only took births that were very likely to need surgical intervention

My OB for my first pregnancy (before I switched to a midwife) told me she ‘didn’t keep track’ of her c-section rate. Even though, in that state at least, they are required to do so for insurance purposes. I think she just knew that I didn’t want an elective c-section and didn’t want to give me ‘amunition’ to reject whatever so called ‘medical’ reason she tried to use to convince me to have an elective c-section.