New Tampa Bay Area Cesarean Rates! {Tampa Bay Midwife}
It's that time of year again! The time that we must shamefully share with y'all the utterly embarrassing cesarean rates of our local hospitals. Consider these when choosing care providers! Also we're going to take this moment to remind you that obstetricians are trained surgeons, and obstetrics is a SURGICAL specialty- so maybe we cannot really blame them for doing precisely what it is that they are trained to do- SURGERY!
Just a small aside to say- we appreciate a highly skilled obstetricians and safe cesareans when they are necessary, and we are sure the mamas and babies they help do as well. Lets leave the surgery to them and the otherwise normal baby-havin' to midwives. Maybe that would get these numbers under control?
If you are a healthy pregnant woman and would like to avoid unnecessary surgery, we recommend that you do not step foot in the place where surgery happens to begin with....but that is another soapbox we can climb onto later! In the meantime, check out these numbers and see if they make your uteri ache as much as they do ours.
National Cesarean Section Average in 2012- 32.8% as reported by the CDC
Our local hospitals listed least to greatest for perspective.
*These numbers are from the Agency for Health Care Administration July 2012-June 2013
+South Florida Baptist, Plant City 21.9%
+Morton Plant Mease, Clearwater 28.5%
+Regency, Winterhaven 29.6%
+Lakeland Regional Medical Center 32.6%
+St Pete General Hospital 33.3%
+Florida Hospital North Pinellas, Tarpon Springs 33.7%
+Tampa General Hospital 34.9%
+St Joseph's North, Lutz 37.4%
+Mease Countryside, Clearwater 38.4%
+Bayfront Baby Place, St Petersburg 38.6%
+Brandon Regional Hospital 39.3%
+Florida Hospital Tampa 42.1%
And the worst of all- the place you have a nearly 1:2 chance of having major abdominal surgery while trying to give birth.......
+St Joesph's Women's, Tampa 44.6%
Clearly, the only "women's" hospital in Tampa is not so interested in doing what is usually safest for both mom and baby.....
Are these numbers surprising to you? Scary? Profoundly disturbing? They are all of the above to us! What do you think? Do these numbers reflect your experiences giving birth in the Tampa area?? We want to hear from you!
