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Natural Birth
Delivery with a Midwife at a Birth Center vs. Obstetrician at a hospital
My first son was born in a hospital and it was not what I expected it to be. I am due with my second child end of June and would like to find some information on how to find the statistics between the Midwife deliveries and obstetrician deliveries. My husband thinks the obstetricians are better equipped to deliver than a midwife and I'd like to show him the numbers because that is how he works. If state specific it would be for Pennsylvania and Ohio. Thank you!
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Re: Delivery with a Midwife at a Birth Center vs. Obstetrician at a hospital
I can get you data broken down by individual hospital for Ohio, but not by OB vs. MW. You could try comparing birth center c/s rates to hospital c/s rates, since OBs pretty much never deliver at birth centers (although many MWs do deliver in hospitals). I assume you're in the Pittsburgh area since you are looking for PA and OH numbers.
Anyway, the OH department of health site is here: https://ohiohospitalcompare.ohio.gov/ Make sure you pick "Pregnancy/Delivery" in the right-hand drop-down box ("I want to know more about..."). You can search hospitals by county or zip code, OR you can click on "Download Performance Measure Data for all Ohio Hospitals" in the middle right-hand box and get the whole state in one fell swoop.
OBs are SURGEONS. They are better equipped to handle high-risk births, yes, but they are certainly not any better at a normal delivery than a midwife (I would argue the opposite--they see so few normal births they really don't know what to do with low-risk patients who don't want every intervention available).
Good luck with your DH, and I hope you are able to convince him. Do you think he would agree to at least tour a birthing center? He might feel reassured after seeing one for himself and talking to the midwives about what they do and their policies on hospital transfers for unexpected complications.
Over-40 parents...what we lack in vigor, we make up for with cunning.
This might help a little, about the recently released birth center study. https://www.scienceandsensibility.org/?p=6104
I also think going to an open house will make a huge impact on your DH. My DH was on the fence until we went, and he went away completely at ease.
This. I live in Holland and here only high-risk pregnancies are taken care of by OBs. I seriously believe you have more 'risk' of having medical intervention with an OB as they see it as normal, of course we don't consider normal having a huge catheter on our spine or having major abdominal surgeryl, but they see it everyday.
I don't have numbers for you but you can consider watching The Business of Being Born (https://documentarylovers.net/the-business-of-being-born/) they give statistics there but probably not regionally.
Good luck!
This. However, there are OBs who is supportive of a natural birth. I made compromise with my H (he had similar thoughts as yours does) and found a practice that was very supportive of natural births. My OB was amazing and I had a wonderful birth experience. It is definitely not the norm with OBs but you can find some good ones. In my area MWs always practice with an OB and both are on call together. The MW will attend the birth but if complications arise the OB is already at the hospital and ready to step in for an emergency C/S etc. Maybe you could find a similar set up to ease your husbands worries.
Not specifics, but your husband may appreciate this article from Consumer Reports:
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/05/what-to-reject-when-you-re-expecting/index.htm
(sorry, not clicky)
Look at the section on 10 things you should do - one is consider a midwife.
DS, May 2011
So this doesn't directly answer your questions--but...
I use a midwife practice which is affiliated with a drs practice and they deliver in hospital. For my first birth, there was some concern about my BP at delivery, and after my DD was born, they did a bit more medical attention to it, but I only dealt with my midwife, who was consulting with the consulting physician on call. So I had access to all the resources a dr would have, but had a totally natural birth (nearly all laboring was home and we arrived at hospital fully dilated). SO...if you have such a practice available, it might be a good compromise. Originally I'd have loved a home birth, but our house is too far, in my opinion, from a hospital. I'm happy with our choice,a nd got to have the experience I'd wanted, with a midwife attending!