Gig Harbor Midwifery

02/07/2022

Drumroll please...we waited long enough...our 2021 statistics. 2021 felt like such a slog that it was difficult to take a close look at our statistics, but they're actually not that bad at all. Quick recap - 8% intrapartum transfer rate, 3% cesarean rate when entering labor in our care.

96 individuals entered care with due dates in 2021.

17 had spontaneous miscarriages following their intake appointments, a rate of 18%. This is about 2x greater than previous years; this number is based on due date, so many of these happened in 2020, and we have not noticed any direct link with either covid infection or vaccination. Also note that these are entries to care, so people who had an initial visit with us at least - lots of variables there regarding who enters care at what point in pregnancy. As a wide generalization, about 20% of pregnancies discovered at 4w result in spontaneous miscarriage - our number is usually lower because people enter care later than 4 weeks.

3 had non-medical transfers (preferring another provider or moving out of our practice radius).

9 transferred to hospital care for medical indications. One of these babies was a perfect boy born still following a cord accident prior to labor, the day after his due date

12/27/2021

Snow day!! If you have an appointment scheduled today or tomorrow, we'll be in touch to reschedule.

Midwife Katlyn is on call this week and comfortable driving in this weather, if any more babies are ready to come (one snowstorm arrival already early this morning!).

I hope you all are enjoying the snow as much as my family is!

10/08/2021

This is great! In Washington state, where midwives and our clients interface well with hospitals and higher-risk care providers, our clients are as safe at home as they are in birth centers. We've been saying this for a long time and it's good to get some actual statistics.

One of the most common questions we get at consultations is "but what if we have a complication or an emergency during our birth?" We want you to have a safe birth, and that does sometimes mean involving obstetricians, maternal-fetal-medicine specialists, neonatologists, and other higher level care. Those resources and care providers are there if we need them. But most of the time - like 95% of the time - you will give birth where you plan to, without major complications. Those that don't deliver where they planned to can still get the care they need to stay safe, it just means some coordination with other providers in our community who are able to do higher risk or surgical deliveries.

In the state of Washington, a planned home birth with a licensed midwife is just as safe as a birth at a licensed birth centre.