Evidence Based Birth Lexington KY

04/08/2021

03/30/2021

Do you think UK should offer wireless monitors? Please help by signing and sharing this petition!

Get wireless fetal monitors in UK Hospital!

03/14/2021

Hurry! If you need a quality childbirth class, you still have time to sign up and learn with Lexington EBB Instructor, Chanté!

🗣 HURRY! LAST CHANCE! 🗣
You have a few hours left to sign up for the Evidence Based Birth® March Accelerated Childbirth Class! This is a great class to take if you are due in the next few weeks!
Class Dates: March 16, 19, 23 & 26 ~ 5:30 to 7:30pm
You and your partner will learn all about:
🤰Natural Stages of Labor
🤰Comfort Measures & Advocacy
🤰Interventions, Inductions, Cesareans, Creating Birth Plans
🤰Postpartum & Newborn Care
🤰COVID Policies and Partner Prep with
🤰and SO much more (seriously)
Happy to answer questions but you can sign up at the link in my bio! Share with a friend!

02/16/2021

Thank you to EBB Instructor, Renee Basham of Hope's Embrace, for compiling the cesarean rates from across the state.

Have you asked your provider about their specific birth rates?

Thank you for your patience! You've been waiting patiently. We had some things come up yesterday and we were unable to post the map. So, without further ado, here are the 2019 cesarean rates in Kentucky.

WHO recommends a cesarean rate of 10-15%. In Kentucky, our lowest rate is 25% and the highest is 50%.

That means in the "good places" 1 in 4 people are having a c-section! How does your hospital measure up?

If you click the website link you can see individual hospitals and the percentage.

www.hopesembraceky.org/resources

10/24/2020

Hi everyone! Every year since 2016, I've requested the hospital-level birth statistics from the state. Here are some of the 2019 records! I've sent the full records to Kentucky Birth Coalition so they can share the state-wide hospital results, but in the meantime I wanted to share the Lexington-area statistics on this page!

A few notes... Baptist Richmond, Clark Regional, and UK have the highest Cesarean rates in the region. Clark Regional also has the highest episiotomy rate, at a shocking 22% (ideally rates should be less than 1%). It appears that 4 area hospitals had bans on VBAC in 2019 (either written or de facto)... Ephraim McDowell Regional & Fort Logan, Baptist Health Richmond, and Clark Regional. Looking at the overall statistics, I would personally view Clark Regional and Baptist Health Richmond as red flag facilities.

In contrast, Saint Joseph Mount Sterling and Ephraim McDowell Fort Logan have THE best local statistics (with the exception of Fort Logan's VBAC problem). In my opinion it would be worth the 40 minute or so drive from Lexington to give birth at either one of those facilities, if you're interested in significantly lowering your chance of a preventable Cesarean or episiotomy. Saint Joseph Mount Sterling looks like a gem of a place to have a VBAC, too! This does not surprise me because one of the best OB's in the Central KY region practices there. 🙂

I'll post some more summary images in a separate post!
And if you want a PDF version of this image to share with anybody you like, just go to https://evidencebasedbirth.com/birth-lexington/

Sincerely,

Rebecca Dekker, PhD, RN
Founder & CEO of Evidence Based Birth® and Lexington area resident!

10/24/2020

Here are the highest and lowest hospital-level rates in the Central Kentucky area for birth outcomes including Cesarean, Primary Cesarean, Vaginal Birth after Cesarean, and episiotomy. For more information and my thoughts, see my previous post!

04/16/2020

Thank you, Meredith at The Walking Stick Doula Services, for this message:

Hi! For women of color in the Cincinnati area,
Queens Village Cincinnati is helping to cover the cost of a doula! See the info from their post below. They can be reached at reachaqueen@gmail.com or you can inbox them on Facebook! My doula sister has already had 4 clients have their doula services covered!

“Black women -- we continue to hear you, see you, and usher our babies into the world healthy and happy with a strong and celebratory mama! COVID19 is scary and has caused some changes to hospital births, a space where Black women have already felt unsafe.

To help lessen your stress, hire a doula! Many doulas are now exploring virtual support during these challenging times. If this isn’t financially feasible for you let us know and we will help Reachaqueen@gmail.com or inbox us."

04/08/2020

I know a lot is going on right now, but I wanted to share these 2018 Central KY hospital statistics from a data request we submitted to the state. You can download a free handout describing these statistics at https://evidencebasedbirth.com/birth-lexington/ Data source: Kentucky Hospital Inpatient Claims, 2018; Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Office of Health Data and Analytics, Division of Analytics.

03/26/2020

Glad to see Kentucky our advocate group featured in this piece!

https://www.facebook.com/190740617707494/posts/2840989932682536/?sfnsn=mo

It's time to free midwives from excessive regulation and make room for more home births.

03/18/2020

Situation in Kentucky: If you are in your 3rd trimester and at all considering switching to a home birth midwife due to the COVID-19 situation, it is better to start contacting midwives now rather than later. In the past 48 hours they have been starting to get tons of calls from lots of moms looking to switch, and they can only take so many patients! Kentucky Birth Coalition can connect you with home birth midwives. Don't forget... midwives can also provide in-home prenatal care and in-home postpartum care if your OB clinic is not seeing people in person! So you can hire them just for prenatal care or just for postpartum care, as well as for birth care.

03/15/2020

With all the craziness going on, some people may be looking for a home birth option for March, April, or May. You can message the page at Kentucky Birth Coalition for help finding a home birth midwife! There are several home birth midwives (CNM and CPM) in the Lexington area with openings for this spring. They can provide full package care (prenatal + birth + postpartum), prenatal care only, and postpartum visits only, all in your own home. Just message the Kentucky Birth Coalition page and they'll let you know who is available and give you contact info!