Labour and birth information from hospitals around the province has been released to the public to help improve care for mothers and their babies.
The website provides a snapshot of health care at facilities and allows women to have informed conversations with their doctors, midwives or nurse practitioners about their labour and delivery options.
“Having a baby is a momentous event in the life of a mother, her partner, and the entire family,” said Terry Lake, minister of health, in a media release. “British Columbia is a very safe place to give birth, in hospital or at home, providing a very high quality of care. That being said, these numbers identify areas for improvement and change—which BC’s health care system can use to improve care and outcomes for mothers and babies.”
Information, such as the following, can be found on the website: 131 babies were delivered at Powell River General Hospital (PRGH) and 56 were delivered at home from April 2011 to March 2012; 40 per cent of deliveries were to first-time mothers; 21 per cent of those deliveries were by mothers older than 35; 70 per cent of those deliveries were handled by a family physician; 25 per cent of those deliveries were handled by an obstetrician; and 24 per cent of those deliveries were induced.
The website was created by Perinatal Services BC (PSBC), which is an agency within the Provincial Health Services Authority. PSBC collects perinatal information through a database containing clinical data on all births collected from hospitals and registered midwives. This is the first time the hospital-level data is being shared publicly.
Five indicators were selected by PSBC to allow data comparisons between similar-sized hospitals and the provincial average. The data comes from fiscal periods of 2009/2010, 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 broken into two overlapping groups, 2009 to 2011 and 2010 to 2012.
Vaginal delivery for first-time mothers in Powell River (80.8 per cent 2009 to 2011 and 78.2 per cent 2010 to 2012) was higher than the provincial average (73.1 per cent and 71.9 per cent respectively) and the small peer group average (69.3 per cent and 70.6 per cent).
Early term repeat Caesarean section delivery without labour rates in Powell River were too low to make reliable comparisons.
The percentage of induced births for women under 40 years old at or before 41 weeks (3.8 per cent 2009 to 2011) was significantly higher than the provincial average (1.3 per cent) during that time.
Rates for use of technology to listen to fetal heart beats during labour at PRGH were too low to make reliable comparisons.
The number of women who breastfeed in Powell River (95.8 per cent in 2009 to 2011 and 94.3 per cent in 2010 to 2012) was significantly higher than the provincial average (75.8 per cent and 75.9 per cent respectively).
For more information, readers can view the website.
