February 12, 2003

Birth outcome statistics for NSW - Part 3

We all know that more women today are requesting epidurals for labour pain than ever before. Therefore it has been interesting to review the percentage of women at various hospitals in NSW (for the year 2001) who are given epidurals. As expected, women choosing to use a private hospital for the birth have every likelihood of ending up with a bill from the anaesthetist for your epidural.

The highest reported rate of epidural use was at Kareena Private Hospital - 76.4%, just pipping Prince of Wales Private Hospital in Sydney which had a rate of 76%. The Mater Mothers Hospital in North Sydney had a rate of 62.7% and Hurstville Community 65.2%.

At the other end of the scale were Wyong (see my previous Diary entry) whose rate was 0.0%, Inverell Hospital with 0.8% Mudgee 2.3%, Broken Hill Base Hospital 9.6% and Armidale Hospital 4.5%. Of course, these are all country units and there is probably not an anaesthetist available to offer epidural for anything other than caesareans. Where epidurals are not on offer, pethidine or nitrous is used instead, and this is reflected in the figures: Wyong for example has a whopping number of 44% of women using nitrous and 21.9% using pethidine and only 1.6% of women giving birth in that midwifery unit escaped with no pain medication at all. Makes me wonder what has happened to the skills of those midwives working in Wyong!!

Reviewing the figures for “Nil” use of pain relieving drugs makes sorry reading. Again, the private hospitals have dismal outcomes: Kareena Private with 2.6%, The Mater Mothers in North Sydney, just 1.8%, Hurstville Community 7.25%, St George Private 4.0% and Prince of Wales Hospital 2.8%.

The hospital with the lowest rate of women labouring without drugs was Gosford (in the same area as Wyong), with a pathetic outcome of just 0.9%!. 50.2% of women there get nitrous oxide, 38.9% have pethidine and 25.3% have an epidural. They seem to have lost the plot completely.

The best hospitals could only manage rates of 28.3% (Muswellbrook), 24.7% at Inverell, 25.6% at Moree and 29.8% at Queanbeyan. Much better than most but still falling a long way short of ideal.

We have a lot of work ahead if we are to turn this around. Almost all babies born in NSW will be exposed to one or more drugs during labour and birth and will have on-going effects from this exposure for days and perhaps much longer. The work of Jacobsen suggests that it may be many years before the insidious effects show up, perhaps as drug addictions or other antisocial behaviours.

Midwives have got to ger their acts together over this. They are the ones who are offering the pethidine and nitrous oxide instead of using their skills to enable women to manage in other ways. Perhaps midwives could be counted amongst the biggest drug pushers in our State!

Posted by andrea at February 12, 2003 03:37 PM

Comments

You may find it interesting to visit the sites about poker card, casino no deposit, online casino casions, gambling cash, blackjack sites, roulette casions, gamble tip, internet casino web, slot machine odds, online casino bonus deposit, online gamble game, casino gambling strategies, casino game strategies, las vegas table, video poker casinos, roulette online card, slot rule, blackjack online deposit, blackjack betting 3d, poker 888, gambling 8888, blackjack tip, poker on net, casino casions, casino gaming, gambling no deposit. .

Posted by: blackjack on January 19, 2004 09:01 AM

Comments

You may find it interesting to check the pages in the field of phentermine effect, zyban tablet, viagra cream, propecia for woman, online pharmacy prescriptions, tramadol mens, ultram 400mg, wellbutrin resistance, paxil overnight, meridia comparing, zyrtec online, xenical cheap, vioxx 12 5mg, vaniqa dosage, retin a canada pharmacy, prozac on line, generic viagra 10 pills, celexa woman, buy phentermine addiction, xenical capsules, ambien substitute, dilenyoung about, hopforyou pills, kip980 perscription medication, mng765 what is, pol_uri facts, piter_gordon mail order, miss20092000 2 month supply, robert_zed2003 fasten, fp292003 men, diagodream supplements, jacglen2003 can i, lisa_plamer products, gill_bern review, gtrgtr45 100mg, poklop2000 men`s, nolzer12 men`s, rtopopi mail order pharmacy, oklokol for woman, racertroy2003 information on, viagra information about, phentermine alternative. .

Posted by: fp292003 on January 21, 2004 02:47 PM