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Upcoming important dates, next steps for the SIVB Initiative...

(The Support for Birth initiative's weekly email newsletter comes out every Tuesday.  As a reminder, it is your job as key contact to share relevant information with other team members at your hospital.)

 
July 26, 2011
July webinar update
 
conference call Many thanks to those teams who participated in this morning's webinar.  Slides are available here - they include an update to the data slides that were shared at the June learning session. The good news is that the decrease in the c-section rate we saw in May has held up now that all hospitals have submitted their data.  Please submit any outstanding June data as quickly as possible so we can see if this is an ongoing trend and try to learn more about what changes may be taking place.  
 
The August webinar will be held on Tuesday August 23, 7:30-9:00am.  Please make sure your team members have this date on their calendars.

 

Have you turned in a Feedback Form from June?
 

question mark Many teams completed and turned in a Feedback Form at the June learning session.  If you did not attend the session or did not turn in your form, please complete it and email it to me or fax it to my attention at 919-745-2352.  This information is very helpful in understanding what is and is not working well in terms of progress on your SIVB goals and how PQCNC can help.  

 

Stopping the "relentless rise in cesarean deliveries"
 
news The August 2011 Green Journal (Obstetrics & Gynecology) contains an editorial ( available here ) that SIVB teams will find relevant.  Challenging his colleagues to address the ongoing increase in c-section rates in the U.S., Dr. John Queenen focuses both on the importance of VBAC accessibility and especially on the prevention of primary c-sections.  His recommendations include:

�    Ensuring OB Department commitment to reducing the c-section rate
�    Improved patient education about risks and benefits of vaginal and cesarean delivery
�    Achieve tort reform at federal or state level
�    Use more nurse midwives
�    Equalize the payments for vaginal and cesarean delivery
�    Re-establishing training for breech and operative vaginal deliveries

 

Simplified Bishop Score
 
tools At the June learning session, Dr. John Allbert discussed a study published this year in Obstetrics & Gynecology validating the use of a "simplified Bishop score" as a tool to select candidates for induction with a higher likelihood of achieving vaginal delivery.  This study found that the modified score, using only dilation, station, and effacement, worked as well as the complete Bishop score.  Click here to review a copy of this study, which includes a table on how to calculate the simplified score.  We will look at the data we have received so far, as many of the cases that don't include enough data to calculate a Bishop score do include dilation, station and effacement, to see if we can calculate the simplified Bishop score and categorize our data this way.

Laughon SK, Zhang J, Troendle J, Sun L, Reddy UM.  Using a Simplified Bishop Score to Predict Vaginal Delivery.  Obstetrics & Gynecology 2011; 117:805-811.

 

Contact Kate

Kate Berrien
Kate Berrien, RN, BSN, MS
UNC Center for Maternal & Infant Health
CB# 7181
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
 [email protected]
Phone: 919-843-9336 Fax: 919-843-7866
 


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