Nurses, Key to Reducing the Cesarean Rate
I want to give a shout out to Shakopee, Minnesota nurses for helping bring down the cesarean rate in their hospital!
Melissa Rezny is a Labor and Delivery Nurse at St. Francis Medical Center in Shakopee, Minnesota, just 20 minutes away from my home.
When St. Francis’ statistics came out showing a marked reduction in their cesareans, I asked what she though attributed to the improvement.
Melissa: I think our success in decreasing our cesarean rate has been several things.
– We’re inducing far less women.– “Laboring down” has become a widely accepted practice*– We use peanut balls on most all of our epiduralized mama’s**– But mostly there are several of us who have taken the Spinning Babies class and worked hard to educate each other in how important fetal positioning is during labor. And how to help encourage baby into a more favorable position if needed.
We have many providers (CNM’s and several OB’s) who also have a large focus on fetal positioning for an easier birth.
I think one more thing that stands out is we all work together as a team very well focusing on what is best for mom and baby.
Melissa is talking about a Spinning Babies Workshop I did with the Labor and Delivery Nurses and one of the doctors at St. Francis years ago. I had a 102 degree fever that night, it wasn’t my best effort! Nevertheless, Melissa and her nurse friend, Sarah Steenson, have been amazing Spinning Babies advocates and users of the myofascial releases described on Spinning Babies as either the Fantastic Four or The Three Sisters. These can be done in pregnancy and/or labor.
Rebozo-sifting
Forward-leaning-inversion
Sidelying-release
*Laboring down means that the woman numbed by an epidural is not expected to begin active pushing efforts until the uterus has moved the baby quite low in the pelvis. This may even be a couple hours the cervix is fully dilated. A Canadian hospital began the trend about thirty years ago and reduced their cesarean rate dramatically. Now its more accepted knowledge that full dilation does not mean the baby must be born in a set, or limited, amount of time. Pushing right at ten centimeters can lead to a diagnosis of failure to progress when, indeed, who’s failing to progress is the practice habits of the labor floor. So this is good news for the moms at Shakopee!
**The peanut ball can be seen in use here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSn_BWjL1nw