What if the woman needs to be transported to the hospital during labor?
My transfer rate is around 7% and my c-section rate is around 5%. The most common reason for transport during labor is the situation of a woman who, for whatever reason, is not making progress in dilation and is becoming exhausted. This is a midwife judgment situation, and my goal is to have a healthy mother and baby; I would want to have this woman at the hospital before the baby is compromised by the mother’s exhaustion, making medical care such as pitocin augmentation or analgesic/anesthetic treatment effective and possibly permitting a vaginal birth. Thus, not all transfers means a c-section. Once the decision has been made to go to the hospital, I will notify the hospital that we are coming in and for what reason, and I will accompany the mother and her support team to the hospital to serve as doulas (support) for the mother and family until the baby is born. I provide hospital personnel with a copy of the woman’s prenatal and labor records. The choice of hospital would depend on
