Should c/s rates be published? Naming & shaming...

[Bathsheba]

Good to see this thread getting back onto the real topic: Hospital stats... and not people's personal experiences of birth.

I think stats are important. I agree they can be misused but that is the risk with any type of information... information is power... power is prone to abuse... but it doesn't mean you should deny information.... that is just disempowering. Someone questioned the purpose of stats in this situation (c/s rates per hospital). Well, the World Health Organisation uses stats to explain what they believe are ideal rates.... should they not use stats either?

I had a chuckle at Hoobley's comment: "This thread, in the freshness of my just-woke-up mood. Is hilarious. The original post asks should figures for how a hospital performs in terms of birth outcomes be available to women. The thread is again and again defensiveness over mode of birth and parental guilt - someone up above even tried to introduce the whole bottle/breast debate in!WTF girls?"

I think our education system has a lot to answer for. ETA: ok, that was harsh... but it's not hard to see through the poor (tabloid) manner in which the poll was worded and see the bigger picture: "give information or hide it?" THAT'S what this boils down to.