Mercy vs Women's

Hello ladies and gents,

does anyone know how The Mercy in Heidelberg compares with The Royal Women's in terms of VBAC support / intervention?

Thanks heaps :)

Im not sure about a comparison but I went to the Mercy and found them to be great. I had a few issues along the way, like an Ob telling me I HAD to book in for my c/s at 9 days over, well I refused and spoke to another ob who is the head of the FBC there and she was happy for me to go along and monitor and see what happened. I did the outpatients clinic at Ivanhoe and the girls there were wonderfully supportive and encouraging. I ended up not going into labour and at 14 days had another c/s instead of my VBAC but I would go back to the Mercy.

I think you will find that most Melbourne hospitals have very similar views on VBAC policies as far as monitoring, time to labour, and how far they will "let" you go. Most will book in at 8 -9 days over but I found that by basically calmly telling them WHY I wanted to go longer they were happy to let me do it my way. I strongly suggest you ask to see Bernadette White for Ob appointments if you are going public. They can book you in to see a specific ob if you ask.

Good luck!!

There are so many things that can influence your birth outcome VBAC or otherwise, so your best bet is to look at the statistics of birth interventions and birth outcomes at hospitals. Unfortunately the statistics are difficult to come across but if you can, call the hospital directly and ask them for the details.

I can't find anything specifically on intervention but there is information on attempt and success rates of VBACs.
From what I could find, the Mercy and the Royal Women's seem to have a pretty close to the state average of 30% of women attempting to a VBAC, with the Mercy showing better rates of success (55% of women achieve VBAC vs 45% at RW). The state average is 65% so both are not so good really.

Statistics will not always tell the whole story of course but they are an indicator.

From this report

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At least 50 per cent of women who planned a VBAC achieved a VBAC at 18 of the 22 hospitals; at least 60 per cent achieved VBAC at 13 hospitals.

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For my money, I would want to be attempting at one of those 13 hospitals with the better success rate ;)

One of the best indicators of success when attempting a vbac is continuity of care. If you hire an independant midwife or doula to walk with you through your journey, that is the best guarantee of continuity of care you can get. I wish I could remember the statistics to highlight the benefit of such help, maybe someone else can get their hands on them though. I went with those stats and chose an IM and homebirth as my IM had something like an 80+% success rate with VBACs (hospital and home). Even in a hospital, a known support person to help you through and negotiate with the hospital staff on your behalf can be a real blessing.

Best of luck.