Vaginal Birth Experience Survey

Hi! Thank you for your willingness to complete this survey. Before you go any further, however, please note that this survey is intended to be completed by those who gave birth at or after 37 weeks gestation and baby was born vaginally.

 

We are working on a special project about birth experiences and would love to have your input. We already have over 1300 responses from women who had Cesarean births, based on a previous project which we are incorporating into this new project. We're now hoping to collect many responses from all over the US and even internationally from those who had vaginal births. What was your experience? Whether you had an unmedicated birth, used pain medication, had interventions or no interventions, whether you had a vaginal birth after cesarean, gave birth in a hospital, birth center or at home, we want to hear it all. Our hope is to collect your thoughts, emotions, memories (good or bad), quotes (as you remember them), ideas for how you wish it would have gone, appreciation for things done or said that made it a good experience and anything else you would like to share. If you think that answering this survey will trigger negative emotional responses and you'd rather not complete it, that is, of course, FINE. We know that not everyone can talk/write about their birth experiences and we do not want to cause you any distress through this survey. If you are comfortable answering the questions, please know we'll be eternally grateful to you for sharing whatever you feel comfortable sharing.

By completing this survey, you agree that anything you include may be quoted in any presentations, publications, social media posts, etc. that we might create related to birth and breastfeeding. Your name will NOT be included with your quote unless you explicitly tell us (at the end of the survey in the space provided) that you would like us to include it. If you are so generous and would like to email a photo or two of you and your baby before/during/after birth to include, that would be greatly appreciated (with a note saying we may use the photo/photos).

Our hope is that your input will help us express how powerful prenatal education, health care providers, labor support providers and lactation providers can be, both good and not-so-good. Ultimately, improving the experiences of all women, their birth partners and their babies is the goal.

THANK YOU for completing this survey! We hope your answers will benefit people who give birth in the future!

Jeanette Mesite Frem MHS, IBCLC, RLC, CCE, CD
Certified Childbirth Educator, Registered Lactation Consultant, Retired Birth Doula

and

 

Michele Helgeson CNM, MPH