This word has obvious negative connotations about it, but handling it quickly rather than avoiding it, is one of the best things you can do to ensure good health and wellness in your life.  I’ll be honest, I am naturally not one to confront.  I am a pretty easy going guy outside of the office, but I have learned over the years as a business owner and a doctor that confronting issues as soon as possible avoids accumulating stress in your body.  Like a cup filling up with water, eventually, you won’t have room for more and the cup “runneth” over!  In life this could lead to a multitude of health issues such as loss of sleep, headaches, irritability, neck and back pain, etc, not to mention the actual issue itself that is unresolved, sure to be getting worse and to come back again for you to run away from.

Just this past week, I had to call a practice member’s Medical doctor to explain to them their negligence on a very important issue.  Our phone conversation was not pleasant, especially as the other doctor had to listen to my assertive display of the facts, but in the end, they knew my position and I knew theirs, and the patient was able to decide for themselves what they wanted to do.  I was, in turn, able to focus on the next adjustment without my mind wondering on the issue. I could fall asleep easier at night.

Too often I think we as a culture are prone to take the easy way out of sticky circumstances.  Ask yourself today: “what issue is bothering me that, if I actually confront it, will, while causing a temporary uncomfortable feeling or situation, actually create a sense of abundance and freedom in your life.    The answer could be related to explaining to a superior at work your TRUE feelings, or disciplining your child the way you know you should but the pain of crying or fighting stops you. And of course we could also be talking about confronting yourself on your wellness routine….the way you eat, sleep, or exercise.

My challenge to you is to try to confront at least one issue a day.  That means in one year you will have addressed 365 different issues in your life that are negatively affecting you!  How different would your life be? This exercise is like an emotional detox….the first few days may be rough, but then you start feeling more energy by the freedom you have given back to your life, trading short term pain for long term gain.

Let’s confront the truth together in 2012!!!!!

Much love,

Dr. McKinley

We wanted to share with you some very exciting news for McKinley Chiropractic and the Chicago Community as a whole.  On Wednesday and Thursday last week, I was invited to come speak to the heads of Chicago’s Union 2, which is largest union for the firefighters in the Chicago Fire Department.  We are in the process of applying for a million dollar grant from the U.S. government focused on developing a wellness program for our city’s fireman and the first major hurdle was getting the actual firefighters themselves on board.

You see, a dirty little secret when it comes to the health care of our public servants is that, on average across the country, the majority of firefighters and police officers pass away (die!) within 5 years of retirement!  That stat just blew me away!  It is just unacceptable to me, and after my presentation, it was to them too!

They have invited us to come back in January to demonstrate to them basically what all of you, (assuming that if you are reading this you are a regular member of our practice), have had done in our office.  We scan (using state of the art Insight technology) and measure you to determine how healthy your nervous system is, and how likely your body is able to defend itself from lifestyle stress.

By the end of 2012, as the initial part of their wellness program, all 7000 firefighters in Chicago will be scanned using our Insight system, so they will know they can utilize chiropractic care to improve their health naturally, before resorting to drugs and surgery.  When I asked them if they knew that the average American takes 8 to 10 prescription meds a day at 55 years old, some didn’t believe me, until half the room pulled papers out of their wallets showing me all the drugs they take.  One guy was on 19!  Since the third leading cause of death in the U.S. is side effects to correctly prescribed medication (yes, I said correctly prescribed), being on more drugs to ensure health is rarely the answer – in fact, it’s actually (and literally) killing us.

This is huge for not only the firefighters and their family, but each and every Chicago resident as well.  Firefighters are the ultimate occupational athlete.  If, God forbid, I ever need to call on one, I want him or her to be at their best – free from nervous system irritation, subluxation, and dis-ease.

In the end, I’m so happy God chose me to help lead the CFD into the wellness revolution.  I couldn’t feel more honored.  Several other local doctors of chiropractic will be helping me, but I’ll be leading the way.  Thanks to all you firemen and women who come to our office for putting in a good word about our work.  I would have had no chance of bringing this to our city without your testimonials to the Union President Tom Ryan.

For the rest of you, if this inspires you to bring wellness to your workplace, like we are doing at the CFD, then you can help.  Just contact your company’s wellness coordinator (sometimes called benefits or health fair coordinator) and give us their information.  We have been conducting free screenings and doing health lectures or lunch and learns for over 10 years, and companies love it.  Anytime a company can bring an added benefit to their employees, at no cost, they listen!

Just to reward those of you who read this entire newsletter, the first 3 people who respond to put us in touch with their company’s wellness coordinator to set up a lunch and learn or screening will receive a $125 off our 21 day purification program!  Hurry up, your co-workers need youJ

Have a GREAT week everyone!!!

Dr. M

I would like thank all of you who told me last week that my 70.3 blog had inspired you.  (If you didn’t read it, click here).  I have received more positive feedback in the form of smiles, hugs, “how else can I help” type of responses than any other blog I have written in the last few years.  You see, we all have the ability to MAKE change, in fact its part of what life is about anyway.  We can sit back and be forced to adapt to change, or we can wake up early and DECIDED to change for the greater good, not only for ourselves, but for everyone around us.  Of course if you are under regular chiropractic care, your nervous system will allow you to adapt to this change better, so good job everyone!

Change will only be long lasting if you have a true base or philosophy behind your purpose, otherwise you will constantly need an inspiring blog to motivate you.  One of the best ways I have found to build a stronger purpose for all that i do, is to be grateful.  Whether you pray, or meditate, or journal, or do yoga, or simply take a walk with your dog and talk to the neighbors with a warm smile in your mind, be sure to give appreciation for all that is and COULD BE.   This type of emotion is essential for slowing down the mind in order to really think about why we would BE OR DO anything.  Most people are too busy or tired to make conscious change (they need to be in our office getting adjusted), These people end up unconsciously leaving change in their life to chance….leading to many life changes that they DON’T want!  Because of this they do making change in their life, just not to things they want, while at the same time feeling forced and rushed, and therefore creating more stress, less purpose, and ultimately a mundane existence.

Think of it like this.  If your mind is a cup of water that holds 9 ounces, then you can’t add more than 9 ounces in unless you poor out a little.  Being grateful on a regular basis, consciously, allows you mind to empty out and open up to a lot more, one of those being the ability to change for the greater good.  This is also an incredibly helpful form of health to your nervous system and mental health, areas which most people ignore.  I know many people who eat well and exercise alot, but also take prozac or need ambien to sleep…I call them fit sick people.  Health is how you function mentally, physcially, chemically, and spiritually.  Not working on at least one of them regularly will certainly lead to a weak link in your armour, eventually causing dis-ease in your body.

My challenge to you is this: BE GRATEFUL on a daily basis!  Can you imagine not only how much better your health could be, but the planet as well, if everyone actually did this?

It starts with YOU….make change and be grateful!

Love

Dr. McKinley

As many of you may have heard, I will compete in a 70.3 mile Ironman Triathalon in St. Croix in May.  I have received many different reactions from patients when they hear this:  many of you have thought it to be a bit nuts, while others have wished me luck.  Periodically I like to challenge myself with very difficult tasks (a couple of years ago I challenged myself to not watch TV for a year…and succeeded), and, just like with the ironman, some may ask me why.  And my answer is simple…because its HARD!

When I truly think about it, the most truly memorable moments of my life have been the result of working on something that was hard.  Whether it was deciding to fly to South America to visit the most beautiful woman I’d met in my life (my wife of 11 years now, Monica Gerner McKinley), or whether it was deciding to open my own clinic in 2002, at 27 years of age, with little to no business capital.  These moments of my life were difficult, sprinkled with some fear and at times even tears.  I even had periodic moments where I considered quitting.  Through these experiences what I have realized that winners are people who, when knocked down by life’s challenges, decide to consistently stand back up, each and every time.  As cliche as that may sound, its a fact.  You may not get the results you want every time, but when you work at something (that is out of your comfort zone) with purpose you will succeed, and your sense of success and acomplishment will inspirse others to challenge themselves as well.

My goal this year is to inspire you to make change,  not necessarily to run an ironman, but to do something different, something out of your comfort zone.  Since our office is about wellness and tapping into the amazing power of your body through the chiropractic lifestyle, I would like our combined inspiration to not only help you individually, but to also help others both in the Chicago community and across the world.

Here is our 70.3 challenge to you:  between now and the end of the year, we want to challenge you to try something new and, at the same time, tell someone about the power of the chiropractic and how it has helped you.  We are setting a goal of 70.3 referrals in that time frame.  That means if only 1 of you a day decide to share your secret of chiropractic with a friend or family member, we will create 70.3 more miracles of health by December 31st.

Here are some ideas for your personal 70.3 challenge:

1.  Go to ted.com and watch the 2 minute video of Matt Cutts from google talk about making change….great video that will inspire anyone!!!!
2. Give up bread
3. Decide to walk to work or walk at lunch for 30 minutes everyday
4. Read 3 books you’ve always wanted to read but have not
5. Start a dance class
6. Write 1 personal card a day and mail it as opposed to email
7. Call your mom every week or your brother or sister
8. Give a sincere thank you to a co-worker daily

These suggestions my not seem Ironman Triathlon hard, but it certainly won’t be easy to sustain any of them for 70.3 days.

I am supremely confident that if you take me up on our 70.3 challenge you and your loved ones will thank me later;  as I will certainly thank you.   So what are you waiting for?  What have you always wanted to try?  The next 70.3 days of your life will pass you by whether you participate or not, so the question becomes  “will you remember them and will they be worth remembering?”

Together let’s help 70.3 people experience wellness.

Much love and respect,

Dr. McKinley

This week we wanted to give you a little insight into a place that is a big part of Dr. M and Dr. A’s life (you may have even seen pics of Dr. A’s wife Courtney working out here 8 days past her due date) – Windy City Crossfit.  Many of our patients have already discovered what a great place Windy City Crossfit is, but if you haven’t we wanted to introduce you to this place that has played a vital role in the promotion of wellness in our own lives.  Check this out:

As Dr. M mentioned, these workouts are great for anyone – at Windy City retirees workout next to kids who are working out next to Olympic Athletes (for real!).  We want to give everyone the opportunity to experience Windy City Crossfit so we’ve talked to one of our trainers (did we mention that every workout you do is supervised and led by a certified personal trainer?), Tyrell Gill, and he will lead anyone associated with McKinley Chiropractic through a introduction workout, normally $85, at no charge.  This offer is good for the next 3 weeks so give email (tyrell@windycitycrossfit.com) or call (307.290.0072) Tyrell ASAP to schedule your trial workout.  Be sure to mention McKinley Chiropractic.  We guarantee that it will be life changing!

2011 has been crazy in the office in terms of pregnancy and babies.  Not only have Dr. A and Dr. M had babies of their own, and Sarah will soon, but we’ve had over 25 individual practice members give birth!  Because of all this I’ve been keeping a extra close eye on the new research and literature coming out regarding pregnancy and birth.  The last couple months a couple of articles in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology have caught my eye.  The first is an editorial in the August issue detailing the overuse of C-sections called “How to Stop the Relentless Rise in Cesarean Deliveries.”  We’ve talked before about the dangers in the rising rates of C-section, about how they increase the risks to both mom and baby, and how, in many to most cases, they are due to doctor/mother convenience issues or caused by medical intervention in the natural birth process.  This article does a great job outlining many of the causes of the rising rates (and why it is bad) and issues one of the first calls to action (by a medical provider in a prestigious journal; midwives, chiros, natural birth advocates having been beating the drum for years) that I’ve seen.  Speaking to his colleagues in his own words:

“What the appropriate rate should be for the United States is elusive, but a 50% rate seems too high and would draw common sense criticism from many areas. As of now the problem is ours to solve. If cesarean delivery rates spiral upward, our profession will lose both credibility and the opportunity to determine our direction, as third-party payers and the government will become involved. … The rising cesarean delivery rate is a threat to our profession. Remember that the official statistics on deliveries are always a year or two behind. There is no time for complacency. In my judgment, the best action for our profession is to commit to lower the primary cesarean delivery rate using every practical measure while we are still in control.”

The second article that I found very interesting was in the September issue of the same journal.  In it the quality of the evidence behind the clinical guidelines for OB/GYN practice is examined.  For those of you who don’t know clinical guidelines are practice guidelines issued by panels made up of “experts” in a profession that outline for a doctor how he should treat/address conditions.  The doctor doesn’t have to follow them but he is under pressure from licensing boards, insurance companies, and medical groups such as the AMA and specific specialty groups to do so.  These guidelines are the so-called “gold standard” of medical practice.

I’ll give you an example in the real world.  As I wrote in the blog post about our birth story, we were recommended to induce labor at 37 weeks due to Pippa measuring in the 8th percentile in size on ultrasound.   The doctor who made that recommendation was operating under clinical guidelines which say to induce labor at that point.  We didn’t (for a variety of reasons outlined in the birth story) and Pippa was born perfectly normal at 6 lbs 12 oz.

The problem with these guidelines is outlined in the September article.  When the researchers look at the total of the guidelines (717  issued dating back to 1999) they found that “Our findings suggest that only a third of the recommendations put forth by the College in their practice bulletins are based on high-quality, consistent scientific
evidence.”  When you break it down it even more you see that of the recommendations regarding labor and delivery only 27% regarding treatments (epidural, induction, episiotomy, etc) and 4% regarding delivery (c-section, forceps, vacuum vs vaginal, VBAC) were actually evidence, science based.  The others were found to based on limited or no evidence or solely on conjecture or opinion.

What does this mean?  For me it means that, when we have uncertainty, we should fall back to the most conservative, safest, most natural option.  For us that was to not induce labor at 37 weeks because there was no evidence that there was something wrong.  For most women that should mean going into labor naturally and letting it take it’s course – the body knows what it needs.  It also tells me that patients need to educate and inform themselves about treatment options that have been given to them, the evidence and science behind those options, and the risks involved.

Again we want to welcome Monica even more into our family here at McKinley Chiropractic, and we can’t wait to meet Sarah’s new little one when he or she decides to make an appearance.  Thank you for your patience during this transition and we can’t wait to see you again!

Over the last few weeks we had been working with this patient (we will call him AD), for symptoms similar to acid reflux.  Now, as most of you should know, we don’t treat symptoms or conditions, but we had been making good progress removing subluxations at C1, T1, and T5 – all areas with important nervous system connections to the stomach and esophagus, as well as working with him on adding food (and supplements) to his diet designed to increase his stomach acid.

Note:  Acid reflux isn’t caused by too much stomach acid, it’s caused by not enough!  When we don’t have enough stomach acid we are not able to break down food properly, leading to the condition we know as reflux or GERD.  Taking antacids to block acid production, while providing some short-term relief, actually makes the problem worse!

The one symptom that AD had that was persisting was a sensation, when swallowing, of a catch in the throat – like food was caught there and not going down.  I decided to recommend to AD that we have his throat taken a look at by an ENT just to make sure that there wasn’t a growth or other structural reasons for his symptoms.

After a long wait for an appointment, AD went in for his consult for on Friday.  The visit started off poorly as the Dr. was running very late, seemed rushed, and had poor bedside manner [not everyone can have the sunny dispositions that Dr. M and I have I guess ].  The good news was that, following the scope, there was no cancer or other blockages in the throat.  The diagnosis was, drumroll please, acid reflux.

Now, all of this is what I expected would happen, even the prescribing of some medication – that is what an ENT does for acid reflux, tries to mask the symptoms.  What happened next is what blew my mind.  After AD explained that he really didn’t want to take the meds (as a great patient of ours he knew that they weren’t the answer), the Dr. reiterated that he should try them and that if they didn’t work he would go ahead and prescribe some anti-depressants!  Apparently a tickle in the throat can be caused by being sad (the impact of the prescription is greatest when you actually know AD – the guy has a great family with a baby on the way, takes great care of himself, and is probably the last person I would think would need an anti-depressant)!

Back in January of 2006, in one of my first ever posts to this blog, two months after I joined the practice here at McKinley Chiro, I wrote a blog article entitled – Anti-Depressants Depress Me.  In it I highlighted a couple of recent (at the time) articles about anti-depressant use:

• A study in the Annuals of General Psychiatry (as described here by NPR) details that more Americans, including children, than ever are being prescribed multiple psychiatric medications.  The authors found that patients are commonly prescribed untested combinations of drugs, where the efficacy and possible side effects of the combos are unknown.  The study did not find an increase in the number of people with severe mental illness, rather more Drs are writing more presciptions.
• A second article, published in JAMA. The authors found that for people with mild to moderate depression, medications was no better in treating these symptoms than placebo.  You’re better off taking a sugar pill than Paxil, you’ll get the same benefits without the risk of serious side effects including suicide.

Is there any wonder that the numbers as reported by NPR in 2006 were skyrocketing (and I doubt that they have slowed down with the economy and all)?  All for drugs that, for the majority of people, don’t work and bring on tons of serious side effects!

In AD’s case we have a ENT prescribing anti-depressants.  According to Wikipedia, ENT is a “branch of medicine and surgery that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ear, nose, throat, and head and neck disorders.”  No where in that description does it say “mental and/or emotional” disorders.  Yet he is recommending medication that plays with the very chemistry of the brain.  This is one (or many) areas that I feel the FDA does a poor job of regulating prescription meds in this country.  Any MD, regardless of specialty, is allowed to prescribed (almost) any medication – whether it not it is within their area of expertise.  Would an orthopedic surgeon prescribe medication for use in the eye?  How about a podiatrist prescribing heart medication?  Of course not….yet, for some reason, all sorts of Drs prescribe anti-depressants.

This is where the drug culture in our society has led us astray.  For many diseases we’ve stopped looking for the actual cause – we are so focused on repressing the symptoms, on making ourselves feel good.  And the natural extension of that is to start giving people who have, as in AD’s case, minor pains or inconveniences, drugs that forces them to not have negative emotions.  Why fix it when we can just make you happy instead?

In the end AD’s case illuminates one the difficulties that Dr. M and I have in practice.  We want and need to be able to refer people to medical doctors in order to have things checked out that we can’t do ourselves.  But at the same time I need to be sure that my patient isn’t going to walk out with anti-depressants for a throat tickle.  We are lucky that we have some great MDs that we have great working relationships with (unfortunately ENT wasn’t one of them).  But this is also why we work so hard to educate our patients with Case Reviews, articles on our blog and in our office, dinner parties, etc – so that when you are faced with a situation likes AD’s you will have the knowledge to recognize recommendations that go against how the body actually works and have the courage to do just what AD did – say “I’m getting a second opinion” and walk out.

PS:  Anyone know a good ENT guy?

Hey everyone, we have an exciting announcement that we wanted to share with you!  As you may have heard us talk about before (and if you haven’t you need to get to a Case Review!) health functions in three dimensions:  the physical, the biochemical, and the emotional/spiritual.  It is vitally important that you be proactive in all three dimensions in order to maintain health and wellness in your family.

In order to help you out with this we are very excited to announce a new partnership with Windy City Crossfit in order to bring you access to high quality, local, 100% Grass-fed/Organic/USDA approved meat, poultry, eggs, raw dairy, sheep and goat products.  As those who have attended our bootcamps can attest, Windy City Crossfit does a unbelievable job of providing strength and conditioning to the Chicago community – that’s why both Dr. A and Dr. M workout there.  They even played a huge role in preparing Dr. A’s wife Courtney for her completely natural birth (and quick recovery thereafter).

Having grandparents who owned a cattle farm and therefore growing up with good meat, eggs, and dairy (that I actually knew where it came from and how it was raised), I can’t tell you the difference in quality, taste, and effect on your health between farm fresh meat and that in the grocery store.  And living in Chicago the past 6 years it is extremely evident that we lack in convenient, affordable ways to get good product.  That is until now.

We’ve partnered with Windy City Crossfit to allow our patients access to the WCCF Grocery Club.  This club is normally exclusive to members of Windy City Crossfit, but we think it is so important that we’ve worked with them to allow our patients and their family members to join as well.   Once a week, 100% Grass-fed/Organic/USDA approved meat, poultry, eggs, raw dairy, sheep and goat products will be delivered to and stored at WCCF – located at 4043 N. Ravenswood, just a couple blocks from our office.. Members may place specific orders in advance or purchase products from a general selection.

In the coming days and weeks we will be posting and emailing more info on membership in the WCCF Grocery Club.  We hope that you will take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to enjoy high quality, healthy meat, eggs, and dairy!

All the best

Dr. Arthur

First off, let me remind you or maybe teach you for the first time the importance of infant, toddler, and childhood adjustments.  The first system that forms in the womb during pregnancy is the nervous system, and from that time on it regulates and controls body function.  Since most births these days are no longer natural, the first trauma is during the birth process.  Not being checked for subluxations or spinal misalignments until later in life, is a major detriment to the child’s  nervous system, leading to weak immunity and poor mechanical structure.   Even though its now 2011, we still see skyrocketing numbers of asthma, ear infections, allergies, and sensory integration issues.  This is all the result of a nervous system that is not adapting to changes in environment, and has very, very little to do with genetics.

Also, when kids grow up getting regular wellness adjustments, they realize their body is important  and when taken care of properly works fine without medications or vaccines to battle the flu, common cold, headaches, fevers, ear infections, etc.  This is empowering and lessens the likelyhood that your child will be another sad victim of the side effects of medications, which is a leading cause of death in this country.    Did you know that greater than 80 percent of medications given to children under 18 are OFF LABEL, which means they are prescribed for reasons other than what they were researched for!  This is insane,  yet most of the parents in the country are either unaware, or are aware, but just don’t know what to do as an alternative.  Actually, drugs should be the alternative.  Every drug has a side effect, even Tylenol, so why we constantly rely on drugs and teach our kids to reach for drugs first when we have body symptoms is beyond me.  Safe, gentle, natural, regular chiropractic adjustment help restore nervous system function without side effects.

This doesn’t mean you will go through life without drugs, but you will be far less likely if its working at its best.  I have no problem what so ever bragging that my children have never had a drop of poisonous vaccines put into their bloodstream, and have also never taken a drug for any symptom ever.  It just really makes me sick to see all this sickness when being proactive IS the answer.   Many of you reading this get it, and I applaud you.   But others still come in to improve their own nervous sysem, while leaving their kids at home unchecked, waiting for symptoms to show up and when they do, just teaching the kids that drugs fix everything.  Look around…its not working…we are NOT the healthiest country on the planet by FAR.  Some of you, simply haven’t gotten your kids checked because you just haven’t explained it to your husband or wife, so they don’t get it, and that’s the end of it.  Bring them in or let me or Dr. A talk to them.  It would be easier for me to say nothing, but it flies in the face of my purpose.

JULY is free exam month for kids, and many of you are getting your kids checked for the first time.  For those of you who have been putting this off for too long, the second best time is NOW.  I can’t tell you how many kids we saw in my four days in Peru, but I can tell you there was nothing but pure gratitude from the parents that saw the results in the short time we were there.  For those of you who helped with my trip by purchasing the finger puppets hand made in Peru, thanks again for your support!  I also want to help Chicago kids, not just children from Peru!  It takes courage to be different.

Thank you for trusting us with your wellness….Dr. M

I wanted to follow-up on a couple of things.  Probably the biggest question we hear from people when we talk about having a natural birth is some variation on “Why go through that pain if you don’t have to?”.  The answer is simple:  for us, and for most people, a natural birth is the best and safest for both mom and baby.  Only in the last 50 years have we started to look at birth as a medical procedure and not as the natural, beautiful act it is.  And by looking at it as a procedure (that we can start and stop) we open ourselves up to all kinds of interventions that may and do have bad outcomes.  This is why c-section rates are sky-rocketing (more on this in a second) and the infant mortality rate in the US is actually increasing and is worse than most of our peer nations.  This is basically why the doctor in my story recommended we induce at 37 weeks – he views labor and delivery as a procedure that he performs, much as a heart surgeon does bypass surgery or a dentist does a root canal.  He can perform it at 37 weeks (as he said, the baby is completely viable) or 42 weeks – it doesn’t matter to him.  We didn’t do it because we take the opposite view – the birth process as the body was designed to have it (which may be different for everyone) is vitally important to start the baby on the track to good health.  Unless there was a life-threatening issue for Pippa or Courtney (there wasn’t) we knew that her body knew what was best for the baby;  in the end that was her being 10 days “late”.  She wasn’t meant to come out at 37 weeks – if she was Courtney would’ve started dilating, having contractions, etc.  And in the end, we have a perfect little girl who has gotten a great start on life!

Yesterday I posted a website on our Facebook page (Click here to become a fan!) that is a great resource for people who are expecting or plan to be expecting.  The choice of a doctor/midwife and associated hospital is a vitally important first step that takes place many times before many couples, especially first timers, have thought about what type of experience they would like to have.  It even happened to us – we switched providers at 32 weeks.  One very important piece of information to gather is the C-section rate for the hospital that you are using(you should also find it out for your practitioner).  The website above has links for every hospital in the United States.  Illinois specifically is a very well designed page:  it allows you to compare any hospital you want and will even give you the state averages.

Why is it important to know you hospital’s c-section rate, and why do we want to avoid them if at all possible?  C-sections are major abdominal surgery and have the same consequences and recovery.  They are not, as many portray, “walk into the hospital, go to sleep, and walk out with a baby.”  Many people who have a c-section are even lucky if they can pick up their baby up 1, 2, even 3 weeks after giving birth – the recovery is long and painful.  Not to mention the risks associated with the surgery itself.  There are even risks associated for the baby.  Babies delivered by c-section have higher rates of asthma, allergies, poorer immune function, colic, etc.

Would I have rather delivered Pippa in a place without c-sections?  Absolutely not – they are vital in the case of an emergency.  The problem is that the majority performed in the US are not as a result of an emergency but done for convenience or as a consequence of unneeded intervention.  The World Health Organization reports that 5-10% of all births are emergency situations where c-sections are warranted.  They also state that at rates over 15% more women are being harmed than actually helped!  In some areas of the US rates are over 40% and rising; Illinois is at 27%!

As I said the website I linked above gives breakdowns of all hospitals across the US.  I took a look at the three hospitals here in Chicago that we have or are using:  Northwestern(Dr.M), Swedish(Sarah), and Evanston(Dr. A).  The website give two different rates to look at:  the Primary C-section rate (this is C-sections for women who have never had one before, and the overall C-section rate).  Here is the breakdown:

Northwestern

• Primary:  17%
• Total:  25%

Swedish

• 12%
• 21%

Evanston

• 14%
• 23%

So in looking at them the good news is that all three are beating the Illinois average, yet they are still higher than what should be acceptable.  In addition to the hospital c-section you will also want to know your Dr/midwife’s rate, as well as their percentage of natural birth.  This info may be harder to find – there is no database.  I do know that our midwife’s c-section rate is under 5% and their natural birth rate is over 60%.  For comparison’s sake Northwestern’s natural birth rate is 2%.  Be sure to ask your doctor/midwife these questions.

In the end I hope this answered some of the questions people may have had about our birth.  We truly believe that the birth experience is a personal decision and that while natural birth is the healthiest option, depending on circumstances it may not be possible for everyone.  We love working with pregnant women from the start of their pregnancy to help support and guide them in order to have the best experience possible.  If you are pregnant or know someone who is pregnant be sure to check out our blog and our Facebook feed for more info, and make an appointment to see want kind of help we may provide throughout the pregnancy (and after!).

Thanks Again

Dr. Arthur