In the past few weeks, Illinois has released its Public Health Hospital Statistics.   Today the Tribune ran a brief piece on Cesareans,  the reasons behind them and the rates of some of the local hospitals.  You can view Julie Deardorff’s article here: Illinois Hospital C-section rates

Here is an excerpt from her article and you can plainly see how where you go to give birth can play a huge role in your outcome.

  • Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington—35 percent (1,724 births 601 C-sections)
  • Advocate Medical Center in Oak Lawn—35 percent (4,233 births 1520 C-sections)
  • Resurrection Saint Joseph Hospital, Chicago—34 percent (1895 births 647 C-sections)
  • Advocate Condell Medical Center Libertyville, 30 percent (545 births 165 C-sections)
  • University of Chicago Medical Center, 29 percent (2,013 births 585 C-sections)
  • Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago, 29 percent (2,931 births 866 C-sections)
  • Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, 28 percent (11,958 births 3,418 C-sections)
  • Elmhurst Hospital, 26 percent (1,426 births 374 C-sections)
  • Evanston Hospital, 26 percent (3,590 births 966 C-sections)
  • Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, 26 percent (2,252 births 588 C-sections)
  • Swedish Covenant Hospital, Chicago, 25 percent, (2,464 births 618 C-sections)
  • West Suburban Hospital, Oak Park, 20 percent (2,175 births 453 C-sections)
  • University of Illinois Medical Center, Chicago, 14 percent (2,893 births 433 C-sections)

Some notes about the three hospitals with the lowest cesareans:

  • UIC is one of the few hospitals in the area that supports vaginal birth after 2 cesareans (VBA2C).  Most hospitals in the area view women who have had multiple cesareans as too risky for vaginal births and schedule them for repeat cesareans.
  • West Suburban and Swedish Covenant both have alternative birthing centers on the premises used by midwifery practices that support natural childbirth and evidence based maternity care.  Women birthing in these birth centers aren’t forced to having labors conform to a curve or else face called cesareans for: “Failure to Progress”, “Arrested Labor,” or “Cephalopelvic Disproportion- CPD.”

if your hospital is not listed here, leave a comment and I’ll crunch the numbers and post your hospital’s rate.  Or you can check out the report yourself and leave it in the comments.

2008 Illinois Hospital Profiles

It does make a difference where you choose to give birth.