Maryland Cesarean Rates by Hospital, July 2008 to June 2009

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Facility - July 2008 to June 2009	All Births	Total C/S	All Vag Births	VBAC	First-time  C/S	Repeat C/S	C/S Rate
Anne Arundel Medical Center	5344	2050	3294	51	1165	884	38.4%
Calvert Memorial Hospital	858	311	547	N/A	194	117	36.2%
Carroll Hospital Center	1138	449	689	N/A	268	181	39.5%
Chester River Hospital Center	237	62	175	N/A	37	25	26.2%
Civista Medical Center	794	230	564	N/A	137	93	29.0%
Franklin Square Hospital Center	2586	744	1842	61	456	286	28.8%
Frederick Memorial Hospital	2305	740	1565	38	411	326	32.1%
Garrett County Memorial Hospital	250	53	197	N/A	27	26	21.2%
Greater Baltimore Medical Center	4491	2012	2479	36	1189	822	44.8%
Harbor Hospital Center	1664	539	1125	38	306	230	32.4%
Holy Cross Hospital	8735	3016	5719	162	1779	1231	34.5%
Howard County General Hospital	3000	963	2037	52	522	439	32.1%
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center	1783	542	1241	45	300	228	30.4%
Johns Hopkins Hospital	2053	635	1418	80	350	237	30.9%
Laurel Regional Hospital	612	189	423	N/A	94	95	30.9%
Maryland General Hospital	1055	225	830	44	127	97	21.3%
Memorial Hospital/Med Ctr Cumberland	1046	317	729	N/A	186	130	30.3%
Memorial Hospital At Easton	1204	271	933	N/A	166	104	22.5%
Mercy Medical Center	2771	894	1877	49	507	384	32.3%
Montgomery General Hospital	887	362	525	N/A	217	145	40.8%
Peninsula Regional Medical Center	2155	739	1416	N/A	380	359	34.3%
Prince George s Hospital Center	2282	652	1630	80	352	298	28.6%
Shady Grove Adventist Hospital	4771	1692	3079	68	928	764	35.5%
Sinai Hospital	2389	732	1657	78	438	293	30.6%
Southern Maryland Hospital Center	1707	701	1006	N/A	433	266	41.1%
St. Agnes Hospital	1975	772	1203	23	483	285	39.1%
St. Joseph Medical Center	2066	683	1383	47	412	268	33.1%
St. Mary s Hospital	1096	282	814	20	154	126	25.7%
Union Hospital Of Cecil County	720	251	469	N/A	161	89	34.9%
University Of Maryland Medical Center	1518	407	1111	48	232	170	26.8%
Upper Chesapeake Medical Center	1419	372	1047	31	228	144	26.2%
Washington Adventist Hospital	2046	836	1210	N/A	488	346	40.9%
Washington County Hospital	1950	631	1319	N/A	362	267	32.4%

Source: The Maryland Health Care Commission

Update on Monday, March 29, 2010 at 7:42AM by Jill

Maryland Cesarean Rate, 1990 to 2009

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Comments

[Vanessa Manz]

Yikes GBMC is up to 44.8%! I barely escaped with my vaginal birth with #1. *shudders*

[Jill]

Yeah. I will never stop feeling horrified by 40-plus cesarean rates.

[Clare]

Ahhh I love when people post numbers with nothing to back them up or explain them. Nothing here mentions how many of those hospitals have Level 3 NICUs which often perform emergency c-sections to save the baby because it's too small for a vag delivery. For repeat c-sections nothing says how many of those are because the mom didn't want to wait after the first c-section to try for a vbac. Or as in my SILs case didn't want to attempt vbac after her 1st c-section since her first delivery had so many complications. There are LOTS of us out there who have no problem with doctors being involved in our delivery process and using the advancements of medicine to help us during delivery and to intercede if things are going as they should. Perhaps we should move the viabilty age back to 32 weeks and stop doing c-sections and other means to save babies who go into labor to early. That will certainly lower the c-section rate. But as long as you want doctors to try and save babies and mother's lives then you have to accept medical assitance for the process.

[Jill]

Clare, that's all quite interesting but has nothing to do with the post. It's great that your SIL had the option to choose an elective repeat cesarean. Women who would like to VBAC often find it difficult to find someone to attend their birth.

As labeled, this is a list of Maryland cesarean rates. I didn't see a link to a table on the Maryland Health Care Commission web site called Cesarean Rates a Maryland Hospitals Which Have Level 3 NICUs Which Often Perform Emergency C-sections to Save the Baby Because It's Too Small for a Vag Delivery. If I had, I definitely would have posted it.

[Marianne]

Thank you so much for this information.

To address Clare's concern: from my own personal experience, I am choosing between Montgomery General and Shady Grove Adventist; the former is much smaller yet has a 40.8% rate, while the latter, with a much larger birth rate in general, has a level IIIB NICU yet a lower c-section rate of 35.5%.

30+% (really, more like 20%) should certainly be sufficient to allot for the situations where c-setions are unavoidable/actually necessary. As those numbers steadily creep up, I certainly agree with Jill that the increasing c-section rate since 1990 is very concerning.

[Sara]

Clare- I am not sure why everyone believes that babies less than 32 (or even 35 weeks, at our local hospital) need to be born by c-section? My twin sister and I were born at 31 weeks and were in no way injured by being born vaginally. I mentioned this to my mother who was surprised- at the time no one suggested sectioning her just because we were only 31 weeks. All research says that labor is beneficial for babies, and don't preemies need all of the help they can get?

[Megan]

The "Level 3 NICU" idea is a red herring. The closest hospital to me in NJ is a small community hospital - no fancy-pants high-risk set up - with a 46% c/s rate.

Jill, I hope NJ is on your list of states to post. Some of our hospitals' numbers are fully deserving of public humilation. You can find the list on ICAN Somerset or at this newspaper site: http://www.starledger.com/str/indexpage/environment/hospitals.asp

[Jill]

Hi Megan,

I'm going in no particular order but am thinking about chipping away at the extremes (high and low) first. NJ obviously meets that criterion as Worst in the Nation. I'll go with what's available to the general public first, even if it's just primary cesarean rates, then I'll hit up local ICAN chapters. We'll see what we can come up with. Thanks!

Jill