Mississippi Cesarean Rates, 2010

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By Jill Arnold

Mississippi ranked fifth in the United States in percentage of cesarean deliveries in 2009, following Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Florida.

Cesarean Rates by Facility, 2010

		# C/S		# Births		%
2010		14,423		39,174		36.8
North Mississippi Medical Center West Point		175		241		72.6
Woman’s Hospital at River Oaks		907		1,537		59.0
Mississippi Baptist Medical Center		499		1,045		47.8
King’s Daughters Medical Center		305		640		47.7
Central Mississippi Medical Center		483		1,025		47.1
Grenada Lake Medical Center		205		451		45.5
South Sunflower County Hospital		116		261		44.4
Rush Foundation Hospital		384		881		43.6
Madison County Medical Center		105		243		43.2
River Oaks Hospital		833		1,967		42.3
St. Dominic Jackson Memorial Hospital		529		1,272		41.6
Wesley Medical Center		618		1,582		39.1
Anderson Regional Medical Center		468		1,237		37.8
University Hospital & Health System		1,083		2,880		37.6
Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center		367		976		37.6
Magee General Hospital		39		104		37.5
Bolivar Medical Center		154		412		37.4
Forrest General Hospital		876		2,357		37.2
Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center		346		938		36.9
Biloxi Regional Medical Center		272		746		36.5
Ocean Springs Hospital		349		960		36.4
Memorial Hospital at Gulfport		478		1,357		35.2
Tri Lakes Medical Center		59		169		34.9
Natchez Regional Medical Center		157		459		34.2
Baptist Memorial Hospital DeSoto		686		2,018		34.0
Magnolia Regional Health Center		169		500		33.8
Natchez Community Hospital		178		548		32.5
Riley Hospital		108		332		32.5
Baptist Memorial Hospital Union County		360		1,113		32.3
Gilmore Memorial Regional Medical Center		172		536		32.1
North Mississippi Medical Center		721		2,254		32.0
South Central Regional Medical Center		298		939		31.7
Baptist Memorial Hospital North Mississippi		288		911		31.6
Singing River Hospital		217		721		30.1
Garden Park Medical Center		153		519		29.5
Highland Community Hospital		97		333		29.1
River Region Health System		218		780		27.9
Wayne General Hospital		60		220		27.3
Greenwood Leflore Hospital		205		757		27.1
Baptist Memorial Hospital Golden Triangle		225		907		24.8
Hancock Medical Center		51		209		24.4
Delta Regional Medical Center Main Campus		208		893		23.3
Oktibbeha County Hospital		202		929		21.7
Leake Memorial Hospital		0		6		0.0
King’s Daughters Hospital Yazoo County		0		4		0.0
Laird Hospital		0		2		0.0
Marion General Hospital		0		2		0.0
Scott Regional Hospital		0		1		0.0

2010 Obstetrical Utilization by County

		County		# Deliveries		#OB Beds		Occ Rate
				39,174		565		42.5
University Hospital & Health System		Hinds		2,880		41		70.0
Forrest General Hospital		Forrest		2,357		35		59.7
North Mississippi Medical Center		Lee		2,254		64		32.0
Baptist Memorial Hospital		Desoto		2,018		0		0.0
River Oaks Hospital		Rankin		1,967		23		66.3
Wesley Medical Center		Lamar		1,582		0		0.0
Woman’s Hospital at River Oaks		Rankin		1,537		18		10.6
Memorial Hospital at Gulfport		Harrison		1,357		20		46.6
St. Dominic Jackson Memorial Hospital		Hinds		1,272		0		0.0
Anderson Regional Medical Center		Lauderdale		1,237		30		30.7
Baptist Memorial Hospital Union County		Union		1,113		0		0.0
Mississippi Baptist Medical Center		Hinds		1,045		40		23.5
Central Mississippi Medical Center		Hinds		1,025		0		0.0
Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center		Coahoma		976		11		90.2
Ocean Springs Hospital		Jackson		960		9		53.6
South Central Regional Medical Center		Jones		939		19		42.2
Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center		Pike		938		9		116.5
OCH Regional Medical Center		Oktibbeha		929		0		0.0
Baptist Memorial Hospital North Mississippi		Lafayette		911		0		0.0
Baptist Memorial Hospital Golden Triangle		Lowndes		907		17		60.6
Delta Regional Medical Center Main Campus		Washington		893		15		58.6
Rush Foundation Hospital		Lauderdale		881		18		41.3
River Region Health System		Warren		780		28		30.7
Greenwood Leflore Hospital		Leflore		757		16		40.6
Biloxi Regional Medical Center		Harrison		746		17		51.7
Singing River Hospital		Jackson		721		22		22.6
King’s Daughters Medical Center		Lincoln		640		0		0.0
Natchez Community Hospital		Adams		548		0		0.0
Gilmore Memorial Regional Medical Center		Monroe		536		15		25.8
Garden Park Medical Center		Harrison		519		9		35.2
Magnolia Regional Health Center		Alcorn		500		8		38.3
Natchez Regional Medical Center		Adams		459		19		16.5
Grenada Lake Medical Center		Grenada		451		0		0.0
Bolivar Medical Center		Bolivar		412		17		50.3
Highland Community Hospital		Pearl River		333		13		14.7
Riley Hospital		Lauderdale		332		5		54.9
South Sunflower County Hospital		Sunflower		261		0		0.0
Madison County Medical Center		Madison		243		0		0.0
North Mississippi Medical Center		West Point Clay		241		6		0.0
Wayne General Hospital		Wayne		220		7		33.3
Hancock Medical Center		Hancock		209		10		17.4
Tri Lakes Medical Center		Panola		169		0		0.0
Magee General Hospital		Simpson		104		4		14.5
Leake Memorial Hospital		Leake		6		0		0.0
King’s Daughters Hospital Yazoo County		Yazoo		4		0		0.0
Laird Hospital		Newton		2		0		0.0
Marion General Hospital		Marion		2		0		0.0
Scott Regional Hospital		Scott		1		0		0.0

State Cesarean Rate

Individual Facility Cesarean Rate Histories

A few hospitals with an average of 1000 births or more

SOURCE: Mississippi State Department of Health

More posts about Mississippi:

Mississippi OB Files Motion to Reconsider HB207, The Midwife Safety Act

Blocked!

Cesarean Rates and Premature Birth in the Southern United States

Comments

[Laura @ Our Messy Messy Life]

Thank you, Jill! I am positively giddy about having access to these numbers! My local hospital has the lowest c/s rate in the state --still too high at 21% but better than the next closet hospital............ North Mississippi Medical Center West Point at 72%. Rumor has it that tummy tucks are the norm for c/s patients in West Point.

[Maria]

I find this tragic, especially considering the debate taking place in MS over the 'personhood' of a fetus under Amendment 26. Great disparity between pre-natal and birth and postpartum care. It's clear women are not valued in Mississippi, at least not after they take their first breath, that is.

[Michelle]

Please, Maria, at least MS values women BEFORE they are born, unlike people who uphold "birth" as some holy grail, but couldn't care less if the baby being birthed was killed before it was born or not. A C-Section is not worse than being killed. For the record, I am appalled by the numbers on these charts and am a supporter of ICAN and MS Friends of Midwives, but it has never made sense to me that some women who are all about "choice in childbirth" seem to forget the the result of childbirth is a CHILD. Why can't we love and care for BOTH the mother and baby 100%?

[Lindsey]

As one of the numbers that made up those little red bars, I can say the high c-section rates don't surprise me. There are very few options in Mississippi for obstetric care, so you are made to feel you have very little choice in the matter. I'm not happy to see myself as part of such a sad statistic.

[KK]

Mississippi is also near the bottom in the CDC's breastfeeding report card for 2011, with only 50% of infants ever being breastfed for a moment, which I believe also ties in with the care and support given to mothers during and after birth.

[Susan]

Woman's Hospital at 59% no surprise there as pretty much all patients are electively induced at 39 w 0 d (if not way before as apparently it is "dangerous" to be 4 cm).

[crystal_b]

How do you get these numbers, Jill? I'm waiting with bated breath for Missouri's.

[Marie]

OK, but as a former L&D/ perinatal O.R. nurse in a large hospital, some things are being ignored or overlooked in the article.
Many women WANT a C/S so they don't have to go through labor and delivery, and so they don't have to have that "ugly scar"....In South America its VERY common, I can't recall the stats, but maybe 80-90% of women schedule a C/S routinely. If not for pressure from various organizations in the U.S. I think the rate would be higher here, for those reasons.
Also, the high litigation rate in the U.S. is a HUGE factor.... If the baby is not "perfect"....and the time element can be up to or through first grade.....the doctor, hospital, even the RN's, can be sued. Most nations don't have that handicap: the choice to do a C/S should ideally be made as to what is best for baby/ mother....but in our country it is not.
The average layperson, I think, has no idea why vaginal delivery is preferable, and the same with breast feeding. Some hospitals have great breast feeding programs set up, others are just terrible. The Breast Feeding Coordinator at my last Hospital ENCOURAGED women to express or pump their breast milk into a container so the amount the baby took could be measured....How that helps bonding, or encourages the mother and child to find their own rhythm, is hard to imagine. I nursed my first child for over a year, and the second (while working full time as an RN) for 7 months. For the second child, I carried in to work several empty baby bottles, borrowed the L&D electric breast feeding machine, and at break time ate a sandwich in one hand, while pumping each breast with the other. Then the milk---I usually had two large baby bottles full---was refridgerated in a lunch box....the next day the baby sitter fed that milk to the baby, and so on....It worked well. I did not take extra time at lunch/break time, and other than having to purchase new tubing (for myself alone) for the breast pumping machine, it was easy, cheap, and the baby got the best of both worlds....nursed at home, and fed via bottle, but fed breast milk, when I was at work. However, so many companies will not allow, or encourage nursing moms to do something like that. In another hospital where I worked the breast pump was kept in the womens' BATHROOM! I suppose for fear of people seeing the nastiness of breast feeding!

[Aron]

Sadly, Marie, I think the argument so often hauled out about "SO MANY" women wanting c/s is kind of thin. First, the most liberal statistics on that point toward a fairly small population of women. Second, so what? If a patient wants to be given unlimited access to the morphine should they be given that too, just because they want it? It's the job of the OB, midwife, clinic nurse, etc. to EDUCATE these moms well in advance of their labors. Educate them not only of the risks of unnecessary surgery, but also of the benefits of labor (how many OBs are even aware there are any?), of various non-pharmacologic options for coping with labor, and refer them to someone who can provide that education if they are too ignorant to do it themselves.

Point two about that excuse: why is it alright to role women into surgery just because they ask, but not alright to support women in laboring under their own power just because they ask? VBACs, routine inductions for postdates/baby too big/mama too big/day too long/other flimsy non-evidence-based excuse..... Seriously? If a woman asks for needless major abdominal surgery then the poor sad doctor's hands are just tied and s/he's duty-bound to honor their request, but if a woman asks for support to birth on her own THAT is taking things too far?

Evidence has shown time and again that when doctors/midwives educate their clients during (and before) prenatal care, their position as authority figures goes far toward influencing client decisions and toward reducing the dreaded litigation. Any care provider who balks at finding some way to provide that education is just being lazy. Pointing the finger of blame at some mythical majority of women too-posh-to-push doesn't absolve them of that responsibility, in fact it increases it.

[praminthehall]

Cesareans performed on maternal demand usually do not meet guidelines for informed consent. Women who understand the full risks and benefits of such a choice are unlikely to proceed with surgery. With the exception of plastic surgery, doctors rarely perform purely elective surgeries on demand. In addition, data indicate that many cesareans that are coded as being by maternal request were actually performed at the suggestion of the doctor. There are a number of research articles addressing this issue in the journal Birth. As informed consent for Cesarean in general is poorly executed and true informed consent is less likely for poor and/or non-white women, it seems there would be a high correlation between lack of informed consent and the high Cesarean rate in Mississippi, which has high proportions of both low-income and African American mothers.

[JRob]

As a patient at the 72.6% facility, I can attest that education is pathetic. There's not one single breastfeeding poster in a patient room or hospital or hallway. There is nothing about the risks and side effects of pitocin or epidurals. You know what I learned in my childbirth class? What 10 cm looks like on a piece of paper, how the epidural is given and how to hold ice and breathe. That's it. I was part of that God awful statistic with my first birth. I've taken it upon myself to educate myself on natural childbirth and the effects of interventions and am planning a natural VBAC. After seeing this, I'm really conflicted about staying at my hospital. And I've looked into midwives and homebirth. Midwives are tough to find. I like my OB because she's supportive of what I'm for. But I'm for trying my best not to have another c-section. If a patient is for induction or c-section, she will support that too. Many of my friends ended up with a c-section because their labor stalled at that magical 7 cm mark. They were induced and received epidurals. Correlation? Absolutely. I think every first prenatal visit needs to be about the kind of childbirth you want. I think every woman thinks about that. Arm them with adequate information regarding childbirth - natural and technological - and they can go from there. If 72.6% choose interventions/c-section, so be it. But I highly doubt that's the choice of adequately educated women.

[KK]

I think only a couple of percent of cesareans performed in the USA every year are completely elective maternal request primary cesareans ("too posh to push"). I've seen values for CDMR between 1-8% of all births in the USA, depending on study. Now, elective repeat cesareans do make up a good chunk of the overall national cesarean rate.

[Hillie Hazel]

Mississippi also has a HUGE problem with obesity and education and is very rural which means an even lesser access to obstetrical care. I'm sure those three factors contribute to the high CS rate as well......

[sara]

KK- wow, that breastfeeding statistic is horrendous! And so is the c-secton rate, for that matter. I can't imagine working at a hospital where over 70% of the patients had surgical births. It must be unheard of to have an unmedicated birth! The whole thing makes me sad. There's got to be a serious lack of education, along with some doctors who would rather have a 9-5 job than one that makes them actually wait on a laboring mom.

[crystal_b]

When I got my medical records, one of the factors in my c-section was "materal request" -- when I explicitly asked "Do I have any other options?" and was told no.