07/26/2025
Important information that all families should have available to them and consider when choosing their birth location
❗️Up-to-date Hospital Cesarean Rates:
Cesarean sections are the most common surgical procedure performed in the U.S. with over 30% of women giving birth by major surgery. However, most are unwarranted.
The World Health Organization states that c-section rates higher than around 10% are NOT associated with reductions in maternal and newborn mortality.
While c-sections can be lifesaving when medically necessary, they increase the risk of:
- Complication and infection
- Physical and emotional trauma
- Short and long term maternal and neonatal morbidity
Quality of care differs depending on the hospital chosen. According to Consumer Reports, your odds of having a c-section can be almost 10x higher if you choose the wrong hospital.
"If properly armed with data, growing families can vote with their dollars and send a signal to the medical community by choosing—if possible—a hospital with a lower c-section rate." Doris Peter, Ph.D.
Find several Northeast Indiana hospitals and their current cesarean section rates below.
IMPORTANT NOTE- Cesarean section rates on the Leapfrog Group survey only include "first-time mothers giving birth to a single baby, at full-term, in the head-down position who deliver their babies through a C-section".
*Rates shown in this post are lower than actual current cesarean rates because they do not include:
- cesareans for multiparous women
- cesareans for pregnancies of multiples
- cesareans for breech presentation
- repeat cesareans
*This means that the listed hospitals cesarean rates are much higher than recorded.
Remember that c-sections, while life saving when medically necessary, are mostly unwarranted and increase health risks for both mother and infant.
Our local hospitals can do better and you deserve to be fully informed when choosing a birth location!
