Southern Oregon Cesarean Rates by Hospital
I dug through the data on Grants Pass & Medford’s c-section rates so you don’t have to.
When deciding where you want to give birth, cesarean rates can give you some insight into the care a hospital is providing. While cesareans can be life-saving when needed, they are overused in modern maternity care. According to the World Health Organization, cesarean rates above 10% are not associated with reductions in newborn and maternal mortality rates. The cesarean rate across the US is around 32%, so it’s safe to say that many mothers and babies are undergoing preventable cesareans.
What leads to preventable cesareans? Often, it looks like what doulas call the cascade of interventions. Here’s an example scenario: Your provider suggests induction for a non-emergent reason — maybe you’re past your due date or they’re concerned about your baby getting too big. The induction is moving slowly, so they suggest pitocin to get labor going. Pitocin makes your contractions much more intense, so you ask for an epidural. After the epidural, you’re not able to move around as well, causing labor progression to slow. You’re offered a cesarean for “failure to progress”.
Again, some cesareans are absolutely necessary and life-saving. But so many women are going through major abdominal surgery unnecessarily because of provider impatience and excessive medical interventions. Cesarean birth has become normalized in our culture, but it’s still quite a risky procedure, particularly for mothers. In addition to immediate risks such as infection and hemorrhage, mothers who give birth via cesarean face long-term concerns of adhesions and future birth complications.
So, on to our local cesarean rates! I’ve used OHA’s birth data to create this chart comparing c-section rates at our local Southern Oregon hospitals: Asante Three Rivers Medical Center in Grants Pass, Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, and Providence Medford Medical Center.
Before we dive in, it’s important to note a couple things about this data:
Hospitals that care for more high-risk patients will tend to have higher cesarean rates. In our area, Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center is the best hospital for high-risk pregnancies and has the only level 3 NICU in Southern Oregon. Therefore, we’d expect to see a higher rate of necessary cesareans performed there.
Home birth and birth center transfers that resulted in cesarean birth are also included in this data. Unfortunately, OHA does not publish data on cesarean rates for home birth midwives and out-of-hospital birth centers. However, statewide data shows that only 4-6% of planned out-of-hospital births end in cesarean, so the effect on the numbers should be small. I’ve included this statewide data on the chart for reference.
I hope this is helpful as you decide on your birth location!
Remember, cesarean rates are just one of the questions you should be asking. I’ll be sharing more on choosing a birth location and provider soon.
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