Efforts to reduce the rate of early elective deliveries have been a huge success, with the rate declining to just 1.9%, according to the latest report from The Leapfrog Group, a Washington DC-based nonprofit representing employers and other purchasers. That rate is the lowest since Leapfrog began collecting maternity care quality data.
That means the procedure criticized as unhealthy for both mother and child has been practically eliminated, after rates reached 17% in 2010.
The rate of episiotomies has fallen to 9.6%, lower than the 13% first reported in 2012, but still a long way from Leapfrog’s target of 5% or less. About 25.8% of births are cesarean sections, the same from the previous year but close to the target rate of 23.9% or lower.
Leapfrog reports that 45% of reporting hospitals are meeting target rates for episiotomies, and 37% are meeting the group’s standard for cesarean sections.
These are some other findings in the 2017 Maternity Care Report:
- Cesarean section rates can be higher in some states. Cesareans on low-risk, first-time mothers with a single baby in the head-down position at term made up a higher percentage of births in Eastern and Southern states, but Western states tended to have lower rates.
- Hospital type does not affect maternity care quality. Leapfrog compared teaching hospitals to non-teaching hospitals, and urban to rural hospitals, but found the maternity quality performance data to be nearly identical.
(The full report is available online at http://bit.ly/2mad3Sx.)
