Being Pregnant
Florida Hospital Has A 71% C-Section Rate?
One Florida hospital may not be very up front with their expecting mothers on at least one thing… Their sky high c-section rate! Can you imagine going in to delivery your child, and finding out that the hospital you have locally, or have picked for your delivery has an almost 3/4 c-section delivery rate?
Through a nation wide project to showcase the c-section rates at all hospitals that provide labor and delivery services, the popular online blog The Unnecesarean.com has been providing state by state c-section rates for all of the hospitals. When the stats for Florida popped up and showed one hospital to be at 71.2% of all births ending in surgical deliveries… I was stopped dead in my tracks. Huh? What in the world? What on earth justifies a c-section rate THAT HIGH????
According to the World Health Organization, a hospital should have a c-section rate under 15% at the highest. Meaning… the absolute highest. So why did Kendall Regional Medical Center in Miami have a c-section delivery rate of 71.2%? Surely those deliveries are not all medically necessary procedures… which brings me to my next question…
Why aren’t insurance companies investigating, and challenging the validity of these procedures, especially at such high rates from this hospital? A friend of mine who had two c-sections, both medically necessary had to actually prove her second c-section was medically necessary in order to have the insurance actually pay the hospital.
With the recommendations we see from the World Health Organization, the current push across the country to lower c-section rates, and increase VBAC options, how can Kendall Regional Medical Center continue to deliver so many babies via unnecessary surgery that when not medically necessary is risky to mothers and babies?
Their sign above clearly states they baby mothers and newborns, and rightfully so… after major abdominal surgery, those mothers do need special, and more gentle care. But how much of that could be avoided if the hospital stopped intervening in the natural process of childbirth?
There is simply no justification for a 70+% c-section rate… at all!
photo: The Unnecesarean
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11 Comments
Summer commented on Feb 15 11 at 1:02 pmThis makes me want to puke.
Steph commented on Feb 15 11 at 1:44 pmThat’s astounding. I have no idea how it works, but do some hospitals have more women who might need a c-section referred to them due to their facilities/specialties? I’m not even American so I truly have no idea how it works, but you would hope there was some kind of explanation behind that crazy percentage.
Laura commented on Feb 15 11 at 2:17 pmI had a C-section with my daughter. I was bleeding to the point of needing and I almost lost my uterus, so my c-section was VERY necessary. I know how a c-section can save a life, but there is no justification for 71% of all mothers needing a c-section. If 71% of all women needed C-sections our species would have died out.
Carina commented on Feb 15 11 at 4:00 pmI’m aghast. Does their local media know? Shouldn’t that be all over the news as a complete and total community embarrassment?
Danielle625 commented on Feb 15 11 at 4:27 pm@Steph – The 15% cited by the World Health Organization includes the high risk deliveries, they said for low risk mothers it should be 10%…. 15% at the highest.
LaurenDJohnson commented on Feb 15 11 at 5:12 pmThis hosp i believe does high risk for medicaid patients, who have a higher risk for c sec as it is in fl at least. This is an astonishing and sad number none the less. May be the reason, although unnacceptable.
Danielle625 commented on Feb 15 11 at 5:13 pmLike you said Lauren, high risk or not, there is simply no excuse for a 3/4 c-section rate… Even with high risk patients, 1/4 is still too high!
Megan commented on Feb 15 11 at 6:13 pmI live in Florida, and I know a lot of these hospitals. I’m pretty surprised to see that many of the highest are in the Miami area! Could this have anything to do with vanity? Also, right now I live in Southwest Florida and I was relieved to see most of our hospitals were low on the list. Our highest was Healthpark and they are the only hospital in the area with a NICU. Thankfully, I’m all set up with the local birthing center. If anything goes wrong though, I’ll be at one of the lower one’s on the list. They still have 1/3 cesarean rate though, hopefully I won’t be one of them!
Marie commented on Feb 16 11 at 7:51 amThis trend is not new in southeast Florida. There is a great deal of controversy about the reasons but there is no excuse for a 71% rate. The reasons often given include:
increasing maternal age leading to more complications,
increasing multiples as a result of reproductive technology,
malpractice fears,
increased medical intervention in the normal process of birth that actually interferes with the normal process,
scheduled inductions that fail and result in c sections,
scheduled c sections for maternal or physician convenience and scheduling,
increased social acceptance of c sections as the norm.
Statistics do not bear out the contention that patients on Medicaid have a higher c section rate. The reverse if true. The rate is usually lower in teaching hospitals that have residents available 24/7.
Tiffany commented on Feb 16 11 at 2:16 pmI sincerely hope the homebirth rates there begin to skyrocket in response.
Crystal commented on Jul 13 11 at 3:07 pmI am in Florida, my first was C-section due to him being breech (its illegal for a birth center to treat me with a breech baby, and no doc would take me). Now I’m pregnant with my second, and I had a HECK of a time finding a doctor to let me try a VBAC! I finally out that the Dr who delivered my first son allows it, a wonderful coincidence, but she has had to switch hospitals she delivers at because that one hospital is ‘doing away’ with VBACs. And apparently that is a new trend here too. Insurance companies think they are too risky or something. And it is ILLEGAL for birth centers to allow VBACs in their facilities, but you can do it at home. Strange? I think the reason the media hasn’t caught hold to this high rate is that most people aren’t educated about it! I mentioned to a woman at my church that I was doing a VBAC (she’s preg with her 4th) and she said “Whats that?” When I told her she said, “Why would you want to do that?” And I have heard that same response several several times! I was a little shocked!
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