Goodbye, 2025! Welcome, 2026!

-The Year in Data -

  • Total births (still waiting on a few more December babies) - 66

  • Intrapartum (during labor) hospital transfer rate: 7.5%

  • Emergency intrapartum transfer rate: 0%

  • Vaginal delivery success rate (including outcomes following transfer): 98.7%

    • US National average vaginal delivery success rate: 67.7%

  • Intrapartum C-section rate (c-sections performed after the start of labor): 1.4%

    • US National average C-section rate: 32.3%

  • NICU admit rate: 1.5%

    • US National average NICU admit rate: 9.8%

  • Freestanding Birth Center Maternal Mortality Ratio: 0.0007% (0.7 deaths per 100,000 births)

    • US National Maternal Mortality Ratio: 0.02 (18 deaths per 100,000 births)

  • Freestanding Birth Center Neonatal Mortality Ratio: 0.13% (1.3 deaths per 1,000 live births)

    • US National neonatal mortality ratio: 0.29% (2.89 deaths per 1,000 live births)

A note on the data:

  1. Hospitals should have higher rates of interventions, including inductions, c-sections, and NICU admits than freestanding birth centers. Freestanding birth centers are expert in keeping people healthy and low-risk (up to 85% of people qualify as low-risk). Hospitals are expert in providing care for people who need more interventions or are high-risk.

  2. Nationally, the overall rates of induction, c-section, NICU admits, and both maternal and neonatal mortality are still way too high. Compared to other nations, the US is lagging significantly, especially in maternal mortality. There are 63 nations who have better rates than us (including every single wealthy nation, and 34 non-first-world nations).

  3. We know that incorporating midwifery and freestanding birth centers into the US maternal health system dramatically improves outcomes by keeping people healthy, safely driving down the rates of unnecessary interventions, and lowering their associated costs.

  4. We need more people to demand the midwifery model of care (both in and out of hospital). We need more support for freestanding birth centers and home birth. We need better integration of midwifery in the US.