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Four Iowa hospitals ranked among the best for maternity care by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News and World Report releases annual “Best Hospital” rankings
This year’s list features an “Honor Roll” of 22 hospitals, replacing rankings and focusing on specialties, conditions, procedures & regions.
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Four hospitals in Iowa, including one in Des Moines, have been named among the high performers for maternity care in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.
U.S. News analyzed 817 hospitals across the United States for seven metrics: rates for cesarean section, severe unexpected newborn complications, breast milk feeding, routine vaginal birth after cesarean deliveries and episiotomies and whether a hospital meets new federal criteria for “birthing-friendly” practices and tracks and reports outcomes for patients of different races and ethnicities.
Only half of evaluated hospitals were recognized as being among the best for maternity care.
The U.S. News ratings focused only on uncomplicated pregnancies and not high-risk ones, such as those involving mothers with diabetes or high blood pressure or who are pregnant with twins.
“The hospitals recognized by U.S. News as best hospitals for maternity care showcase exceptional care for expectant parents,” Jennifer Winston, a health data scientist at U.S. News, said in a news release. “These hospitals demonstrate significantly lower C-section rates and severe unexpected newborn complications compared to hospitals not recognized by U.S. News.”
What Iowa hospitals were named best for maternity care by U.S. News?
The hospitals in Iowa City, Mason City and Cedar Rapids received excellent ratings for minimizing avoidable C-sections, with less than 24% occurring in connection with first-time, low-risk pregnancies at full term.
At MercyOne Des Moines, severe newborn complications were low compared to the other three hospitals, where complications occur at an average rate, U.S. News said. Severe newborn complications occur when full-term newborns with normal birth weight and no preexisting conditions are injured or develop infections.
The median hospital rate of severe newborn complications is 13 per 1,000 births, according to U.S. News.
MercyOne Des Moines, Mercy Medical Center Cedar Rapids and the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center all have an episiotomy rate of less than 5%. An episiotomy, a surgical cut made in the perineum during childbirth, is not recommended for routine use except in specific clinical cases.
The national and Midwest averages for babies exclusively breastfed during their hospital stay are 49% and 51%, respectively. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Mason City hospitals exceeded these averages, with Mercy Medical Center Cedar Rapids being the highest at 81%.
What other hospitals in the Midwest were named high-performing hospitals for maternity care by U.S. News?
Here are the number of hospitals recognized as high-performing for maternity care in states bordering Iowa.
Cooper Worth is a service/trending reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at cworth@gannett.com or follow him on X @CooperAWorth.
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