Connecticut Hospital Cesarean Section Numbers for 2007

Over the weekend we really worked hard on locating some numbers we needed in order to come up with percentages that are much easier to understand over the number of cesarean sections taking place at hospitals across the state. Some of these numbers are staggering.
While our goal is to reduce the cesarean rate here in the state to the 10-15% the World Health Organization recommends, there are some hospitals in the state we feel will have a very hard time working to those numbers.

The hospitals with the exceptionally high rates, I have highlighted in Red. (Over the national average of 31.8%)
The hospitals which currently hold ban's on VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean) are in blue.

Hospital Name ______ Cesarean % ____ Total # of Births
Bridgeport Hospital ....... 39.07% ............ 2592
Bristol Hospital ......... 29.01% ........ 693
Charlotte Hungerford Hospital 37.25% ..... 459
Danbury Hospital ............ 30.21% ................... 2446
Day Kimball Hospital ......... 25.82% ................. 577
Greenwich Hospital ............ 34.20% ......... 2188
Griffin Hospital ............ 32.45% ......... 761
Hartford Hospital ............... 38.17% ......... 4071
Hospital of St. Raphael ........ 32.15% .......... 1440
John Dempsey Hospital (UCONN) 43.35% ........ 850
Johnson Memorial Hospital ........ 28.99% ........ 300
Lawrence & Memorial Hospital ....... 38.70% ......... 1739
Manchester Memorial Hospital ....... 27.76% ...... 1078
Middlesex Memorial Hospital ..... 37.50?% ..... 1176
Midstate Medical Center ........... 30.69% ......... 1082
Milford Hospital ........... 36.45% .................. 557
New Milford Hospital .............. 35.37% .............. 294
Norwalk Hospital .......... 32.12% ......... 1616
Rockville General Hospital ........... 26.53% ............ 441
Saint Francis Hospital ........ 31.23% .......... 2895
Saint Mary's Hospital ........ 29.74% ....... 1298
Saint Vincent's Medical Center ... 44.50% ....... 1211
Sharon Hospital .......... 31.78% ......... 236
Stamford Hospital ..... 37.99% ....... 2638
The Hospital of Central CT ..... 30.94% ......... 1975
Waterbury Hospital ..... 36.00% ...... 1311
William W. Backus Hospital ..... 30.40% ......... 1046
Windham Community Memorial ... 29.38% ......... 439
Yale New Haven Hospital ..... 34.91% ....... 4557

Also I would like to add, that The Hospital of Central CT told us that this information was not available to the public when we contacted them for the information. Waterbury Hospital was unable to tell us the statistics saying they were not public knowledge, Greenwich Hospital ignored our request and only gave us the primary cesarean statistics even after clarification of what we wanted, Bristol Hospital never responded to us after they asked what the statistics we being used for, Midstate Medical Center never replied to our request, it was like pulling teeth trying to deal with most of these hospitals. Mind you these listed above are the only that contacted us back out of every hospital in the state that provides maternity care.

Episiotomy Statistics!

After much patience with the department of health care access in Connecticut we obtained some of the statistics we have been looking for. While we do not have the percentages at this point in time because we still have some pieces of missing information, we do have the number of cesarean sections, episiotomies, and forcep/vaccum/breech deliveries (which is apparently counted as one statistic and number in CT's recordings).

Today I am posting the Episiotomy rates.
The numbers I am putting in blue we consider to be high and will be addressed to lower.

Bridgeport Hospital - 191
Bristol Hospital - 24
Charlotte Hungerford Hospital - 53
Danbury Hospital - 61
Day Kimball Hospital - 65
Greenwich Hospital - 269
Griffin Hospital - 80
Hartford Hospital - 168
Hospital of St. Raphael - 74
John Dempsey Hospital - 11
Johnson Memorial Hospital - 36
Lawrence and Memorial Hospital - 120
Manchester Memorial Hospital - 55
Middlesex Memorial Hospital - 91
Midstate Medical Center - 187
Milford Hospital - 44
New Milford Hospital - 64
Norwalk Hospital - 163
Rockville General Hospital - 66
Saint Francis Hospital - 248
Saint Mary's Hospital - 77
Saint Vincent's Medical Center - 96
Sharon Hospital - 30
Stamford Hospital - 517
The Hospital of Central Connecticut - 96
Waterbury Hospital - 155
William W. Backus Hospital - 56
Windham Community Memorial Hospital - 5
Yale New Haven Hospital - 224

These are some huge episiotomy numbers!

Two Hospitals

We have successfully obtained statistics from two hospitals here in Connecticut so far.
One being Stamford Hospital, and the other is Griffin Hospital in Derby.

I don't like the numbers from either, but I do give Griffin props for their VBAC rate.

Stamford Hospital
2007
Cesarean Section - 39.04%
Episiotomy - 20.50%
VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean) - 1.62%
Out of 1766 births

2008
Cesarean Section - 43.35%
Episiotomy - 24.88%
VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean) - 1.74%
Out of 2355 births

Griffin Hospital (Derby, CT)
2007
Cesarean Section - 30.6%
Episiotomy - 16.1%
VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean) - 18.3%


2008
Cesarean Section - 34.8%
Episiotomy - 16.3%
VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean - 10.4%

Some of these statistics are alarming, and the worst part of it all is, women are not being given this information when they choose to have a baby at these hospitals. Another reason for a push for a type of Mothers Information Act here in Connecticut.

Atleast You Have a Healthy Baby

One of the goals of the Connecticut Maternity Care Worst to First Campaign is to improve maternal birth experiences by opening more options in hospitals.

Today, something was said to me, which has been said before, but it doesn't piss me off any less when I do hear it. I am the mother of two boys, both born via cesarean section. One a completely unnecessary cesarean, and one that was very necessary. But it doesn't change that both experiences hurt, physically and emotionally. Now unless you have walked in someone's shoes through an experience like this, you shouldn't really try and comment about it, or think twice about what may come out of your mouth.

Having a healthy baby, or a baby born safety does not have any kind of connection to how your birth experience went, or if you were hurt (emotionally or physically) by the experience.
A healthy baby isn't all that matters. Birth is a fundamentally important event in a mothers life, and a woman's birth experiences will be with her for life, so when you have a negative experience, it is much harder to get over. You look at your beautiful babies, and how they make you smile, but in the back of your head you always have the experience of their birth, good or bad.

Some women can easily move on from their experience, some will be haunted by it till the day they die. But no one should ever try and disregard ones experience just because a healthy baby is the end result.