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Midwives Say Birthing Centers Could Cut C-Section Rates and Save Billions

 

by Bonnie Rochman
Time Health & Family

If more pregnant women delivered their babies at midwife-led birth centers, the nation’s C-section rate would go down and cost savings would go up, reversing the current twin trend of rising health care [1] expenditures and numbers of cesarean deliveries.

That’s the conclusion reached in a study conducted by the American Association of Birth Centers and published in the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health. Researchers tracked 15,574 births and found that birth centers saved the health-care system $30 million in facility fees alone. Women who deliver vaginally avoid the cost of surgery and the extra time in the hospital spent recovering.

“If even 10% of births happen in birth centers, we would expect a $1 billion savings each year just in facility fees,” says Cara Osborne, a midwife who is one of the authors of the study. But for pregnant women, delivering at a birth center is still a niche practice.  It’s growing in popularity, but less than 1% of U.S. women have their babies at birth centers, in contrast to other countries where midwife deliveries are far more common.

Read the full article here: http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/31/midwives-say-birthing-centers-could-cut-c-section-rates-and-save-billions/ [2]