Portland Hospital C-section Rates
There are so many decisions when it comes to where to give birth and who your provider and support team will be. Some people like to minimize their chance of having a cesarean birth by choosing a hospital with a low rate. In Oregon, they publish this information every few years, the most recent being 2021. So which hospitals fall into that lower c-section category?
This information comes from the Oregon Health Authority for the 2021 calendar year. It contains all of the hospitals, birth centers, and home births in the state. You can read the full report here.
In this article I will go through all of the hospitals in order of their cesarean rate, from least to most. I will also post the total number of births that happened at that particular hospital. It is important to keep in mind that some of the higher volumes hospitals with a higher level NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) might have more high risk patients who give birth there. That can affect the rate of cesarean slightly, but it is also important to have that knowledge going into choosing a location.
What are other factors that will help minimize the risk of cesarean aside from choosing your birth location?
Choose your care provider carefully. Ask questions about their specific rate of cesarean. Unfortunately those statistics aren’t posted anywhere, but any midwife or obstetrician should be able to answer this question.
Hire a doula who can help minimize the risk of unnecessary cesarean, and avoid scenarios where a cesarean may become necessary in the first place (see more about a doula here).
Know your rights! Choose interventions wisely. Evidence Based Birth is a great place to look for the risks and benefits of specific interventions, and what might lead to a higher rate of cesarean birth.
Here are the 2021 Stats for Portland and some surrounding suburbs:
Kaiser Westside in Hillsboro
1613 total births
21.5% percent cesarean birth
Providence Newberg Medical Center
499 total births
24% percent cesarean birth
Providence Willamette Falls in Oregon City
754 total births
24.3% percent cesarean birth
Kaiser Sunnyside in Clackamas (level 3 NICU)
2,330 total births
25.9% percent cesarean birth
Legacy Mount Hood in Gresham
782 total births
27% percent cesarean birth
Legacy Good Samaritan in NW Portland
942 total births
30.3% percent cesarean birth
Adventist Health in SE Portland
497 total births
30.6% percent cesarean birth
OHSU Hillsboro (formerly Tuality)
600 total births
31.7% percent cesarean birth
OHSU in SW Portland (level 4 NICU)
2502 total births
32.2% percent cesarean birth
Legacy Meridian Park in Tualatin
971 total births
32.6% percent cesarean birth
Providence St Vincent in Beaverton (level 3 NICU)
3517 total births
32.7% percent cesarean birth
Providence Portland in NE Portland (level 3 NICU)
2524 total births
33.4% percent cesarean birth
Legacy Emanuel in N Portland (level 4 NICU)
1727 total births
37.6% percent cesarean birth