Your odds change depending on where you deliver
The same woman can face very different chances at two hospitals.
This is one of the most uncomfortable facts in obstetrics, and it is rarely mentioned during consent. Cesarean rates vary enormously between hospitals, in ways that patient risk does not explain.
In a study of 817,318 deliveries across 593 US hospitals, overall cesarean rates ranged from 7.1% to about 70%. Even after narrowing to low-risk women, rates ranged from 2.4% to 36.5%, roughly a fifteenfold difference.
More recently, low-risk cesarean rates by US county in 2023 ranged from 5.8% to 53.4%. Fewer than half of counties met the national target of 23.6%.
What to do with thisAsk your hospital for its low-risk (NTSV) cesarean rate. Many states publish it. If you have a choice of hospitals and a strong preference about mode of delivery, this number is more useful than almost anything else you will be told.
Where this comes from:
273. Kozhimannil KB, Law MR, Virnig BA. Cesarean delivery rates vary tenfold among US hospitals; reducing variation may address quality and cost issues. Health Aff (Millwood). 2013;32(3):527-535.
274. Beer RJ, Osterman MJK, Rossen LM. Low-risk cesarean delivery rates by county of birth in the United States. Obstet Gynecol. 2025;146(6):877-880.
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This page is educational. It supports the conversation with your own clinicians. It is not consent to any treatment, and it cannot assess you. If you are worried about a symptom now, see urgent warning signs.