The Top 10 Best Hospitals Still Offering Maternity Care

Some healthcare providers have closed their maternity care wards due to rising costs and declining profits.

Maternity care at U.S. hospitals is becoming a rare commodity as more healthcare provider shutter these services due to declining birth rates, lack of staff, the costs associated with running these departments, and pandemic-related issues.

Over 40% of births in the U.S. are covered by Medicaid, yet the program is slow to provide reimbursements, adding fuel to hospitals’ decision to close maternity wards, according to a report from Vox. Additionally, it can cost hospitals between $1,189 and $11,986 per maternity stay, according to expert research on the topic. Between 2006 and 2020 more than 400 maternity wards across the country closed, according to a PBS report.

However, there are still 2,700 hospitals across the U.S. that are providing maternity services, and some are better equipped to do so than others.

U.S. News & World Report has released its first-ever research paper on the best hospitals for maternity care. To come up with this list the organization analyzed how well hospitals perform in childbirth using C-section rates, newborn complication rates, breast milk feeding rates, early elective delivery rates, routine vaginal birth after cesarean delivery rates, and episiotomy rates. U.S. News also examined if a hospital meets the federal criteria for "birthing-friendly" practices.

"All families deserve to be informed on how hospitals perform," Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News & World Report, told USA Today. "Our hope is that this initiative will push hospitals in general—and especially underperforming hospitals—to redouble their efforts to provide the same high-quality care."

The following list includes the 10 of the top U.S. hospitals for maternity care according to U.S. News & World Report:

1. Abbot Northwestern Hospital
2. Bakersfield Memorial Hospital
3. Cape Coral Hospital
4. Duke Regional Hospital
5. El Camino Health-Mountain View
6. FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital
7. Geisinger-Bloomsburg Hospital
8. Hackensack University Medical Center at Hackensack Meridian Health
9. Intermountain Alta View Hospital
10. Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center