A Cesarean delivery, commonly known as a C-section, refers to a surgical procedure to deliver a baby through an incision in the mother’s abdomen.

Some cesarean sections are necessary to protect the health of the infant or mother. There are currently no methods to evaluate the “right” number of C-sections for patients. However, some c-sections may not be helpful and may even cause some problems for mothers and babies.

About this measure

This measure is based on a random sample of mothers who delivered babies at the hospital. Not all mothers with newborns were tracked for this measure. Of the sampled group of patients, this is the percentage of mothers delivering their first babies who deliver full term (at least 37 weeks gestation) via c-section and are considered to be at a low risk for complications. According to The Joint Commission, a lower percentage is better.

Note: At this time, comparison data is not available for this measure. When data that compares our hospital to other hospitals becomes available, we will publish it. In the meantime, we will publish Northwestern Medicine data only.