| Hospital Utilization |
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| Vaginal Birth After Cesarean |
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Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Section (VBAC)
| What is Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Section? |
During labor, a surgical delivery, or cesarean, is sometimes necessary to prevent harm to the mother or her newborn(s). A trial of labor may be a reasonable birthing option for women who have previously had a cesarean. A successful trial of labor is called a vaginal birth after cesarean, or VBAC.
See Healthwise for additional information on VBAC.
* Adapted with permission from Healthwise® Knowledgebase, © 1995-2005 Healthwise, Incorporated, P.O. Box 1989, Boise, Idaho 83701. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
| What does this indicator mean? |
VBAC Rate (Utilization). There is no recommended rate for VBACs, and it is not clear if higher or lower rates are preferable. The VBAC rate can be used for tracking trends in the performance of VBAC’s over time, and for general information. The VBAC rate is calculated as the percent of deliveries among women with a previous Cesarean section that were performed vaginally. Deliveries with complications were excluded from this rate.
Due to certain factors, some patients may be more or less likely deliver by cesarean section rather than vaginally. Each hospital’s utilization rate is adjusted for age to help account for some of these differences, but this adjustment is not perfect. We present this adjusted VBAC rate in displays that follow.
On average, 12.9% of births by women with previous cesarean section were delivered vaginally in Oregon hospitals in 2004.
Gray lines are displayed with each hospital rate. These lines represent the amount of random variation or “noise”. If the gray line crosses the state average, the hospital rate is “within the margin of error” and therefore not statistically different than the state average for this procedure. Notice that the line is wider for hospitals with fewer deliveries for women with a previous Cesarean section.
While vaginal delivery is an option for many women who have had a previous cesarean section, but the recommendations about this practice have changed dramatically in recent years. This information should be used as general information; any clinical decisions should be made with the help of a physician.
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| Hospital Utilization Data |
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These measures include simply 1) the percent of deliveries performed by cesarean section and 2) the percent of women with a previous cesarean delivery who subsequently had a vaginal birth (VBAC).
These measures do not have a “threshold” rate that is associated with quality, and they are adjusted only for difference in the patients’ ages.
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