Pilot Program Reduces Cesarean Deliveries with Better Communication, Whiteboards, and Patient Participation

​Four hospitals across the nation are taking part in a pilot project to reduce cesarean deliveries, and the project has been a success so far, according to a November 24, 2018, NPR article. One hospital participating in the program has seen low-risk cesarean deliveries drop from 31% to 27%, the article says, and experts are anxious to see how the rest of the facilities perform during the program's two-year testing period. The article centers on a challenging birth faced by a mother and her twins. Most doctors would deliver her twins by cesarean delivery to resolve two concerns: first, that one twin was facing sideways, rather than being positioned for a normal vaginal delivery; and second, the mother's previous child had been delivered by cesarean, increasing her risk for uterine rupture due to the scar from that procedure, the article says.