CLEARLAKE, Calif. – For the third year in a row, Adventist Health Clear Lake’s rate of low-risk caesarean births among first time pregnant women has beat the federal government’s Healthy People 2020 target.

Adventist Health Clear Lake was one of 111 California hospitals in 2018 to be awarded with a Smart Care Award for reducing C-sections.

“Our goal is to provide quality care that helps families grow and flourish,” said Colleen Assavapistkul, the hospital’s vice president of patient care. “As a mom myself, I am very proud that we are encouraging women with low risk to avoid unnecessary surgeries.”

Although cesarean, or C-section, births can be lifesaving when medically needed, national reports show that they are performed for other reasons in some hospitals.

The statistics around low-risk cesarean births prompted the federal government to set ambitious goals to reduce these types of procedures as part of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s Healthy People 2020 targets.

“The decline in California’s rate for low-risk, first birth C-sections will lead to healthier babies and mothers,” said California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley. “Thanks to the hospitals and their staff for their hard work in achieving this measurable progress.”

Adventist Health Clear Lake’s Women’s Care Unit staff is proud of how it collaborates with families, physicians, and the team providing prenatal and childbirth education services at Adventist Health Clear Lake Medical Offices throughout Lake County to avoid unnecessary C-sections.

“Childbirth is a natural process, and we work with mothers to optimize this amazing moment in their lives,” said Dr. Kimberly Fordham, family medicine and obstetric physician at the Adventist Health Clear Lake Medical Office in Middletown. “Sometimes cesareans are necessary for the mom and/or baby’s health, and we certainly intervene when needed, but our Women’s Care Unit staff and providers have many skills and tools to help most women deliver naturally.”

While life-saving in some circumstances, unnecessary C-sections can pose serious risks to mothers – higher rates of hemorrhage, transfusions, infection and blood clots – and babies, who can experience higher rates of infection, respiratory complications and neonatal intensive care unit stays.

Adventist Health Clear Lake’s Women’s Care Unit provides labor and delivery services to nearly 200 women and their infants each year. The unit is staffed by highly-trained doctors, Certified Nurse Midwives, experienced labor and delivery nurses and other professionals focused on providing the specialized care pregnant women and newborns need.

Growing families can learn more about Adventist Health Clear Lake’s family birth services, including childbirth education classes, at www.adventisthealthclearlake.org in the Services section.