NY Times: Navajo run Hospital has better outcomes by using midwives and allowing VBAC.

A wonderful NY Times Article shows the success of a labor & delivery unit at a Navajo run hospital in Tuba City, Arizona, at lowering cesarean rates, both the primary & repeat rates, providing better outcomes and lowering overall costs, by utilizing the skills of midwives.

Quotes from the article:

"Tuba City will not be on the agenda, but its hospital, with about 500 births a year, could probably teach the rest of the country a few things about obstetrical care. But matching its success would require sweeping, fundamental changes in medical practice, like allowing midwives to handle more deliveries and removing the profit motive for performing surgery"

"Doctors and midwives here earn salaries and are not paid by the procedure, so they have no financial incentive to perform surgery. (Doctors earn $190,000 to $285,000 a year, and midwives $80,000 to $120,000.)"

"The hospital and doctors are federally insured against malpractice, in contrast to other hospitals, where private insurers have threatened to raise premiums or withdraw coverage if vaginal birth after Caesarean is allowed.

As a result, Dr. Leib said, doctors in Tuba City are free to “think about what’s best for the patient and not what covers our butts.”