Promoting Vaginal Birth (PVB)

Working with hospital-based teams, the Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative (ILPQC) in 2020 launched a statewide obstetric initiative to implement American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health guidelines.

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71%

of NTSV C-sections in Illinois are meeting ACOG/SMFM Criteria (Dec. 2023)

23.6%

The Healthy People 2030 NTSV C-Section rate goal.

23.4%

The overall NTSV C-section rate in Illinois has reduced from 24.9% in 2019 to 23.4%

Overview

In 2020, the Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative (ILPQC) launched the Promoting Vaginal Birth (PVB) initiative. This initiative supports hospital-based teams in implementing evidence-based guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) to:

Reduce unnecessary primary cesarean births
Improve maternal and neonatal outcomes
Promote safe, supportive labor practices

Objectives

1. AIM: 70% of participating hospitals will be at or below the Healthy People goal of 23.6% cesarean delivery rate among NTSV births by December 31, 2022

2. Goal: Increase the percent of cesarean section deliveries among NTSV births that meet ACOG/SMFM criteria for cesarean

3. Goal: Increase the percent of physicians/midwives/nurses educated on ACOG/SMFM criteria for cesarean, labor management strategies/response to labor challenges, protocol for facilitating decision huddles and/or decision debriefs

Reduction in Disparities

At the start of the PVB Initiative, Black patients had a NTSV C-Section Rate of 31% and 27% for white patients. Across the initiative, improvements in both groups were made to show an NTSV C-Section rate of 24% for Black patients and 23% for white patients