For most couples, there is nothing more exciting and wonderful than the birth of a child. After nine months of waiting, planning and anticipating, labor begins and a baby arrives.

The majority of the approximately 4 million births that occur in this county each year go fairly smoothly, with little or no complications. However, according to the results of a recent study, 13 percent of those births involve a major or serious complication. The study also found that rates of birth complications vary significantly in hospitals throughout the country.

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Rochester, in Rochester NY, and published in the journal Health Affairs. The team analyzed 750,000 deliveries which were included in the Healthcare Cost and Utilization’s Nationwide Inpatient Sample from 2010.

When comparing rates of serious delivery complications between better- and lowest-performing hospitals, the study found the highest rate of complications occurred at the lower-performing facilities. This was quite evident, for example, in complications which occurred in cesarean section births. Some of these complications included clots, infections and lacerations, and were seen in 21 percent of the cesarean births performed at lower-performing hospitals. However, at better performing facilities, these complications only occurred at a rate of 4.4 percent.

This significant difference was also found in complications occurring in vaginal deliveries. Women who delivered at lower-performing hospitals had double the risk of suffering complications than women who delivered at better-performing hospitals. The rate difference was 22.6 percent, compared to 10 percent.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) are working on developing a platform which would measure and report benchmarking information on maternal outcomes. However, for patients who have suffered major complications in childbirth, that platform will be too late.

If you or your child has suffered from illness or injuries caused by childbirth complications, please contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney to find out what legal recourse you may have against the physician and medical facility where the birth took place.