2023 By The Numbers - Birth Statistics
Please scroll through or click through the following slides to revisit some of the incredible events that happened in 2023 at the Birth Center of Chicago!
The end of 2023 marked the end of the 2nd full year that Birth Center of Chicago has offered Chicago families quality Midwifery care in an out-of-hospital setting.
Our team expanded to 4 midwives and 1 midwife fellow, 6 nurses, 2-second birth assistants, ultrasound, 5 office, and educational staff, and you: hundreds and hundreds of prenatal meetings!
Our first baby of the year was born on January 8, 2023, in our South Suite. The last baby of the year was welcomed on December 30, 2023, in our North Suite.
Let’s get into more of the numbers!
Birth at BCC 2023
Overall, we had 105 babies born at our birth center, a 30% increase from 2022!
Our overall vaginal birth rate for all of the clients who were eligible for care at the time labor started was 94.2%
The primary cesarean birth rate was 5.8% for Birth Center of Chicago. If you are curious about a Chicago hospital cesarean rate, you can view these stats at Birth Guide Chicago.
Our biggest and littlest babies are 5 lbs apart: 10 lbs, 5 oz, and 5 lbs, 9.6oz!
First + Other Babies 2023
We are always curious about who will find our center as we grow, and the word spreads that we are here! Of the clients eligible to give birth at the Birth Center of Chicago, 64% were first-time parents! We see this as a huge compliment and go out of our way to ensure time, care, attention, and resources are available to meet first-time parents right where they are at - the intersection of excited and nervous!
Just over a third of our clients are experienced parents and have their second, third, fourth, or…10th baby with us! 35% of clients had given birth previously, and two clients this year welcomed BCC Siblings into their family, meaning both of their children were born at BCC!
When Birth Happened
A common question asked is when families can expect to have their babies. At Birth Center of Chicago, we can welcome babies between 37 weeks and 42 weeks gestational age. On average, most pregnancies will go beyond 40 weeks. Here is when our clients gave birth last year:
4 babies born during the 37 week
10 babies born during the 38th week
27 babies born during the 39th week
39 babies born during the 40th week
25 babies born during the 41st week
Waterbirth in 2023
We offer waterbirth at Birth Center of Chicago. Both of our birth rooms are equipped with oversized tubs, large enough to labor and birth in various birth positions. 54 babies were born in the water in 2023!
Birth Positions 2023
You may not have thought about what position you want to be in when you give birth to your baby. Still, we love seeing how families can follow their instincts and urges as they welcome their children. In the medical model of care for birthing families, it is very common to be in the lithotomy position: lying back with legs separated and raised up, sometimes with the help of stirrups. Our most common birthing position is the exact opposite: hands and knees! Here are all the ways babies find their way land-side in our center:
Hands and knees 39%
Reclined 21.9%
Side-lying 13.33%
Kneeling 11.42%
Standing 7.62%
Squatting 5.71%
Semi Sit 1.9%
Room Choice
Birth Center of Chicago has two birth suites. Our North and South suites are nestled in with beautiful natural light, private bathrooms, and access to safety and comfort measures that allow our birth teams to offer guidance and care while still offering a home-like birth setting. A beautiful combination to support physiological birth!
North Suite used for 57% of births
South Suite used for 43% of births
Transfer Rates 2023
Our birth center is partnered with Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital in the Lakeview neighborhood, just 2 miles from our location.
In 2023, we had 33 clients who were eligible for birth at the birth center who transferred out of care during labor. We had 0 urgent transfers during birth. We had 2 urgent postpartum transfers. There were 2 non-urgent postpartum client transfers and 6 non-urgent newborn transfers.
Of the 33 transferred people, 97% of those clients were first-time birth givers. And of those 33 people, 81% of them chose to have epidural pain relief.
Comfort Measures
We are a low-risk birth location. We are an excellent option for people who are interested in giving birth without an epidural, IV pain relief, or medicalized induction. That does not mean that birth in our center is not painful. As a midwife-led freestanding birth center, it means we are optimized to offer comfort measures encouraging physiological birth. Every birth giver has access to comfort measures like eating and drinking at all times, movement, low lighting, and a family-focused support policy. For a complete list of how our rooms are equipped, please visit our page on Birth at BCC.
We want to highlight some specific comfort measures: hydrotherapy, nitrous oxide, and doula support.
Hydrotherapy: using water (either our tubs or standing showers) to help with relaxation and pain relief.
67.39% of clients used hydrotherapy to help them cope during labor. This is not the same as our water birth rate, which is 51%.
Nitrous Oxide: Nitrous Oxide is a safe, breathable gas that can be used up to and during pushing.
9.42% of clients used Nitrous Oxide to help them cope during labor.
Doula Support:
50.72% of our clients used doula support to help them prepare and cope during labor. Doulas are supported by evidence to help increase the likelihood of having a vaginal birth. We see doulas being used in a birth center space to have additional support at home during early labor and hands-on support after they arrive at our center. If you want to work with a doula, please visit our doula blog for more information.
Zodiac 2023
If you have visited our center on a Tour, you have seen our baby board, where we celebrate the families welcoming babies in the previous year. We sort them by their zodiac sun signs. For fun, we like to share the busiest and calmest birth times of the year from 2023.
Most common zodiac born at BCC
Scorpio: 12 babies
Taurus, Virgo, Sagittarius: 11 babies
Capricorn, Cancer: 10 babies
Least common zodiac born at BCC
Aries: 3 babies
Tours & Classes 2023
Tours: the first step to becoming a client at Birth Center of Chicago is taking a tour! We offer a transparent look at finances and the facility. We hope to get questions answered that help folks move confidently into our care. We offer tours at various dates and times, and you can sign up online for future tours on our website.
We had 431 people (plus their partners and families!) come through our center in 2023 to explore birth center care. We are thrilled with this outpouring of curiosity and support. As word spreads about birth center care, just experiencing our center in this simple way is helping to spread the knowledge of freestanding birth centers!
Classes: Learning about birth can happen in so many wonderful ways. Our center offers longer prenatal appointments, online resource library, free access to our lending library, and, of course, in-person and virtual classes with our education team. We are excited to add more classes and class types to our calendar in 2024!
Birth Center of Chicago is unique in that we offer our own classes AND spaces for the birthworkers in the community who have aligned coursework to host classes in our space.
In 2023, we had 383 students take classes in our center, often in class sizes of 2 or 3 pairs!
We currently collaborate with 11 community educators