Technical Notes for the Hospital Maternity-Related Procedures and Practices Statistics

The percentages were computed after records containing no information in a category were removed from the denominator. The numbers under the Method of Calculation refer to the number of the row containing the data, and a "/" signifies division. Therefore, 23 / (1-30) means the number of C-Sections (row 23) is divided by the number of total live births (row 1) from which the number of records missing method of delivery (row 30) has been subtracted.

The birth certificates used in New York City differ in several ways from the certificates used in the rest of New York State resulting in slight differences among the hospitals. Non-New York City Hospitals report "low forceps" and "outlet forceps" as one category and "mid forceps" as another. New York City does not differentiate between forceps deliveries all of which are reported as "forceps" in the tables. In addition New York City does not collect information on "analgesia" on its birth certificate so that information is not presented for those hospitals.

"Fed Exclusively Breast Milk" and "Fed Any Breast Milk" are based records with non-missing information and exclude infants admitted to the NICO or transferred to another hospital.

"Percent any Breast Milk Supplemented with Formula" is calculated based only on those infants fed any breast milk.

Data were tabulated from the certificates of live birth completed for all hospitals.

Row Number Procedure Method of Calculation
1 Total Births  
2 Low forceps-Outlet forceps 2 / (1-30)
4 Mid forceps 4 / (1-30)
5 Internal(FM) 5 / (1-31)
6 External fetal monitoring (FM) 6 / (1-31)
7* (Upstate) Induction by artificial rupture of membranes (AROM) 7 / (1-31)
8* (Upstate) Induction by medicine 8 / (1-31)
7* (NYC) Induced labor 7 / (1-31)
9 Augmented labor 9 / (1-31)
10 Analgesia 10 / (1-33)
11 Midwife attendant 11 / (1-34)
Vaginal Births
12 Vaginal Births 12 / (1-30)
13 Vaginal birth after prior cesarean (VBACS) 13 / 14
14 Total prior cesarean sections (CS) No Percentage Calculated
15 Breech (% of total) 15 / (1-30)
16 Episiotomy 16 / (12-36)
17 General Anesthesia 17 / (12-35)
18 Spinal Anesthesia 18 / (12-35)
19 Epidural Anesthesia 19 / (12-35)
20 Local/other Anesthesia 20 / (12-35)
21 Paracervical Anesthesia 21 / (12-35)
22 Pudendal Anesthesia 22 / (12-35)
Cesarean Births
23 Cesarean Births 23 / (1-30)
24 Primary (% of total) 24 / (1-30)
25 Repeat (% of total) 25 / (1-30)
26 Anesthesia  
27 General Anesthesia 27 / (23-37)
28 Spinal Anesthesia 28 / (23-37)
29 Epidural/local Anesthesia 29 / (23-37)
Records with Missing Data Abbreviation
30 Method of delivery Method delivery
31 Obstetric procedures Obs procedures
32 Previous C-section Previous C-section
33 Analgesia Analgesic
34 Attendant Attendant
35 Anesthesia item for vaginal births Anesthesia (V)
36 Other procedures for vaginal births Other Proc (V)
37 Anesthesia item for C-section births Anesthesia (C)
38 Indications for C-section for C-section births Indic C-sec (C)

* Differences in reporting between Upstate and NYC recorded births.