EAM Hospital Maternity Care Awards
Nine Birthing Centers in Michigan Earn Award For Maternity Care and Safety for 2025
Awards honor hospitals that excel in cesarean reduction, newborn safety, and maternal care quality.
The Economic Alliance for Michigan (EAM), a nonprofit group comprised of Michigan’s largest employers and unions, announced the annual EAM Hospital Maternity Care Awards, recognizing hospitals throughout Michigan that have demonstrated excellence and improvement in maternity care and delivery outcomes. Nine hospitals have earned an award for 2025. This marks the eighth year for the awards.
The awards are part of EAM’s Maternity Care Project. Created in 2018, the project goals are to decrease the state’s infant mortality rate, reduce the rate of unnecessary C-sections, and be an educational resource for new and expecting parents residing in Michigan.
Two different types of awards have been awarded, the Excellence Award and the Improvement Award.
Hospitals were evaluated in four key areas:
- Cesarean rates (≤ 23.6% of low-risk deliveries)
- Episiotomy rates (≤ 5% of deliveries)
- Screening of newborns for jaundice (90% or greater)
- Preventing blood clots in women undergoing cesarean sections (90% or greater)
The evaluations are based off of the 2024 Leapfrog Hospital Survey, conducted by The Leapfrog Group, a national organization dedicated to improving health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers.
To be awarded the Excellence Award, hospitals need to fully meet the standard in all four areas within the same calendar year. Recipients of the 2025 Maternity Care Excellence Award are:
- Corewell Health Gerber Hospital in Fremont
- Corewell Health Greenville Hospital
- Corewell Health Lakeland Hospitals – Niles
- Corewell Health Pennock Hospital in Hastings
- Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital in Ypsilanti
- Trinity Health Grand Rapids Hospital
- Trinity Health Oakland Hospital in Pontiac
- UP Health System Portage Hospital in Hancock
For the Improvement Award, hospitals must have demonstrated rate decreases in cesarean rates, episiotomy, and elective early delivery over a two-year period, and must now fully meet the standard for unnecessary cesarean delivery rates. The recipient of the 2025 Maternity Care Improvement Award is Munson Healthcare Cadillac Hospital.
The Maternity Care Project also provides details for birthing centers in Michigan, providing parents-to-be invaluable information in making a choice for hospital maternity care. To compare birthing centers and learn more about the project visit www.maternitycareproject.com.
