2024 Year In Review

Each family choosing Burr Ridge Birth Center as their location of prenatal, birth, and postpartum care is dear to our team. In 2024 we were provided the opportunity to serve more families than we ever have in a single year due to word-of-mouth recommendations from our clients, as well as from local doulas and birth adjacent professionals, for which we are grateful.

To better understand our overall impact we track important yearly statistics. These statistics could never fully capture the unique experience of each of our clients, nor are they meant to. Rather, this data gathering serves as just one of the many tools the BRBC Team uses to reflect on the larger picture of our work.

Below are stats and facts we know folks are curious about and intrigue us as a staff. Please take a look, and celebrate with us!

We are proud to announce that 171 babies were born at Burr Ridge Birth Center in 2024. This is a 32.16% increase in births from 2024. Our first and last babies of 2024 followed the calendar year beautifully, as the first baby was born on January 1 and the last baby was born on December 31.

American author Lish McBride wrote, “You know what the great thing about babies is? They are like little bundles of hope. Like the future in a basket.” We couldn’t agree more!

Each baby born at Burr Ridge Birth Center brings warmth to our hearts and a renewed sense of optimism about the world to our Team. We treasure a baby’s first cry, the sweet way they crinkle their toes, and their first measurements. Of the 171 babies birthed in our cozy birth suites, the largest was 10lbs 4oz and the smallest was 5lbs 6oz.

We did it again! Since BRBC opened in 2021, we’ve welcomed more little ones in our large fully immersive bathtubs than we welcomed on land. In 2024 our waterbirth rate was 52.05%.

BRBC Clients were most likely to go into labor and birth their babies between 40 weeks of pregnancy and 40 weeks and 6 days of pregnancy. This lines up with the findings of Evidence Based Birth® when examining the research on estimated due dates. Evidence Based Birth® writes, “based on the best evidence, there is no such thing as an exact “due date,” and the estimated due date of 40 weeks is not accurate. Instead, it would be more appropriate to say that there is a normal range of time in which most people give birth. About half of all pregnant people will go into labor on their own by 40 weeks and 5 days (for first-time mothers) or 40 weeks and 3 days (for mothers who have given birth before). The other half will not.”

Our Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM) and Birth Assistants work on a rotating on-call schedule to ensure quality care to all clients during labor, birth, and postpartum. Despite the schedule being evenly distributed among our clinical staff, babies are born at their own pace and time. The CNM at the Burr Ridge Birth Center who attended the most births in 2024 was Mary Heater, and the Birth Assistant who attended the most births was Registered Nurse Beth Nielsen.

At the Burr Ridge Birth Center, our clients birth on their terms. Clients follow the cues of their body and our team is there to support and encourage! Our collaborative care model, where bodily autonomy is uplifted, is supportive of the second stage of laboring (the pushing stage). This support is shown to be effective when examining our laceration rates. In 2024 only 1 of the 171 clients who gave birth at BRBC had a severe tear and zero clients had an episiotomy.

The above photo is courtesy of writer and photographer Cassandra Miers of CassandraMiers.com

Our birth center is partnered with UChicago Medicine Advent Health Hinsdale Hospital, just 3 miles from our location. In 2024, we had 186 clients eligible and admitted into our care during labor. Of those 186 clients eligible and admitted into our care in 2024, we had 0 urgent transfers during the postpartum period. We had 1 client transfer urgently during labor, 1 newborn urgent transfer, 5 non-urgent postpartum transfers, and 8 non-urgent newborn transfers.  

The most common time for a client to transfer was during labor for non-emergent reasons. Non-emergent reasons include clients desiring an epidural for pain relief and clients desiring medication to augment labor due to arrest of labor. 23 clients were transferred in labor to Hinsdale Hospital for non-emergent reasons in 2024.

Reassuring words, supportive hands-on massage, and Rebozo use are all comfort measures commonly utilized in our birth suites to help our clients move through the process of a baby rotating and descending in the pelvis. The most common comfort measure our clients engaged in, in 2024 was hydrotherapy at 88.17%.

Beyond utilizing comfort measures, our clients love birthing in a variety of positions. The top two positions were hands-and-knees position at 33.92% and side-lying at 15.20%.

The photo portraying hydrotherapy is courtesy of Erin Loughlin of Loughlin Birth & Family Photography.

What 2024 statistics are most intriguing to the BRBC Team?

Whether our clients birthed at the birth center or moved onto hospital care before or during labor, overall, 93.41% had a normal spontaneous vaginal birth.

We love Doulas and we’re happy our clients do, too. 48.39% chose to hire a private doula to be a part of their birth team.

One tool we are delighted to offer clients to help cope with pain is nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas. The laughing gas BRBC offers is a blend of 50% Nitrous oxide, and 50% oxygen. 24.19% of our clients utilized this comfort measure in 2024.

Families of all sizes give birth at BRBC. In 2024, we were most popular with families welcoming a second, third, or fifth child at 57.14%

The National C-Section rate according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is 25.6%. In 2024 at Burr Ridge Birth Center, seven clients that began labor at BRBC had a Cesarean birth (3.76%). Eighteen clients who received prenatal care at BRBC, including clients who transferred before labor and clients admitted to the birth center in labor, had a Cesarean birth (6.59%).

We love hearing about our clients' experiences at Burr Ridge Birth Center. Check out another testimonial we shared on Instagram in 2024!

We are beyond excited to continue a legacy of empowered birth and well-body care in 2025 for folks all across the Chicagoland area. If you are considering BRBC for your birth this year, begin your journey by booking a free tour and orientation (a pre-requisite to becoming a client with us).

So much gratitude for all your support and for witnessing our continued growth in bringing high-quality empowered midwifery care to our local community!