Awards honor hospitals that excel in cesarean reduction, newborn safety, and maternal care quality.

December 9, 2025: EAM announced the receipts of its 8th annual EAM Hospital Maternity Care Awards, awarding nine hospitals for 2025. The awards are part of EAM’s Maternity Care Project. Created in 2018, the goals of the Maternity Care Project 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. The awards recognize hospitals throughout Michigan that have demonstrated excellence and improvement in maternity care and delivery outcomes. Two different types of awards have been awarded, the Excellence Award and the Improvement Award.

Hospitals were evaluated in four key areas:

1. Cesarean rates (≤ 23.6% of low-risk deliveries)
2. Episiotomy rates (≤ 5% of deliveries)
3. Screening of newborns for jaundice (90% or greater)
4. 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

“When hospitals have a high standard of infant and maternal patient safety, it saves lives and dollars. These key four areas are vital to maternal and infancy well-being. We commend these hospitals and their staff and will continue to advocate for excellence in maternity care across Michigan,” said Stacy Leick, Vice President of EAM.

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. “The birthing center safety ratings provide meaningful, evidence-based data for parents to review before choosing where to give birth. This ensures they can make a more informed decision and advocate for the safest possible care for their family,” said Leick. To compare birthing centers and learn more about the project visit www.maternitycareproject.com.