U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings and consumer advice, has named MemorialCare’s Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach, Orange Coast Medical Center, and Saddleback Medical Center as 2025 High Performing hospitals for Maternity Care. This is the highest award a hospital can earn as part of U.S. News’ Best Hospitals for Maternity Care annual study.
U.S. News evaluated 817 hospitals from across the United States. Only half of all hospitals evaluated for U.S. News’ 2025 ratings edition have been recognized as Best Hospitals for Maternity Care.
"We are honored and grateful to be recognized by U.S. News & World Report as the best hospitals for maternity care," says Shela Kaneshiro, chief clinical transformation officer, MemorialCare. "Our highly skilled clinicians are dedicated to ensuring that every patient not only receives the high-quality, compassionate care they deserve, but also equitable care."
This year, U.S. News added a new measurement to see which hospital provides the best maternity care that focuses on transparency on racial/ethnic disparities. All three MemorialCare hospitals have partnered with organizations such as California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC) and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses to incorporate and constantly improve upon providing respectful maternal care through evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.
In addition, the Cherese Mari Laulhere BirthCare Center team at Miller Children’s & Women’s also has implemented recommendations from the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN)’s respectful maternal care framework and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. It also is the first California hospital to participate in a pilot program with Irth app to develop new standards of prenatal and postpartum care and quality improvement based on the feedback of Black and Brown families.
“Since initiating this focus at Miller Children’s & Women’s, we have seen nearly a 10% increase in Black moms sharing that they always feel like they’re treated with courtesy and respect,” said Dinarte Viveiros, chief nursing officer, Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach. We are deeply committed to moving the needle on maternal inequity.”
U.S. News began evaluating maternity care hospitals in 2021, rating hospitals that provide labor and delivery services and submit detailed data to the publication for analysis. Best Hospitals for Maternity Care assist expectant parents, in consultation with their prenatal care team, in making informed decisions about where to receive maternity services that best meets their family’s needs.
“The hospitals recognized by U.S. News as Best Hospitals for Maternity Care showcase exceptional care for expectant parents,” said Jennifer Winston, Ph.D., health data scientist at U.S. News. “These hospitals demonstrate significantly lower C-section rates and severe unexpected newborn complications compared to hospitals not recognized by U.S. News.”
The U.S. News Best Hospitals for Maternity Care methodology is based entirely on objective measures of quality, such as C-section rates in lower-risk pregnancies, severe unexpected newborn complication rates, exclusive breast milk feeding rates, birthing-friendly practices and reporting on racial/ethnic disparities, among other measures.