In today’s New York Times, Section A, a story about a tiny, impoverished Navajo hospital in Tuba City, AZ, doing birth better than anyone: “this small hospital in a dusty desert town on an Indian reservation, showing its age and struggling to make ends meet, somehow manages to outperform richer, more prestigious institutions when it comes to keeping Caesarean rates down, which saves money and is better for many mothers and infants.”

How do they do it? Midwives attend the majority of births; obstetricians are available if needed. All the providers are on salary, so the profit motive is gone. And the hospital is federally insured, so it hasn’t been bullied into banning VBAC like so many others around the country. Even though the patient population has risk factors like hypertension and diabetes, the cesarean rate is a mere 13.5%.

“Tuba City…could probably teach the rest of the country a few things about obstetrical care,” writes the Times. “But matching its success would require sweeping, fundamental changes in medical practice, like allowing midwives to handle more deliveries and removing the profit motive for performing surgery.”