image: UC San Diego Health is also ranked among the top 10 in the nation for obstetrics and gynecology care, according to the 2025-2026 U.S. News & World Report “Best Hospitals” annual survey.
Credit: UC San Diego Health
From caring for expectant parents through pregnancy and delivery, to offering specialized fertility treatment and advanced care for babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), UC San Diego Health provides world-class care for parents and newborns each day, an effort that has resulted in national recognition for the last four years.
U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings and consumer advice, has named UC San Diego Health as a 2026 High Performing Hospital for Maternity Care, the highest award a hospital can earn for obstetric and infant care.
"Every family’s journey to parenthood is deeply personal, and we are honored to be part of that experience,” said Patty Maysent, CEO of UC San Diego Health. “This recognition reflects the compassion, expertise and dedication of our teams, who work tirelessly to provide safe, personalized care for every parent and newborn."
In 2025, U.S. News & World Report evaluated a record number of 899 hospitals from across the nation that provide labor and delivery services and submitted detailed data via the annual Maternity Services Survey. To be recognized as High Performing in Maternity Care, hospitals must meet high standards in caring for patients with uncomplicated pregnancies, such as low cesarean section rates, low newborn complication rates, offering transparency on racial and ethnic disparities, and other measures.
The annual evaluation is designed to assist expectant parents, in consultation with their prenatal care team, in making informed decisions about where to receive obstetric and infant care that best meets their family's needs.
“This recognition is a direct reflection of the extraordinary compassion, skill and dedication that our multidisciplinary team provides to patients and their families every day,” said Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, MD, chair and professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and perinatologist at UC San Diego Health. “We have an excellent quality improvement team that continually reviews our outcomes and strives to improve all aspects of patient care.”
Gyamfi-Bannerman adds that the department's Culture and Justice Quorum, which launched in 2020, extends upon the care provided to parents and focuses on bias training, trauma-informed care, and gender inclusivity, ensuring respect and equitable care for each and every patient.
More than 5,000 babies are born at UC San Diego Health every year.
With two distinct birthing locations and a large staff of physicians and midwives, as well as high-risk specialists and state-of-the art technology, UC San Diego Health gives patients more childbirth options than anywhere else in San Diego.
The Birth Center at Jacobs Medical Center at UC San Diego Health in La Jolla offers a more holistic approach; or patients have the option of traditional labor and delivery settings available at both Jacobs Medical Center and Hillcrest Medical Center.
Both hospitals have a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), including a Level III NICU at Jacobs Medical Center and a Level II Intermediate NICU at Hillcrest Medical Center.
The health system also offers a free volunteer doula program and is nationally recognized for breastfeeding support.
“As a referral center for other health care providers in the region, we care for many complex pregnancies in San Diego County, including patients with complex congenital and acquired heart disease, rheumatological disorders, diabetes, and patients with placenta accreta spectrum, a medical condition that can occur during pregnancy in which the placenta abnormally attaches to the uterine wall,” said Maryam Tarsa, MD, interim medical director of obstetrics and gynecology and perinatologist at UC San Diego Health.
“We thrive on the collaboration amongst our skilled and dedicated physicians, nurses and advanced practice providers with a goal to provide safe, equitable care while also respecting patients' birthing choices.”
Since beginning to evaluate maternity care hospitals in 2021, the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals for Maternity Care methodology is based entirely on objective measures of quality. These quality outcomes at UC San Diego Health reflect the highest standards of care, including having the highest rate of VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean section) in San Diego County and one of the lowest episiotomy rates — less than 5% — in California.
Additionally, two new methodology changes were made this year to build on ongoing efforts to the survey valuable resource for expectant parents and for hospitals seeking information to support quality improvement.
First, starting in 2025, hospitals submitted data for the previous calendar year (2024) in order to provide more up-to-date information for expecting parents. In the past, hospitals provided data for the calendar year two years prior to the survey. Second, hospitals were given the option to report electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs) instead of chart-abstracted measures for cesarean birth, exclusive breastmilk feeding, and severe unexpected newborn complications. To ensure that hospitals’ comparative performance was evaluated accurately, data was compared via electronic and chart-abstracted measures and U.S. News & World Report found no significant difference in outcomes.
UC San Diego Health is also ranked among the top 10 in the nation for obstetrics and gynecology care, according to the 2025-2026 U.S. News & World Report “Best Hospitals” annual survey. Additionally, the health system is recognized on the C-section honor roll by California Hospital Care Compare for meeting statewide targets for reducing C-sections in low-risk, first-time mothers.
“Welcoming a baby into the world is an exceptional, life-changing moment and we are incredibly honored that families choose us to take part in this remarkable time,” said Gyamfi-Bannerman. “Our dedicated teams rely on evidence-based medicine every day in our hospitals to support parents and deliver their babies safely.”
About UC San Diego Health
UC San Diego Health, the region's only academic health system, is dedicated to delivering outstanding patient care through commitment to community, groundbreaking research and inspired teaching. For 2025-26, U.S. News & World Report ranked UC San Diego Health as the best hospital system in San Diego and among the nation's best in nine adult medical and surgical specialties, including cancer, cardiology, geriatrics, neurology and pulmonology. The 1,011-bed health system includes three hospitals — Hillcrest Medical Center, Jacobs Medical Center and East Campus Medical Center — as well as Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, Moores Cancer Center, Shiley Eye Institute, Koman Family Outpatient Pavilion, McGrath Outpatient Pavilion, and Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute. The health system also includes primary care and same-day services at clinics throughout Southern California.
For more information, please visit health.ucsd.edu , follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn and YouTube, and find the latest news at health.ucsd.edu/news.
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