C-Sections reach record highs

MrsJOSEnADRI

I heard this on NPR this morning and thought it was interesting:  https://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/03/cesarean_births_hit_new_high_i.html

Florida is on the high side with 35%.  They attribute the rise to older women giving birth and an increase in the birth of multiples.  I know elected c-sections have become a controversial topic.  But, I just thought this was interesting and wanted to see your thoughts.

MellyMelB

This does not surprise me at all....

mjz

I'm not surprised, either, and in fact, I'm a bit concerned about the pressure to have a C-section if labor is going well but not progressing as quickly as the doctor would like. Don't get me wrong; if it's necessary I'm all for it, but I want my body to be able to do what it needs to as long as there aren't any complications.

melly&jimmy

I heard this a while back too.  Also,when I was in the hospital after having Benji, I was chatting with the nurse and asked her how many patients she had.  She said she had "9 c-sections and 3 vags".  Woah!  She went on to explain how cesearans are on the rise.  People can elect to have one, doctors push for them when l&d is becoming long and tiresome, and plus the doctor and hospital get more $$$. 

ANJ410

While I do think there are Dr's with their own motives in mind, the reality is that deaths during childbirth are practically unheard of and complications during birth have decreased and that is because c-section is safer in many cases than vaginal delivery. 

An example: 60 years ago my husband's mother was born vaginally in the breech position.  They had to disconnect her shoulder and break her arm to get her out.  She can only raise her right arm halfway to this day. Now-a-days that would never happen.

Trust me, I am not pro c-section.  I suffered from terrible depression after my emergency c-section, but my son had passed meconium in the womb and his heart rate dropped dramatically after 15 hours of stalled labor.  Perhaps 50 or 60 years ago he would have been stillborn if the Dr waited too long to do a c-section....

taxbride

I think that we all agree that there are certain times when a baby should be delivered by c-section,and breech position is one of those times.  But 1/3 of the time?  That's just not logical.  Sure, a lot of women and children died in childbirth, but one in three births did not end in death as far as I know, so there's got to be a better way. 

Btw, I labored for well over 24 hours with both of my kids, I had a stalled labor upon reaching the hospital with my son, and my son passed meconium in the amniotic fluid, too.  I was being pressured into a c-section, but instead I requested more time--I asked them to flush the fluid (standard operating procedure anyhow) and to allow me more time to labor naturally.  Eventually, after being pressured again to "just do a quick c" by my OB (yeah, I thought, quick for you!), I acquiesced to using a small amount of pitocin, which was enough.  But if I had not pushed back, I would easily have been in the operating room, and I would easily have been subject to a repeat c-section with my daughter as well.  Now, there's nothing wrong with a c-section when it's necessary, but I am thrilled to have avoided major surgery the first time around, especially since the labor and delivery of my daughter (after 24 hours of labor) went very very smoothly, and my recovery was a breeze.

And yes, I changed OBs for my second pregnancy.

There was a really good article recently in the NY Times about a hospital on a native american reservation that has very low c-section rates.  One of the major issues they highlighted was the lack of liability issues there, since the doctors are covered by federal law, IIRC.  

The problem is that most doctors do c-sections to minimize liability, but babies and moms are not actually safer with the higher c-section rates.  The mortality rate is not lower with c-sections.

And yes, childbirth used to be very risky, but that had more to do with lack of sterile procedure than with c-sections.  Cesarean sections have been around forever.  There is so much literature on this it's not even funny.  And the more inductions there are, the more c-sections there are, since you are not letting the baby drop naturally into the right position, and inducing contractions is not going to make that happen--it only makes your body try to expel the baby, not put it in the right position!

Tania

M.Rossiter

This is why I chose to go with a midwife before I even got pregnant.I'm doing a drug-free water birth.

If by any crazy chance I need an emergency c-section, there will be an OB on-call. But so far, my pregnancy is low-risk, no GD, and progressing normally so I have nothing to worry about.

VandRicky

M.Rossiter:

This is why I chose to go with a midwife before I even got pregnant.I'm doing a drug-free water birth.

If by any crazy chance I need an emergency c-section, there will be an OB on-call. But so far, my pregnancy is low-risk, no GD, and progressing normally so I have nothing to worry about.

 

I also had planned a med-free birth with my midwife and ended up with an emergency c-section! I just always tell people to be mentally prepared for things NOT to go the way you planned, I didn't and suffered ALOT from it!!!