Shocking incidence of c sections (a fluke?)

PlainandTall

My nephew's wife just gave birth last week.  The hospital in NJ where the baby was born apparently has a great reputation for low intervention natural approach to birth (she actually had a water birth) ...anyway- turns out that on that day 10 babies were born there... NINE of them were c sections!!  Holy camoly!  I wonder if that was just some sort of fluke or what their regular c section rate is, or if some other issue, like one doctor scheduling a bunch of elective c sections back to back on that day- I'm really perplexed. 

I'm interested in finding out what the stats of the 30% c section avg.- what portion of that 30% are repeat c sections.

I know I don't post here much, just to end with a quick intro- I'm Sarah, and a mom to 4 kids, 2 boys and 2 girls.  My first birth was a c section due to placenta previa (I was on bedrest and knew the birth would be a c section months in advance) after that- I'm happy to report that I had no more placenta placement problems and I had three natural births after that- the last, Eva, was born last summer just a week before my 40th birthday.

I hope that you get lots of support in trying to get the care you want/need and that regardless of how you do wind up giving birth- that it's safe and happy! 

disbride061103

New Jersey has one of (if not the) highest c/s rate in the country. I'd be interested to know the individual hospital c/s rate since they are known for low intervention births.

I remember researching the data on repeat c/s before I was pregnant with DS2.  I believe that something like 75 to 80% of women who have had a primary c/s have a repeat c/s.

 

iris427

disbride061103:

New Jersey has one of (if not the) highest c/s rate in the country. I'd be interested to know the individual hospital c/s rate since they are known for low intervention births.

I remember researching the data on repeat c/s before I was pregnant with DS2.  I believe that something like 75 to 80% of women who have had a primary c/s have a repeat c/s.

 

Around 92% of US women who have a primary cesarean will have a repeat.  The US VBAC rate is only around 8%.  I believe that women who try to have a VBAC and have an unplanned repeat c/s are included in the c/s figure, not the VBAC one.

 OP, 9/10 births in one day being a c/s sounds like a fluke.  It's hard to reach any conclusions from such a limited sample size.  But Disbride is right that NJ has one of the highest overall cesarean rates in the country.

Here's a graph of US PCS, RCS and VBAC rates from 1989 to 2006, so this can give you a rough idea of how many cesareans are primary and how many are repeat.  It will be interesting to see how these numbers change in the coming years and whether things like the new ACOG guidelines and the NIH conference will have any impact.

https://www.childbirthconnection.org/article.asp?ck=10554 

PlainandTall

Thank you both for your replies- I didn't know that about NJ- and Iris- that link looks like it's packed full of other links to great articles- I'm going to get to reading right now! 

lorryfach

I would not be surprised if they schedule all their planned c/s on particular days. I know a lot of practices like to group things together in other ways. I remember a friend of mine going in for an ultrasound and the tech said something like "let's take a look at your babies"? babIES? WHAT? Apparently, that was the day they scheduled all the twin mamas, but for some reason, she got thrown in there too.

cchill01

lorryfach:

I would not be surprised if they schedule all their planned c/s on particular days. I know a lot of practices like to group things together in other ways. I remember a friend of mine going in for an ultrasound and the tech said something like "let's take a look at your babies"? babIES? WHAT? Apparently, that was the day they scheduled all the twin mamas, but for some reason, she got thrown in there too.

LOL, that would be shocking - at least it was before the tech started doing the ultrasound.  

Even with scheduling my induction, there were only a few times and dates available based on scheduling, weekends, holidays, etc.  I'm sure it's even worse for planned c/s.

iris427

lorryfach:

I would not be surprised if they schedule all their planned c/s on particular days. I know a lot of practices like to group things together in other ways. I remember a friend of mine going in for an ultrasound and the tech said something like "let's take a look at your babies"? babIES? WHAT? Apparently, that was the day they scheduled all the twin mamas, but for some reason, she got thrown in there too.

Good point, a lot of hospitals do this.  So it could have been the scheduled c/s day of the week.