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The reasons for more c sections
In an early release article in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, Yale researchers report the results of a new, large study examining the rise in c-section rates in the U.S.
After examining records from over 32,000 births, the researchers found that the c-section rate went from 26% in 2003 to 36.5% in 2009. The lowest rates are in Utah, highest in New Jersey.
Half of the rise was attributable to a rise in second-time cesarean births, since most doctors and hospitals encourage moms who have had a c-section before to use the method in subsequent births.
But the other 50% resulted from a rise in first-time cesareans. When the researchers looked into the reasons doctors do c-sections, they found that 32% were due to “nonreassuring fetal status,” for example, an abnormal heart rate during labor.
Elective c-sections have been blamed for the increase before, so in this study, what percentage of c-sections were at the request of the mom?
Surgical Delivery
Being a mother who has given birth twice via a cesarean section, when I saw the title of this article in my in-box I couldn’t skip over it. Are c-section babies happier kids? My interest was sparked!
Over on BabyCenter, Author Marcella Gates reported a new Chinese study reported by Reuters yesterday. According to the study – babies who undergo a difficult vaginal delivery are more likely to develop behavioral problems over children born via c-section. Continue reading »
A study released yesterday in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology confirms one thing we already knew: the rate of cesarean births is rising–it has doubled since 1996 and now accounts for one third of all births in the U.S.
What it also shows is that elective c-sections aren’t the culprit. Only nine percent of scheduled cesareans are performed for non-medical reasons (making them truly elective). The real rise in c-sections may be due to the practice of inducing labor before baby and mom are really ready.
The study of 230,000 deliveries shows that moms who are induced are twice as likely to have a cesarean birth as moms whose labor starts spontaneously. And after labor does start, almost half of c-sections happen because of “failure to progress.” Research seems to show that inducing, even when baby is considered full term, carries certain risks. But lots of doctors choose to do it anyway.
There’s nothing wrong with choosing a c-section–the problem here is that moms who don’t want a c-section are ending up with one anyway. Continue reading »
Imagine giving birth to a beautiful baby and then immediately having that child taken away from you.
That’s what happened to a New Jersey mother, identified in court papers as V.M., who refused to sign a pre-consent form for a c-section at St. Barnabas hospital in Livingston. A c-section she didn’t need, since her baby was born vaginally without complications.
Pregnant women hear lots of talk from hospitals and doctors encouraging them to take charge of their labor and delivery. Indeed, even the St. Barnabas website says, “You should take an active role by talking with your physician or midwife and asking specific questions such as when a c-section would be recommended; what steps would be taken prior to performing a c-section; whether to seek a second opinion. It is important that you feel comfortable with the views of your physician or midwife on c-section deliveries.” But St. Barnabas has a 50% c-section rate, and New Jersey hospitals have the highest overall cesarean rate in the nation.
We know c-section rates have been steadily on the rise. C-sections are easier and more convenient for doctors to perform, but they generally require more recovery time for the patient. Plus, if hospitals are going to encourage women to breastfeed by making them bring their own formula, then they should be encouraging drug-free vaginal birth as well. Time reports that among ”women giving birth for the first time, those whose labor was induced were twice as likely to have a c-section delivery.” And Pitocin inductions are known to cause breastfeeding problems.
So who can blame V.M. for not wanting to pre-authorize a c-section? As it turns out, St. Barnabas could. Court records indicate that “hospital staff referred V.M.’s case to the Division of Youth and Family Services at least in part because of concerns regarding V.M.’s decisions during labor, including her decision not to preauthorize consent to cesarean surgery.”
But it gets worse. V.M. had a history of psychiatric issues, “having been on a range of medication including Zoloft and Prozac and in psychotherapy prior to her pregnancy.” Newman writes, “She went off her medication during her pregnancy for fear of its effect on her fetus. Prior to coming to the hospital to give birth, there was no indication that she was a danger to herself or to others.”
Since hospital staff described V.M.’s attitude during labor as “combative,” she was deemed a danger to her unborn child and has not been able to raise her baby, who is now 3-years-old. Continue reading »
Last month’s reports of Gisele Bundchen giving birth to baby Benjamin at a Boston area hospital turn out to have been greatly exaggerated. She indeed gave birth … to baby Benjamin … but she did it at home in her tub.
The supermodel revealed this particular detail in an interview on “Fantastico,” her country’s version of “60 Minutes.”
She told the interviewer that she had opted for homebirth with a midwife after watching Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein’s “The Business of Being Born,” a documentary about homebirth, hospital birth, midwives and the choices women sometimes have — and sometimes have to face — when bringing a baby into the world. Continue reading »
The idea of major surgery scares everyone, but women may have one less reason to worry about a possible C-section. A new study says women who undergo a Cesarean birth do not have a harder time breastfeeding for a lengthy period of time.
The study out of England followed some two thousand moms and determined the largest factors for breastfeeding cessation were race and number of children. Continue reading »
If you’ve already got nine kids, getting your tubes tied is certainly not an outrageous decision to make. Perhaps especially if you’re only 35, unmarried, unemployed, and at least partially dependent on public assistance. But even so, it is not a decision to be made lightly. It is a surgical procedure with all the risk that implies (mortality rate in industrialized nations is 4 in 100,000) and may cause post-procedural side effects. So imagine the outrage of a woman who went into the hospital for a cesarean section and came out with a tubal ligation as a bonus!
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