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C-sections at an all-time high in spite of few moms actually preferring them.
New birthing data was recently compiled from nearly 20,000 women from all over the world. Though countless studies have documented the well known rise in C-section deliveries, Dr. Agustina Mazzoni, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and her colleagues conducted the first meta analysis that actually examined women’s preference. They scoured over medical literature and found 38 different studies which comprised 19,403 women from the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia.
And though the percentages varied within each locale, the overall percentage of women who preferred a c-section to a vaginal deliver is a lot lower than some might think.
C-section births reached an all-time high in 2008.
When my wife was pregnant with triplets, her OB/GYN recommended that she deliver our trio via cesarean section. And while we understood that given her scenario, a c-section was the safest option, it wasn’t how either one of us envisioned the birth happening. When it comes down to it, were it not for the triplets, we would have opted for a vaginal birth.
Turns out couples like us are growing fewer and farther between.
US News and World Report posted an article today which details a new report that shows c-section deliveries reached an all-time high in 2008, accounting for almost one in three U.S. births. Though the overall birthrate has dropped (except for women over 40) the c-section rate is doing anything but. Continue reading »
Going against doctors orders
This week, CNN Health profiled Aneka (last name withheld for confidentiality), a mom who refused to have a C-section after having three previously, instead holding strong for not just a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) — but a VBAC home birth.
Aneka had her first baby by unplanned c-section nine years ago. Afterwords, the doctor told her her hips were simply too narrow to deliver vaginally. Her next two children were delivered by c-section as well. When she got pregnant for the forth time, doctors orders were to follow course and schedule another c-section, which she did.
But the day of the surgery, Aneka didn’t show up. The doctor called, pleading with her that she was putting her baby and herself at risk. But Aneka had another plan, and it didn’t involve a hospital stay at all:
At some point during her pregnancy, she had watched the documentary “The Business of Being Born,” and it got her thinking that she had been unnecessarily roped into consecutive c-sections with her previous babies. Continue reading »
How’s this for a reversal?
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is set to issue a new set of guidelines intended to make it easier — easier! — for women who have already undergone a c-section to give birth vaginally.
ACOG’s new guidelines say that normal birth (meaning vaginal) is safe for most women who have had prior Cesarean sections, as long as the incision was low and horizontal — the typical cut for c-section births.
Women’s health advocates praise the new guidelines, especially in light of the evidence that VBACs are safe. Some 60 to 80 percent of women with a prior c-section who are allowed a trial of labor in subsequent pregnancies have successful VBACs. Continue reading »
Five miles apart on Staten Island in New York sit two hospitals serving similar populations. One hospital has the highest c-section rate in New York City, the other boasts the fourth lowest.
In 2008, Richmond University Medical Center had a 48.3 percent c-section rate. At Staten Island University Hospital, the rate was around 23 percent. The rate was 36 percent overall in NYC between 2000 and 2007.
That’s a huge difference. How is it possible?
For one, Dr. Mitchell A. Maiman at SIUH doesn’t necessarily listen to his patients — or the doctors. Continue reading »
I’m a veteran of two c-section births and a staunch opponent of the sanctimommy attitude that it’s somehow the worst thing ever. That said, even I was shocked by this news: The US c-section rate has now topped 32 percent. That means one out of every three children in the United States is born that way — or was in 2007, the last for which figures were available.
That sobering statistic comes from a National Center for Health Statistics report released yesterday. Continue reading »
Concerned that doctors and hospitals are thinking more about legal ramifications, rather than a woman’s health, the National Institutes of Health issued a statement today essentially telling doctors and hospitals to stop banning vaginal births after cesareans.
Instead, a NIH consensus panel recommended that pregnant women and their caregivers use evidence-based decision-making in deciding whether to attempt a trial of labor rather than scheduling a c-section. In other words, enough with the anecdotes, we know you’re putting potential lawsuits ahead of patients, look at the science. Continue reading »
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