The Skyrocketing Number of C-Sections: Time’s Misleading Assertion That It is Moms Who Are Mostly Responsible For Driving Up The Rates
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Posted by Lucinda Marshall April 21st, 2008 |
According to Time magazine, “Choosy Mothers Chose Cesarians“. Just like choosy mothers pick the best day care or pre-school or what kind of food to feed their children? Well not exactly.
“Rates of C-sections have been climbing each year in the past decade in the U.S., reaching a record high of 31% of all live births in 2006. That’s a 50% increase since 1996. Around the world, the procedure is becoming even more common: in certain hospitals in Brazil, fully 80% of babies are delivered by caesarean. How did a procedure originally intended as an emergency measure become so popular? And is the trend a bad thing?”
Well one way it became so popular might be by referring to it as a procedure instead of major surgery. But is it the mothers who are actually driving the numbers up, as the headline implies? Guess again.
“Some of the rise in C-sections can certainly be attributed to women with routine pregnancies… who make a pragmatic decision to keep their deliveries just as uneventful. Preliminary data suggest that such cases account for anywhere from 4% to 18% of the total number of cesareans.“
So never mind that the headline makes it sound as if this is the delivery method of choice for Moms who care about their kids, the reality is that only a small percentage of these numbers is attributable to maternal choice.
According to the article, better surgery outcomes, obesity and multiple births also contribute to the increased rates of cesarians and one OB opines that giving birth is now less about the miracle of giving birth and more about delivering the kid “safely and without incident.” Okay, let’s say this again, cesarian sections are a kind of major surgery and major surgery is risky.
But as the article points out,
“(There) are some powerful fiscal forces as well, such as soaring malpractice rates for obstetricians. Since doctors are sued more frequently after vaginal births than cesareans, surgery is often the prudent choice when there is even the slightest indication of a difficult vaginal birth.Vaginal delivery can, for example, lead to future incontinence and pelvic damage, while babies born by C-section may suffer from respiratory problems because of not being exposed to certain hormones during the birthing process.”
Well yes indeed, it would certainly be more prudent for the doctor who consequently makes more money and doesn’t have to bother with the fuss and muss of being sued, but just an observation, most women who deliver vaginally do not have ongoing incontinence problems. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but if it were that big a deal, the adult diaper section at the grocery store would be a whole lot bigger and not to belabor (sorry) the point, but C-section risks are about a whole lot more than the baby not being exposed to certain hormones. It is also about the baby being exposed to anesthesia, the mother having a major incision in her gut and a longer recovery period with a whole lot more risk of complications than recovery from a vaginal birth. It should also be pointed out that the U.S. has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the ‘developed’ world, a number that has been attributed in part to high C-section rates.
No doubt there are times when a C-section is totally necessary but when the rate of those times suddenly skyrockets over a few years to more than 30% of the time, it isn’t about medical necessity. It is about medical greed and mothers being given very poor information about the birthing process and the extent to which medical decisions are de facto being made by insurance companies.
Cross-posted from the Feminist Peace Network blog.
April 21st, 2008 07:28
It is also about modern medicine invading a process that is natural, by turning it into an affliction that they need to save us from. It’s about taking away the confidence and power that women have (or could have) in their ability to give birth.
From the beginning, by going to a ob/gyn that has a surgical mindset, women are handing their power over to their doctor and trusting everything they say because they’re the expert. When women see a midwife for prenatal care, they are more likely to feel empowered in their decisions about their birth experience.
This is the conflict going on in the medical community.
Taking away the power that a woman’s body has to accomplish this task, by instilling fear and distrust, and replacing it with the comfort and trust of someone else taking care of it for you.
The more a woman is scared about birth, the more likely her labor will be hindered, and therefore the need for intervention arises.
If more care was taken to ensure that labor is seen as a natural process that moves at it’s own pace, the less we would see this invasive procedure.
It’s amazing that this is the only thing that women can do that men can’t, yet men in the medical profession have figured out a way to make it something that women can’t do without medical intervention. I’m only saying men because only a short whole ago women were not involved in the profession and therefore were not involved in the research and decisions made about obstetrics.
Midwifery has survived, but with great pains to stay afloat despite the way obstetrics tries to eradicate it. I’ve seen firsthand the way they must defend their rights as healthcare providers and even during both of my children’s births, they literally had to push doctors out of the room that tried to interfere.
It’s a reflection of the way women have to fight so much harder to be respected in the larger community. Midwives are keeping alive the practice of women giving birth, as opposed to doctors taking birth away form women.
If you have nothing wrong with you and appear to be facing an uncomplicated pregnancy, then you should see a midwife, as that’s what they’re for.
Being pregnant is not a sickness, so you don’t need a doctor, unless there are problems beyond the care of a midwife.
If more women would know this, there would be less c-sections. Or if doctors were given a more holistic centered education and were able to keep their knives out of the baby business unless medically necessary, we would also see less c-sections.
We must make sure that women are allowed to give birth as their bodies are intended. Modern medicine is just so jealous that we could accomplish such a feat without it’s help. So it will do anything it can to throw a wrench in the gears so it can come in and save us.
Paternalism at it’s ugliest.
April 25th, 2008 19:06
Thanks for an important piece. We’re in the midst of raising $$ to secure midwives’ presence at our local community hospital & it’s an eye opening (somewhat sobering) process truth be told.
Another question: how is abortion ( a relatively minor surgical procedure) subject to so much prior knowledge/informed consent (ultrasounds?) while a c-section is not presented by the media most especially as major surgery?
No need to answer that!
April 28th, 2008 22:46
[…] Surfing the blogosphere, I came across a very interesting post about the increased level of c-sections that are being performed in America and the risks posed thereby. It caused me to realize that almost every woman that I know who has given birth in the last 5-10 years has done so via c-section. That’s downright curious. […]