Caesarean section childbirths have been a common form of childbirth for many years, however several studies suggests that doctors may be performing too many.
The studies reveal that doctors may be performing them based more out of habit, training, expediency or worry about lawsuits than out of medical necessity per CNN Health.
A new study found that the number of caesarean section childbirths performed are raising concern amongst medical groups.
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A surgical birth, white typically safer, does tend to carry more health risks and expense. If a woman has a caesarean section once, it also raises the chances that she will need to get another if she becomes pregnant again. The risk involved goes up with each procedure performed.
The latest information on this subject comes from Consumer Reports. The nonprofit ranked hospitals based on the number of C-sections performed. Authors were able to find the number of procedures performed varied widely by looking at hospital records – even if the hospitals were located in the same city.
Texas, for example, had 15% of births at El Paso's University Medical performed as a C-section whereas four miles away at Sierra Medical Center, the rate was more than doubled at 37%.
The report looked at more than 1,500 hospitals in 22 different states. The reason all states were not surveyed is because not all states make such information public – something Consumer Reports indicated they hope to see changed.
Overall, 66% of hospitals studied earned the organization's lowest or second-lowest rating for a high rate of caesarean section births. Only 12% got either the organization's top scores for a low rate.
"The variation is what gets you, that really is the thing," said Doris Peter, director of Consumer Reports' Health Ratings Center. "If you compare peer hospitals in urban areas that treat the same kind of patients — meaning they share similar socioeconomic issues — to have wildly different rates suggests that there is a problem here."
C-sections are sometimes medically necessary, due to the life of the mother or the fetus being endangered in natural childbirth. But several studies have found that surgical births are being performed for low-risk pregnancies as well which raises concern.
Source : http://americanlivewire.com/2014-05-08-increase-caesarean-section-childbirths-raises-concern-per-study/
