C-sections in the US

Do we perform too many C-sections in the United States? According to a recent article in Newsweek Magazine, you would be led to believe so. Birth, The American Way Newsweek Culture Newsweek.com

According to the article and supported by a recent study published in October's British Medical Journal, of 97,000 deliveries in 410 Latin American hospitals, it was found the risk of death for mothers who had Caesareans, while slight (.01 percent of the women who delivered vaginally died vs. .04 percent who had elective C-sections), was triple that of those who delivered vaginally.

There are several notable concerns with this study including the hospitals themselves compared with hospitals in the US and the health of the mothers who had C-sections in this study.

Everyone agrees that C-sections can and do save lives when medically indicated but when it is medically indicated seems to be controversial.

The article makes it sound at times that hospitals do more C-sections because it is more lucrative, but those who make statements such as these really do not understand the relationship of hospitals and physicians.

Physicians make the decision on when and if to do a C-section and the hospital has no part in that decision process and certainly no way of encouraging physicians to do more just because of finances.

I would admit some patients push their physicians for the procedure out of convenience and there is evidence that the drugs we use during labor may actually contribute to higher C-section rates, but doing them solely for the financial benefit of hospitals is pretty far reaching.