C-Sections on the rise.

Published

An interesting news article. I know the number of c-sections called for on very slim grounds was/is very frustrating to me. Not that we didn't know this was happening, but the actual numbers made it more real.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-premature29-2008may29,0,1859374.story

Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.
i am talking more along the lines of post-dates and macrosomia inductions here. women's pelvises have been birthing babies of many sizes for a long time, and it really annoys me that all of a sudden we've become incapable.

amen, sister!!!

while there are certainly conditions that make baby safer out than in, they are not common.

inductions have a bad way of turning into a c/s.:sniff:

glad i had my 10+ lb 42 weeker[clomid baby-very sure on dates!] back in the bad old days! we has fine, i was fine...has the female pelvis shrunk in the last generation or two???:confused:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

If the rise in premature babies isn't scary enough, some insurances want to refuse covering women who have had c-sections or make them pay higher costs: NY Times article

I really wonder though, if patients are truly counseled about c/s and the risks at the time of c/s, post partum and with subsequent pregnancies. I know many times I get and "elective c/s" in for work-up and they are terrified, asking questions I think should've been tackled way before the " I am going to put an IV in and a catheter in your bladder" portion of the show. Contrary to popular belief, although you don't have labor pain, you have SURGICAL pain, and GAS pain. One of my favorite shocked looks is when you tell them that only ONE person can be with them in the OR.

Nope. I had a c-section for ftp. Nobody counseled me on the risks. Nobody told me that vbac would be difficult. Nobody told me how much pain I'd be in afterwards. Nobody told me that if I just waited, the baby would *probably* come out.

C-sections are not being done for the mother's convenience, but the doctors. The high rate of inductions is the cause of these c-sections. A woman comes in at 11 PM for an induction, the doctor comes in in the morning and ruptures membranes, by 5 PM the pt. is only 3 cm and the doctor ( who doesn't want to miss dinner or be awakened at 3 AM) convinces the pt. that the baby is not "coming down" and a c-section is necessary and, after all, she has been in "labor" 16 hrs. So, of course, the mother agrees because she trusts her doctor and is tired of being in bed tied to monitors.

Sounds like my labor. :( I wasn't induced but I was in very early labor (2.5cm) when I came to the hospital. I should have been sent home but they decided to break my water instead (I'm sure that wasn't to put me on the clock and give them reason to keep me in the hospital *dripping sarcasm*). Then I got pit. After 5 whole hours on pit, they declared me ftp since I only got to 5cm. Yes 5 hours.

I had to travel an hour to find midwives truly supportive of VBAC. Not surprising considering how awful the c-section rate is in NJ (38.9% in 2007) and how crappy the vbac rate is. We have plenty of hospitals in the 50% range for c-sections: NJ hospital birth statistics

It still upsets me that I was an unnecessary c-section so that the horrible midwife and doctor I had could go home for dinner (my c-s was at 2pm). Now all of my future pregnancies and deliveries are at higher risk for no good reason and there is NOTHING I can do about it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

If you haven't already, you guys should read the book "PUSHED." It's really great, but infuriating!

It talks about this exact issue and how women are now laboring in the parking lots of hospitals until the baby is in the birth canal, in order to avoid c-sections, and how MDs are scheduling c-sections because it's convenient for them and they dont want to "waste their time" waiting for women to go through the stages of labor. Oooh! It makes me so mad!!!!! :angryfire

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Financially pre-approved for labor. WOW.

I know I will open a new can of worms here, but perhaps the world-wide publishing of celebrity SCHEDULED c/s (for control issues) has also fueled a bit of a flame here. I mean, lets face it, if Christina Aguilera can have one....why can't everyone???? (and at 36 weeks)

I really wonder though, if patients are truly counseled about c/s and the risks at the time of c/s, post partum and with subsequent pregnancies. I know many times I get and "elective c/s" in for work-up and they are terrified, asking questions I think should've been tackled way before the " I am going to put an IV in and a catheter in your bladder" portion of the show. Contrary to popular belief, although you don't have labor pain, you have SURGICAL pain, and GAS pain. One of my favorite shocked looks is when you tell them that only ONE person can be with them in the OR.

I have to stop....this just riles me to no end.

I have heard that there is a philosophy called "too posh to push" and it's especially prevalent among wealthy Brazilian women; their c-section rate exceeds 90%

:eek:

Has anyone else heard about this? Yes, it is considered unfashionable to have a baby the way nature intended.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
If the rise in premature babies isn't scary enough, some insurances want to refuse covering women who have had c-sections or make them pay higher costs: NY Times article

Nope. I had a c-section for ftp. Nobody counseled me on the risks. Nobody told me that vbac would be difficult. Nobody told me how much pain I'd be in afterwards. Nobody told me that if I just waited, the baby would *probably* come out.

Sounds like my labor. :( I wasn't induced but I was in very early labor (2.5cm) when I came to the hospital. I should have been sent home but they decided to break my water instead (I'm sure that wasn't to put me on the clock and give them reason to keep me in the hospital *dripping sarcasm*). Then I got pit. After 5 whole hours on pit, they declared me ftp since I only got to 5cm. Yes 5 hours.

I had to travel an hour to find midwives truly supportive of VBAC. Not surprising considering how awful the c-section rate is in NJ (38.9% in 2007) and how crappy the vbac rate is. We have plenty of hospitals in the 50% range for c-sections: NJ hospital birth statistics

It still upsets me that I was an unnecessary c-section so that the horrible midwife and doctor I had could go home for dinner (my c-s was at 2pm). Now all of my future pregnancies and deliveries are at higher risk for no good reason and there is NOTHING I can do about it.

I hear stories like this and wonder why doctors would torture patients like this when they're just going to do a section anyway. :confused:

This reminds me of an now-retired OB in the city where I grew up who would sew women up so tight they couldn't have sex with their husbands, and when my mom was a hospital volunteer in the early 1970s, saw him backhand a nurse because she didn't get a chart for him fast enough.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.
If you haven't already, you guys should read the book "PUSHED." It's really great, but infuriating!

It talks about this exact issue and how women are now laboring in the parking lots of hospitals until the baby is in the birth canal, in order to avoid c-sections, and how MDs are scheduling c-sections because it's convenient for them and they dont want to "waste their time" waiting for women to go through the stages of labor. Oooh! It makes me so mad!!!!! :angryfire

And "Birth: the suprising history of how we are born" and "Born in the USA" written by an OB that exposes his fellow OBs...

Up Vote Up Vote ×

p.s. Of course, we are not talking about NECESSARY c-sections. My oldest uncle was born at home, and had they been in a hospital, Grandma would have had a c-section. I don't know what happened, but it must have been a nightmare because this was in 1930. My other uncle and my mom were born in a hospital, and neither birth presented any problems.

My 77-year-old uncle was 2nd in his high school class and went to Thailand on an Elderhostel two days after the tsunami, so even the most difficult births can still produce healthy babies, although that isn't always the case as we all know.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
p.s. Of course, we are not talking about NECESSARY c-sections. My oldest uncle was born at home, and had they been in a hospital, Grandma would have had a c-section. I don't know what happened, but it must have been a nightmare because this was in 1930. My other uncle and my mom were born in a hospital, and neither birth presented any problems.

My 77-year-old uncle was 2nd in his high school class and went to Thailand on an Elderhostel two days after the tsunami, so even the most difficult births can still produce healthy babies, although that isn't always the case as we all know.

I just remembered another nightmare home birth story.

Some years back, I read C. Everett Koop's autobiography, and he said his mother labored 92 (as in ninety-two) hours before he was born, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he said, "Instead of a cesarean section, which should have been performed three days earlier, the doctor placed [a crowbar-like device - I don't remember what it was called] into my mouth and pulled me out."

:eek:

This made me think of a recent PBS program called "A Walk To Beautiful" (I started a thread about it) about an Ethiopian hospital devoted to lady partsl fistula repair, caused by births like these. New York City once had such a hospital; IIRC it was closed about 100 years ago because of the rise of proper obstetrical care. The surgeon told the women upon discharge, "If you get pregnant again, when the baby starts walking in your belly, come back to us." That "walking in your belly" phrase was how they described quickening in their language, and at the hospital, they would be evaluated as to whether they needed a c-section or not.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OBGYN, Neonatal.
c/s indicated due to patient refusing to have her va-jay-jay get jiggly!:banghead:

even though this is a serious topic, i really had to lol at that one lol!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion