Upsetting Article

I read an upsetting article courtesy of Navelgazing Midwife called C-sections are increasingly used by choice, not necessity.

Just to give you an idea I selected some parts of it that summarize it pretty well:

"Meanwhile, some research has suggested that vaginal delivery creates its own risks and that C-sections help women avoid incontinence and other health problems down the road. "

"Even newer studies are beginning to compare the risks of vaginal delivery not with emergency C-sections, as most previous research has done, but with planned surgical deliveries. C-sections are safer, some researchers are finding, without the last-minute rush to surgery after an exhausting trial of labor."

"In the United States, the overall infant mortality rate is 6.9 per 1,000 babies; the maternal mortality rate is 11.8 per 100,000 live births, and estimates are that a C-section more than doubles the mother's risk of death."

"But in the overwhelming majority of childbirths in the United States, mother and baby do just fine, regardless of the method of delivery. "

"The increase in elective C-sections comes amid a rise in C-sections overall. In 2004, close to 30 percent of all births were caesarean, up from about 20 percent in 1996. "

Just for your information, there are about 20 countries that have a lower rate of maternal death than the US, so when I read that "the overwhelming majority of childbirths in the US, mother and baby do just fine" it make me cringe. As long as the "majority" does "just fine" everything is ok then? I would assume that the US being such a technologically advanced country the standards would be set a little higher...

I understand that I am not quoting a medical journal here, but that's the problem. The problem is that any young woman can read this article and think that it's ok then to just ask a C-section to deliver her baby instead of trying to deliver her child vaginally. I honestly think that giving birth is a rite of passage, you become a mother, and it comes with efforts and sacrifices. If you are not willing to even try to go through the pain of labor, are you really ready to take onto the responsibility of having a child?