From Kitty Schindler, TODAYshow.com "Ask Kitty" columnist, By the time you reach age 86, you begin to think you've seen it all ... but you haven’t. Some things still boggle my mind. One of them is the explosion in the rate of C-sections being performed around the world. According to a recent survey by the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly half of the women having babies in China are choosing to have elective Caesarean sections. Compare this to 1945 -- the year I graduated from nursing school -- when C-sections accounted for 1.9 percent of all births. Cesareans were the prerogative of the obstetrician, not the mother, and were performed only when the physician thought that it was a matter of safety for both mother and child. In the last decade, the number of C-sections worldwide has doubled to more than 30 percent of all births – even though WHO recommends that no more than 2.5 percent of all births should be by Cesarean. I had a large family (nine siblings!); so did my husband. Yet among all our close relatives, only one person in three generations has had a C-section. I estimate that's probably one in more than a hundred births, and it was for health reasons: a non-progressing labor. The mother in question went on to have a second C-section because of the prior one; it was once felt that once you had a C-section, you were destined to have all your births that way. But she is now hoping that a third pregnancy will end with a normal vaginal delivery. Despite recent medical advances, C-sections are no walk in the park: They are major surgeries with serious implications for both mother and infant. For one thing, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact date of conception, and therefore the recommended 39-weeks delivery date. C-sections performed too early are risky for the baby. Lungs, brain and eyes are developed late in the pregnancy. There also is a limit to the number of C-sections one women can have. As a nurse who once worked in obstetrics, I would never have a Cesarean unless it were necessary for health reasons. Related stories:
Troubling trend: The skyrocketing rate of C-sections
From Kitty Schindler, TODAYshow.com "Ask Kitty" columnist,
By the time you reach age 86, you begin to think you've seen it all ... but you haven’t. Some things still boggle my mind.
One of them is the explosion in the rate of C-sections being performed around the world. According to a recent survey by the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly half of the women having babies in China are ch