C-Sections Increasing US Prematurity Rates

I read an interesting article :WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Premature births of U.S. babies have been climbing since the mid-1990s and the increase is being driven by Caesarean section deliveries.  Dr. Alan Fleischman, medical director and senior vice president of the March of Dimes infant health advocacy group, voiced concern that a sizable portion of these C-section deliveries may be medically unnecessary.

Premature babies are at greater risk for a number of medical and developmental problems such as troubled breathing, bleeding in the brain, birth defects and death. Premature birth is defined as delivery before the 37th week of pregnancy, rather than the typical 40 weeks.

“When one looks at the numbers carefully, there was an increase of 60,000 babies who were pre-term, and 92 percent of them were by Caesarean section,”

The increase comes amid an ongoing controversy over whether some doctors are performing C-sections because they fear being sued if they do not and whether some women are opting for medically unnecessary C-sections out of convenience.

In the United States, 5 percent of babies in 1970 were born by C-section. In 2006, the figure was about 31 percent.

Meanwhile, the percentage of babies born prematurely also has been rising — increasing more than 30 percent since the early 1980s to about 13 percent of all births. 

Makes me think that we are not moving forward in the childbirth arena.  What do you think.  I am hoping that someone is reading my blogs.  Lonnie

This entry was posted on 29. May 2008 at 02:55 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.