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Written by Debby S
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Wednesday, 02 April 2008 |
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April is Cesearean Awareness Month. There's not a special theme to it this year, just trying to get people to realize how high the rate is now, and, I would think, that it doesn't have to be so high. One way you can help with this is to put something on your website about ICAN or that April is Cesarean Awareness Month. Nationwide, we are over 30%. Just think - several years back, almost every woman birthed her baby vaginally. Now, a third have their babies by surgery - and most think they "needed it."
But, I wonder if the reported rate is true. Though Georgia is stated to only (only!) be in the 30s, 3 nurses at my local hospital have told women that hospital is running 80% (not a typo) and a former head pediatrician at another hospital further away from me in Georgia told me that they were running 90% or higher. As he put it, "If - *IF* - we have a week where only 10 out of 100 babies are born vaginally, that's a good week."
If what I've been told is true and the reported rate is true, then somewhere in Georgia there are hospitals (not just one - or it has a huge volume of births) which have one of the lowest c-section rates in the nation! I know southwest Georgia lags behind the rest of the nation in good obstetrical practice - has for decades. SW Ga doesn't seem to follow evidence-based OB unless it's forced upon them. But, this is abysmal. Surely we don't believe even one third of women need to have their babies cut out of them and we should all be aghast at the rates in my area.
I hope midwifery associations try and verify through research and personal accounts what the cesarean rate is in their state. I think that would be a good "cesarean awareness" project for this month.
Debby S
http://homepage.mac.com/dss7midwife/Personal1.html
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