I have, myself, had a c-section. Knowing what I know now, I'd have held off getting pitocin...oh well.
In any case, read the article on it from AP.
The Washington Post has another article on the rates, which does a lovely bit of putting the blame on moms. Let me tell you, one reason I didn't push (ha!) for vaginal childbirth is because my employer automatically gives 8 weeks off if you get a c-section, and only 6 weeks if you have vaginal.
Doctors tend to prefer c-sections because they get reimbursed at higher rates.
So let's all accept that there is more going on with this than "convenience" and "scheduling".
Blame the moms? I blame my stubborn kids. My daughter wedged her tucus into my wife's pelvis, stoppering her up like a cork in a bottle; she was in their tight enough that when the OB popped her out through the incision she had a ring indented around her butt. My son, on the other hand, simply refused to leave the womb until the amniotic fluid leaked away and he had to be pulled out like his sister. I suppose it's possible one or both of then got a kickback from the doc out of his higher reimbursement rate but I think they were just willful. I don't think I'd say that either was particularly convenient or well scheduled, either.
ReplyDeleteYeah, my son didn't want to come out either. And I admit, I was impatient.
ReplyDeletemy son, my first, was a c-section. he was a frank breech, butt down and legs up, and i went through a horrible procedure to try to "turn" him. [3 docs pushing from all possible angles. yeah, fun.] so when i went into labor before the scheduled date for the c-section, we went with that decision.
ReplyDeletemy daughter was a VBAC -- vaginal birth after ceasarean. i went into early labor, 5 weeks before due date, and got meds to stop the labor. unfortunately, i was in a military hospital overseas, and had no real options. some doctor decided to give the baby a pitocin stress test, which naturally put me back into labor. some other doctor turned up several hours after i was in teh labor room and on oxygen, and said he "wasn't ready to call it labor." what a surprise when i was ready to deliver 2 hours later and he was late for the party, telling me to "stop pushing."
yeah, i'm still unhappy about that second delivery. but i do not understand the high rates of c-sections now -- that was an issue 20+ years ago, and why i went for vbac for my second.
one improvement, anyway -- there was no maternity leave at my job when son was born. i pieced together 6 weeks of sick leave and vacation time. my friend, who was due shortly after me, took some additional unpaid leave.
ReplyDeleteapologies for talking too much, but that WaPo article is completely incomprehensible when it talks about subsequent births. "About one-third of the C-sections were among women who had had a previous C-section. And among those who tried a C-section again even though they had already had one, they were successful in about 57 percent of the cases."
ReplyDeletei think they probably meant to say that the majority of attempted VBACs work, but that's not what they said at all.