How to Avoid a Cesarean - Ten Steps to Take for a Healthy Delivery

As Amanda shared in her article "Cesarean Rates are Rising", there is indeed a dramatic increase in Cesarean rates the past five years. While she examines the rise in elective C-section rates I would like to also examine reasons to avoid a C-sections, and steps you can take to help decrease the likelihood of a surgical birth.

Some Common Myths About C-Sections

~ " An elective Cesarean is as safe for my baby as choosing a vaginal birth."
Sometimes when we begin to examine the many choices available to us during pregnancy, labor and delivery we forgot that not every choice is equal. Indeed, with so many Cesareans now becoming matters of "convenience" it was startling when researchers at the U. S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention published the results of a new study in August 2006 stating that the death rate among neonatal infants (younger than 28 days) delivered by Cesarean was more than twice that of infants delivered vaginally. The article states that "this held true even after the researchers adjusted for socio-demographic and medical factors". In other words, Cesarean births weren't higher risk for the infants because higher risk pregnancies are often delivered by Cesarean; they were higher risk births due to the procedure itself. A scary statistic in light of the increasing number of women who chose Cesarean with no medical necessity.

~ "A Cesarean is a common procedure with little risk to me."
With Cesarean births more and more common it is easy to forget that a Cesarean birth is considered major abdominal surgery. You have not only all the risks associated with pregnancy and delivery, but also the greater risks associated with surgery of any kind. In fact, the September issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology published an article detailing the results of a study done in France that examined postpartum maternal mortality rates. Over the five year study they found women who deliver via Cesarean section are three times as likely to die from complications as women who deliver vaginally. The primary causes of death after Cesarean were thrombosis (blood clot), infection, and anesthesia complications.