Fetal injury more common than expected with cesarean delivery

Is this "okay?" Is it "okay" with us that this amount (albeit small, but still, 1.1%...around 2,600 babies per year) of babies are injured in a C section? What if these injuries were common in homebirths? Would there be a public outcry to halt homebirths?
If these "needed" C sections were saving lives....if they were saving moms and babies from death, then I can imagine justification for all the birth injuries (and increased maternal death). However, research shows that the increase in C sections has NOT resulted in a better maternal or baby outcome. No less babies dying. No less moms dying.
Again....madness. And "we" allow it. We promote it. We turn our heads when a C section happens outside of an emergency. ("failure to progress...or perform"..."CPD".) What will it take for women to stand up and demand better care??? Studies THIS YEAR have shown us that a mom triples her chance of death by having this surgery....and that babies are injured more often than in a regular birth. What else does it take?

Below is an article from an OBGYN forum I am on. It is from "them"....not us. :)



Fetal injury more common than expected with cesarean delivery
Source: Obstetrics & Gynecology 2006; 108: 885-90

Documenting the incidence of fetal injury in women undergoing cesarean delivery.

Women undergoing cesarean section should be counseled that fetal injury during the procedure is rare, but still occurs at a rate of 1.1 percent, researchers suggest.

James Alexander, from the University of Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, USA, and co-base this recommendation on the results of their study in which they recorded the incidence and type of fetal injury in 37,110 women undergoing cesarean delivery.

Of these deliveries, 418 (1.1 percent) had an identified fetal injury, the most common of which was skin laceration, found in 272 (0.7 percent) babies.

The team also discovered that cephalohematoma was present in 88 infants, and that clavicular failure, brachial plexus injury, skull fracture, and facial nerve palsy were relatively common complications of cesarean section, each found in about 10 babies.

These observations suggest that "cesarean delivery does not, in and of itself, prevent major birth trauma," the authors write.

"Although cesarean delivery may play a role in decreasing birth trauma in certain clinical circumstances, it does not eliminate its occurrence," they conclude.

Posted: 19 October 2006

© Current Medicine Group 2006