Low-risk cesareans carry increased neonatal mortality risk
31 August 2006
Birth 2006; Not yet available online

Low-risk mothers who opt for a cesarean face a higher risk of infant
and neonatal mortality than those who deliver vaginally, researchers
report.

"These findings should be of concern for clinicians and policy
makers who are observing the rapid growth in the number of primary
cesareans to mothers without a medical indication," said Marian
McDorman, who led the study.

The team, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta, Georgia, analyzed data on more than 5.7 million live births
and 12,000 infant deaths over a 4-year period. The researchers
focused on women with a singleton full-term gestation and no
indicated medical risks or complications.

They found that, overall, infants born to these low-risk women had a
low incidence of neonatal death, at about one in 1000 live births.
However, further analysis showed that those delivered by cesarean
section had twice the risk of death as those delivered vaginally.

This is worrying because the overall rate of cesarean delivery rose
by 41 percent between 1996 and 2004 in the USA, while the incidence
in women with no indication for cesarean almost doubled.

*My guess is that these women with "no indication", are sectioned
due to medical practice and not really by "choice". When a woman is
unsupported, frightened, frustrated and exhausted in labor and
says "just cut it out of me!!", she is not "opting" or consenting to
surgery (keep in mind that she already signed the - unread - consent
form when she was admitted). She is feeling desperate, not well
informed.