Many pregnant women may be opting for cesarean sections that aren't medically necessary without understanding the implications of doing so, according to new research.
Although C-sections can save lives if physicians anticipate labor complications, when they are elective and undergone with no medical need, they risk severely complicating the birth, according to researchers. Nonetheless, rates of elective C-sections have been rising for decades.
A study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology surveyed more than 6,500 women in Belgium, Iceland, Denmark, Estonia and Norway about halfway through their pregnancies. The researchers found a link between the desire to have a C-section and factors like depression, fear of childbirth, history of abuse or a previous negative birth experience.
Of women expecting their first child, 3.5 percent of respondents said they would prefer a C-section birth, and of women expecting a second child, 8.7 percent said they would prefer a C-section, according to the authors. Respondents with symptoms of depression were more than two times as likely to undergo and elective C-section, and those had undergone a previous negative birth experience or expressed fear of childbirth were three times more likely to have the procedure.
Hospitals should provide better access to pre-birth counseling to ensure expectant mothers have a good understanding of the potential risks of C-sections and determine whether they are choosing the procedure for psychological reasons, the authors concluded.
More articles on quality:
Few surgeons apologize for medical errors, study finds
Protein from breast milk reduces staph infection risk in premature infants
Zika threatens 1.6M women of childbearing age