My baby sister just lost a friend. She was a L+D nurse who died less than a week after having a CSection. In addition to being a new mommy, she was a newlywed. It's such a shame, and according to my sister her CSection was not medically necessary. Women are dying because of the method in which they have decided to give birth and its definitely being sweep under the proverbial rug. I have gotten into many heated argument with women who feel they is nothing wrong with having a CSection and that its better for their baby. I won't get on my soapbox and rant about my response to such ignorance, but I will offer you the cold, hard facts. Please check them out and make a more informed decision.
The Facts
- The United States has a higher ratio of maternal deaths than at least 40 other countries, even though it spends more money per capita for maternity care than any other.{Source} {Source}
- The lack of a comprehensive, confidential system of ascertainment of maternal death designed to record and analyze every maternal death continues to subject U.S. women to unnecessary risk of preventable mortality. Maternal deaths must be reviewed to make motherhood safer. The United Kingdom’s Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health is considered the “gold standard” of national professional self-evaluation. {Source} {Source}
- Whenever a maternal death occurs in the UK, CEMACH is automatically notified, and a multidisciplinary team of individuals who do not work at the hospital where the death occurred is dispatched to review all of the woman’s records. In sharp contrast, when a maternal death takes place in the US, there is usually no review of the case external to the hospital in question, and all employees with knowledge of the death are warned to keep silent about it. {Source}
- Gut colonization by microbes is delayed in C-sectioned babies, which may explain in part why these infants have a harder time fighting off infections. {Source}
- Another vital point: We have a US Standard Certificate of Death. In 1979 and 1989, it was proposed that this certificate should include a question asking if the deceased had been pregnant in the year previous to death. Inclusion of this question has been shown to significantly increase the count of maternal deaths. Amazingly, this question was not adopted in the US Standard Certificate until 2003. However—and this is a big however—the federal government does not require that the states use the US Standard Certificate, and most still don’t! {Source}
The list can go on and on. I completely understand the need for a CSection in an emergency situation. However, what I have witnessed is women being bullied into unnecessary interventions that lead to their baby's being in distress and ultimately CSections.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/06/02/babies-born-by-cesarean-section-may-not-gain-benefits-of-vaginal-microbiome.html