C-section rates record high
April is Cesarean Awareness Month. And increased awareness is definitely what we need, not only for this month but the whole year round. Because the recent US baby boom seemed to have been accompanied by a C-section boom.
According to the 2007 statistics recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), C-section delivers rates jumped to record high (31.8%), up by 2% from 2006. The good news is that despite this rise in C-section rates, the number of babies with low birth weight rates was slightly down (from 8.3 to 8.2%) in 2007. The preterm birth rate, defined as delivery before the 37th week of pregnancy, was down as well. However, this decline is mostly late preterm delivery, e.g. between the 34th and 36th week of pregnancy. This is reduction of 0.1% is way below than the goal of 15% reduction set during the Prematurity Awareness Month in November last year.
Last year, the not-for-profit organization March of Dimes actively campaigned for prematurity awareness and cited a study showing that C-section is a major factor in preterm delivery. The latest statistics suggests that women and their doctors probably tend to wait a bit longer, beyond the 37th before performing a C-section. The decrease in preterm delivery, albeit small, is an encouraging step towards the right direction and hopefully will be sustainable.
However, the increase in C-section rates is causing concerns. According to the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN), more than half of C-sections may actually not be necessary. Timed together with the Cesarean awareness campaign this month, ICAN has scheduled the ICAN 2009 International Birth Conference on April 24 to 26 to be held in Atlanta, Georgia.
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