Should all women delivery by C-section? I think not!

Here’s the article. I suggest Mr. Eckert submit to a full C-section cut and surgery before he makes up his mind about the benefits of cutting mothers open without a medical need.

Should all women deliver by cesarean?
Source: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 2004; 190: 314-8

Highlighting the need for randomized, controlled studies comparing the outcomes of elective cesarean and planned vaginal delivery.

An obstetrics expert from the USA has urged the medical profession to organize a randomized, controlled trial weighing the relative merits of elective primary cesarean delivery and a trial of labor.

Despite the recent rise in cesarean deliveries in the USA, most babies are still delivered vaginally, Jeffrey Ecker from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, observes.

“The assumption underlying this distribution is that, among parturients who have not had a prior cesarean delivery, vaginal delivery, if successful, is associated with fewer maternal complications than cesarean delivery without meaningfully increasing the risks to the neonate.

“Such assumptions are, however, untested,” asserts Ecker.

Previous studies that have compared patients by their eventual route of delivery may have given an unfairly harsh view of cesarean section, he explains, as unplanned or emergent cesareans are associated with a higher incidence of maternal complications than those planned and performed electively without a trial of labor.

Indeed, some evidence suggests that elective cesarean may confer protection against certain maternal complications¾such as maternal mortality, pelvic organ prolapse, and incontinence¾as well as stillbirth, cerebral palsy, and birth injury in the newborn.

Ecker concludes that “there are enough preliminary data to hypothesize that elective cesarean delivery might be of maternal and/or fetal benefit,” and claims such a trial would be both ethical and feasible.

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