U.S waves are growing with our over-use of Cesarean Birth and the risks they pose to MotherBaby. It is great to finally hear many voices speaking out about the overuse of surgery for birth for healthy women and their babies. Consumers Report just released some helpful tools and resources in an effort to better educate women and reduce the number of unnecessary cesarean births.
The good news is this information is now readily available to pregnant women across the United States. The bad news is the findings are alarming: 66 percent of hospitals reviewed received the worst two ratings, only five (5!) hospitals received the highest rating, and hospital ratings can vary widely even in the same community.
If you are pregnant, thinking about becoming pregnant, know someone who is pregnant or work with pregnant women, these resources offer information to help decide where to give birth:
• Read the article, “What hospitals don’t want you to know about C-sections;”
• Watch the video, “Too Many C-Sections;“
• Check out C-section rates at individual hospitals; and
• Compare safety scores by hospital and by state. (Subscription required.)
Also, check out this New York Times op-ed blog post, “In Delivery Rooms, Reducing Births of Convenience,” that points to factors unrelated to the needs of mothers and babies including organization of care, payment issues, and types of providers that impact the use of cesarean section.
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