It used to be the faint hope method. Today, the cesarean has almost become a fad. Our health authorities got angry three years ago. Without much results. An American study shows that this is not a trivial technique. 10 essential questions …
How many cesarean sections are performed in France each year?
7% of deliveries are by Caesarean section, but the rate can climb to 43% in some areas. In total, more than 100,000 interventions per year.
Is it the same in other countries?
France is in the middle of Europe. With more acts in Southern Europe, but also much less in the North.
On the other hand, the United States is singled out, including by the country’s health authorities. There, the caesarean is so popular – 20% of births – that in some Californian clinics, it is done halfway! An obvious abuse, condemned by the doctors, who seem, however, in these extreme cases, largely responsible for the popularization of the method among their clients.
Is it essential?
And in 7 out of 10 cases, it could be avoided according to the Haute Autorité de santé.
What is the impact on newborns?
A Massachusetts hospital has provided proof of this. This establishment has implemented a policy of reducing the number of induced deliveries at the whim of the woman and her doctors by authorizing a cesarean section only to women who have already given birth vaginally with a cervix. favorable to at least 39 weeks of pregnancy. As a result, the cesarean section rate fell from 16% to 7% and the rate of admission of newborns to intensive care from 3% to 2%.
Is cesarean section risky?
According to the HAS, the cesarean section is not a trivial act: it is associated with a risk of phlebitis but also with a risk of complications for future pregnancies.
A study, the results of which are published in the online journal PLoS Medicine, has just confirmed this analysis.
Over three years, the researchers analyzed the delivery process of more than 2,000 women, all at term. They were followed for at least one year after the delivery of their child. Researchers found that women who gave birth by cesarean section were less likely to have organ descent (prolapse), urinary or fecal incontinence.
The researchers also studied what the risks were in children. Those born vaginally were less likely to develop asthma or be obese.
Does a cesarean have an impact on subsequent pregnancies?
This same study shows, in the longer term, that a woman having given birth by cesarean section is more likely to have infertility problems. But also at risk during pregnancy with improper placement of the placenta, which can cause severe bleeding in the third trimester. Uterine ruptures and giving birth to a stillborn baby are other possible risks.
For these scientists, it was important to better understand the risks and benefits of this birthing technique, in order to better inform women.
Is Cesarean Still Helpful?
It deserves better than a controversy because it is a very simple intervention, which continues today to save a good number of children’s lives, for example, very premature children. This is also the case when the mother’s life is threatened by a pregnancy that would go to term – as in the case of unbalanced diabetes or very severe hypertension.
Are most Caesarean sections scheduled?
Yes, they should, which allows the choice of anesthesia that more and more mothers choose “local” so as not to lose any of the pleasure of the birth of their child. A birth that takes place in just under an hour thanks to a horizontal incision along the pubic hair, which will leave a very solid and very aesthetic scar. Few complications… a few infections and for some mothers, especially in the event of general anesthesia, the start of the mother-child relationship disturbed, badly experienced. The return home is done, in the vast majority of cases, in 5 to 6 days… almost like a normal childbirth!
In the past, we used to say “Cesarean section one day, Cesarean section always…”?
This is now totally false. More than 60% of “Caesarized” women – who have a Caesarean section, not to be confused with the actress who would have had a Caesar – give birth the next time normally.
It is said that it is because he was not born by natural means that Caesar, the Roman emperor, gave his name to the Caesarean section?
The reality is much less poetic… In fact, in Latin, caesare, it means… to cut! It is therefore because we cut the skin, then the uterus, that this method of childbirth has become the caesarean …
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