{"id":167,"date":"2006-10-08T11:32:16","date_gmt":"2006-10-08T16:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/wordpress\/?p=167"},"modified":"2006-10-08T11:32:16","modified_gmt":"2006-10-08T16:32:16","slug":"why-so-many-caesarean-sections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/2006\/10\/08\/why-so-many-caesarean-sections\/","title":{"rendered":"Why so many Caesarean sections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nThe high rate of Caesarean sections (one in every five births in the UK and in Sweden; one in three in the US) is probably of more interest to me than to you.\n<\/p>\n

\nOne of the reasons for these high numbers is women’s preferences: half of the Caesareans in the UK are elective. Choosing to undergo major surgery rather than to go through a natural process is an odd choice in my opinion. But I guess those women may have greater faith in modern technology than I do, or be more averse to pain and hard work, or put greater value on convenience. Anyway, that’s not why I’m posting – other women’s reasons for elective Caesareans are relatively irrelevant to me because I’m not even considering that option.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhat I find more interesting right now is the other half of Caesarean sections, and why they are performed. It appears that doctors’ inexperience is one major contributing factor: junior doctors are more likely to opt for a Caesarean<\/a> because they do not have sufficient experience in other assisted methods of childbirth\n<\/p>\n

\nAn article in the New Yorker highlights a related reason: the standardization of childbirth<\/a>. Teaching all obstetricians to perform one<\/b> standardized procedure well is easier than teaching them the numerous more “manual” alternatives. And Caesarean section is a standardizable procedure – it is a technical process that doesn’t vary much from patient to patient. Using the forceps, on the other hand, is more of a craft – it requires the doctor to develop a “feel” for using the right amount of force, etc.\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe question facing obstetrics was this: Is medicine a craft or an industry? If medicine is a craft, then you focus on teaching obstetricians to acquire a set of artisanal skills. You accept that things will not always work out in everyone’s hands.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut if medicine is an industry, responsible for the safest possible delivery of millions of babies each year, then the focus shifts. You seek reliability.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\nWhereas before obstetricians learned one technique for a foot dangling out, another for a breech with its arms above its head, yet another for a baby with its head jammed inside the pelvis, all tricky in their own individual ways, now the solution is the same almost regardless of the problem: the C-section. Every obstetrician today is comfortable doing a C-section. The procedure is performed with impressive consistency.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\nFound via Salon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The high rate of Caesarean sections (one in every five births in the UK and in Sweden; one in three in the US) is probably of more interest to me than to you. One of the reasons for these high numbers is women’s preferences: half of the Caesareans in the UK are elective. Choosing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pregnant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}