New York – Early caesarean section carries health risk for mother and child a study reveals.
It is believed that a child becomes full term by 37 weeks hence caesarean section can be done by 37 weeks. But latest studies point out that if a pregnancy is terminated before 39 weeks it will affect the health of mother and child. Various studies, including one in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in October, have cautioned against elective c-sections being performed too early.
The latest study was based on an analysis of 13,258 elective Caesarean deliveries nationwide between 1999 and 2002, of which 36% were performed at 37 or 38 weeks.
Most people choose early elective CS to ensure that their doctor is available on that date. Some others just cant bear the pain of a Vaginal delivery. However, most early elective Caesarian sections are as a result of medical conditions like pre eclampsia, diabetes etc hence CS cannot be avoided in such situations.
The study didn’t include women who went into labor or who had c-sections because of medical emergencies. The study looked only at repeat pregnancies, since a woman’s first c-section usually isn’t elective.
“This [study] allows us to know how many elective scheduled C-sections are performed before 39 weeks, ” says Dr. Catherine Y. Spong, one of the study authors and chief of the Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch of the National Institutes of Health. “This study is telling us that over one-third of women are having elective repeat Caesareans — that’s not an insubstantial number.”
In the ten years from 1996 to 2006, the rate of cesarean births in the US has risen from 20.7 to 31.1 per cent.