|
|
Article: Cesarean section when it's not medically necessary: safe practice or risky decision?
- Article from:
- Women's Health Activist
- Article date:
- July 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 National Women's Health Network. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Recently, you may have read news articles stating that cesarean sections pose no extra risk to women who are giving birth, (1) or that "it may be reasonable for many women to deliver by caesarean section even without a medical need." (2,3) The truth, however, is much more complicated than these misleading sound bites suggest.
In late March, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a state-of-the-science conference entitled "Cesarean Delivery on Maternal Request" to explore the safety of elective cesarean section performed because the woman requested it rather than because it was medically necessary. (There are a range of situations in which U.S. providers ...