This is pretty much where my problem with c/sections starts and ends.
Australia has one of the highest rates of caesareans in the world. The World Health Organisation recommends a rate of around 5% (I'm haven't got time to check these figures but I think they're close, someone will correct me no doubt). Australia's averages around 30% I think, in some private hospitals it is MUCH higher. So there's a huge discrepancy between the 5% the WHO thinks are medically necessary/life saving, and the 30-something percent that are actually being done.
What are the reasons for that additional 25%? They are not done to save lives, and mostly they're not even done for the convenience of the mother. They are mostly done because some obstetrician is freaked out about getting sued.
It's a disgrace.
I have been on the end of what I believe to be an unecessary c/section so this topic is close to my heart.
If I for one second believed my son would have died during that labour I would've been in the OR without a second thought.
But the fact is that he should never have been in the situation that caused him to get distressed in the first place. I was set up for a caesar without my even realising it. It is for this reason that I'm still having trouble dealing with his birth, nine months down the track. I squarely blame my OB for that (and myself since I went along with it. But at the time I didn't know any better). I do now, but other women after me will continue to be subjected to unjustified, unnecessary birth trauma because they believe that their doctor knows what's best for them, under any circumstance. I no longer believe that doctors (or surgeons god forbid, which is what ob's are) have any place in normal birth.
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