C-Sections: Too Quick to Cut?

By Jane Schneider

More pregnant women are having Cesarean deliveries than ever before. Here’s a look at what’s behind the trend – and what you need to know before you give birth.

When I had my first child at age 37, I was so sure I’d have a natural delivery, I never even read the Cesarean section portion in my pregnancy book. I assumed it didn’t apply to me. I had an easy pregnancy, got plenty of exercise and looked forward to having my baby.

After laboring 13 hours without drugs, however, my doctor determined my labor had stalled. “You need a C-section,” he told me gently. Moments later, the room exploded into controlled chaos. My husband was abruptly ushered out and my labor took a precipitous turn for the worse. As I received the epidural, I began to cry. I had worked so hard, only to have my plans dissolve before me. Less than an hour later, my beautiful, healthy son was delivered, but his unorthodox arrival was something I was completely unprepared for.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been. A legion of women have experienced C-sections, a fact that would have been unusual in my mother’s day. What I didn’t learn until later was how this simple twist of fate would impact my future childbearing choices. My obstetrician never told me having a baby naturally after a C-section would be difficult at best, or that it might not even be my choice to make. I, like many women, was uninformed.

If you’re planning to give birth, you owe it to yourself to learn more about this increasingly common surgery.

Cesareans on the Rise

Of the 4 million births in the United States each year, nearly one in four babies are delivered by Cesarean section. C-section rates have steadily climbed from a low of 20 percent in the mid-1990s to an all-time high of more than 27 percent today, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Some hospitals exceed 40 percent. In fact, C-sections have become the most common major surgical procedure among U.S. women of reproductive age.

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