I’m not bored, but I did wake up at 4am which led me to the CDC. Under “What’s New” at the NCHS page I read, “Twin Births Remain Stable, New Report Shows”. Ok, so I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t an entire report about multiple birth, but since I still hadn’t actually read the 2007 birth report, I suppose it was good that I took a peak. If you’re interested to see what I posted about multiple gestation and birth as well as a collection of other data points that I found interesting, have a look here.
I browsed the site further and found some interesting statistics. I was particularly looking for information on multiple gestation, of course, and was disappointed not to find method of delivery stats readily available for multiple gestation sets. I did create a little spreadsheet though for 2007 births by gestational age and method of delivery.
I only looked at 34+ weeks gestation. Information from 20-33 weeks gestation is available, but since I know less about those groups, I didn’t include it. It is possible that premature babies are more at risk of dying during vaginal delivery than cesarean, I don’t know for certain, and I’m sure that parents need to consider their options carefully, if options are given.
ATTENTION! Notice that the nation 2007 cesarean rate was 31.8% in 2007, another all-time high. The World Health Organization suggests that a cesarean rate of 10-15% is indicative of a birth reality that is consistent with science and good practice as measured by healthy birth outcomes for mom and child(ren). Get above that 15% range, and THE RISKS BEGIN TO OUTWEIGH THE BENEFITS. I repeat . . the risks outweigh the benefits outside of the cesarean rate range of 10-15%.
So let’s extrapolate a bit . . .
You’re the MOST likely to birth vaginally if you make it to 40 weeks. Problem is that most OBs do not encourage women to gestate to 40 weeks and a high number of elective cesareans take place in the 39th week. If your baby comes before 37 weeks, look out . . . 41% of all live US births between 34 and 36 weeks gestation happened via cesarean surgery. We need to be asking . . . WHY. And why are nearly 1/3 of all babies being born via major surgery. Why are so many women having their babies surgically extracted from their bodies, especially when subsequent pregnancies will even more likely end with a repeat cesarean? WHY WHY WHY!!!!!
ASK SOMEONE WHY!
WHY 32% . . .
