WASHINGTON — More women will be giving birth by cesarean section for the foreseeable future, government scientists said Monday, releasing a study into the causes of a trend that troubles maternal health experts.
Overall, C-sections account for about a third of births in the United States. While much attention has recently focused on women having repeat C-sections, researchers with the National Institutes of Health found that nearly one third of first-time moms delivered by cesarean. Many doctors and hospitals follow a policy of “once a cesarean, always a cesarean.”
That is “somewhat surprising,” said Dr. Jun Zhang, lead author of a study that looked at nearly 230,000 deliveries in 19 hospitals across the country. “It has consequences for future pregnancies.”
The study also suggested a link between chemically induced labor and higher likelihood of a C-section. Women whose labor was induced were twice as likely to have a cesarean.
Many medical experts consider cesarean deliveries to be a major component of “overtreatment” in the U.S.
Since the mid-1990s, the C-section rate in the U.S. has increased by more than 50 percent.
One factor that made no difference was whether the mother had private health insurance or was covered through a government program such as Medicaid.
The study was published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
