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Caesarean section uptake down to women 'wanting more control' of situation

A former Master of the Rotunda Hospital says an uptake in Caesarean sections by those using priva...
Jack Quann
Jack Quann

16.03 29 Sep 2020


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Caesarean section uptake down...

Caesarean section uptake down to women 'wanting more control' of situation

Jack Quann
Jack Quann

16.03 29 Sep 2020


Share this article


A former Master of the Rotunda Hospital says an uptake in Caesarean sections by those using private health insurance is probably down to women taking more control.

A new study has found that women who go private are almost three-times more likely than public patients to have an elective Caesarean section.

The study was carried out on over 75,000 people at the Coombe Hospital between 2009 and 2017.

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The research found that 29% of private patients opted for a C-section, while for public patients it was just 11%.

Professor Sam Coulter-Smith is former Master of the Rotunda Hospital.

He told Newstalk Breakfast there may be several reasons for the figures.

"I think there are probably some obvious reasons behind it - I think patients who go privately are a self-selecting group.

"They will have chosen to go privately for a whole variety of reasons.

"Some of those would include people who, maybe, have had a difficult delivery, difficult vaginal delivery in their first pregnancy.

"They might have had a shoulder dystocia, a very big baby, they might have ongoing urinary issues afterwards as a result of a difficult delivery.

"They will choose to go privately because they think that they're going to have a greater chance of more input into the decision-making around how they deliver next time around.

"It provides more continuity, I suppose, you develop a relationship with your obstetrician - and I think it probably does give people a little bit more control, and a lot of women these days like to have that".

"We do have a population that our mothers now are older than they used to be, therefore they have issues that come along with that.

"And that often fits into the same situation: that they want to have more control over the situation".

Prof Smith also dismissed the suggestion that some women are 'too posh to push'.

"I really dislike that term, I don't know where it came from, but I think it does women a disservice.

"I think women these days are autonomous, they like to be part of the decision-making process, and it's very important that we allow them to be part of that process.

"There's a large element of choice into how people's pregnancies are managed, and I think our job as obstetricians and indeed midwives is to support people in the choices that they make".

"There's nothing wrong with choosing to have a Caesarean section, as long as you understand the implications of that choice".

Main image by StockSnap from Pixabay 

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