By Stephen Ndome
Jane Weru is meticulously wheeled into the operation theatre. Minutes later, she is the proud mother of a bouncing baby boy. Although still very drowsy from the effects of the anaesthesia, Jane is affording a jolly smile, seeing that all has gone well.
Her baby is just one of the growing numbers of babies delivered through the Caesarean section, popularly known as CS. While this procedure is normally performed with the advice of an obstetrician as a result of medical complications, Jane’s was performed at her own counsel — she did it because she did not want lengthy labour, plus it is the method in vogue.
Caeserean section is the delivery of a baby through a surgical incision in the mother’s lower abdominal wall and the uterus as opposed to normal vaginal birth procedure. According to statistics from three private hospitals in Nairobi, CS deliveries account for almost 48 per cent of all maternity cases. For example, one hospital in Nairobi recorded 151 out of 324 deliveries between July and September last year were through CS. Out of the 151 cases, only 53 were as a result of medical conditions necessitating the procedure. The remaining 98 were on request by the mothers who preferred Caesarean section to vaginal birth. This procedure, usually planned for before labour starts, is referred to as an elective caesarean.
The British medical journal of November 2007 reports higher figures in Latin America with the cases rising to as high as 50 per cent of the total registered births. Australian reports indicate that about 40 per cent of all the babies delivered in private hospitals are through the CS.
Higher rates
According to Choices In Childbirth (CIC), an American maternity care advocacy organisation, the Caesarean section is the most performed procedure in the United States of America. In fact, more than one in every four babies (27.6 per cent) in America are delivered by CS.
This, however, has become the case only since 1996 onwards. In 1970 for instance, a paltry seven per cent of births were by CS in the US, according to the US National Library of Medicine, Cesarean Section.
According to Dr Irungu Mwangi an obstetrician at the Mater Hospital, mothers are increasingly demanding to be operated even without a medical condition warranting the operation. The big question therefore: Is CS safe enough to be adopted as a substitute for vaginal births? Already, leading medical agencies such as the World Health Organisation have sounded the alarm, calling upon the medical fraternity to reduce the rate of CS births. However, this seems not to have deterred a majority of middle and upper class women, who find the procedure an easier and posh way to give birth.
Could cause problems
Njeri Muthomi delivered her child through elective C-section. When asked, she said there was no problem with CS as long as one could afford it. Another woman, Pamela, said that she did it because she did not want to risk getting vaginal infections or tampering with her womanhood.
Unknown to these two women and others, however, is the fact that CS is not so posh after all in the long run. It comes with many health issues for both the mother and child.
According to a report titled: A Mother’s Right to Know: New York City Hospitals Fail to Provide Legally Mandated Maternity Information, by Betsy Gotbaum, a Public Advocate, C-sections can result in a variety of problems, including infections, haemorrhage, injury to other organs, anaesthesia complications, infertility, and psychological trauma. “C-sections also result in a higher maternal mortality than do vaginal deliveries,” it reads in part.
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