Nearly 10% of young women worldwide prefer Cesarean section to vaginal birth as delivery option

One in ten young women prefers cesarean section to vaginal birth as her choice of delivery in a seemingly healthy pregnancy, because of fear of uncontrollable labor pains and physical damage says the result of large study published in Journal of Reproductive Health.

All attempts to bring down cesarean section rates in middle income and developed countries have mostly focused on educating the physicians and midwives, changing hospital policies and environment and less on patient education and knowledge about benefits of vaginal births.

It is estimated that 6.2 million unnecessary cesarean sections (CS) are performed worldwide each year and most countries that participated in this study exceeds the optimal limit between 10-19%.

Recently, psychological indication of Cesarean Section has emerged as an important contributing in increasing the global cesarean rate. A survey of 6000 European found that 16.7% of primiparas and 31.7% of multiparas had a CS without medical indications because of severe fear of childbirth.

The current study recruited student from Universities and Schools across 8 OECD countries (Australia, Canada, Chile, England, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, United States.

Childless young men and women who plan to have one child in near future were sent online questionnaire, of which 6571 completed the survey.

During the final analysis, overall 10.8% of women wanted to have a CS in a healthy future pregnancy, with the highest rate of 16.0% in Australia.

The most common reason cited was fear of labor pains and maintain vaginal integrity, the other being CS is well planned and good for mother’s health.

Regression analysis showed that students who studied health science had significant less fear and lower odds of preferring CS.

Epidural analgesia might theoretically appear a lucrative solution, but it increased the rates of instrumental delivery and created a lasting negative impression in long term.

All women expressed a significant interest in knowing more about anatomy and process of childbirth.

The authors concluded, “Education sessions delivered online, through social media, and face-to-face using drama and stories told by peers (young women who have recently had babies) or celebrities could be designed to maximize young women’s capacity to understand the physiology of labor and birth, and the range of methods available to support them in coping with labor pain and to minimize invasive procedures, therefore reducing fear of pain, bodily damage, and loss of control. The most efficacious designs and content for such education for young women and girls remains to be tested in future studies.”

Abstract, Full Text.