According to this article from Drugs.com, c-section rates declined 2% for first-time mothers from 2009-2012.
"Cesarean delivery rates in 19 states reporting to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention averaged 21.9 percent in 2012, the CDC said in a report released Thursday. This represented a return to the rate last recorded for those states in 2006."
Prior to this, cesarean rates had continued to increase every year.
But the reality of this small decrease hits full force in a quote from CDC statistician Michelle Osterman. "Because primary cesareans are starting to decline, the overall cesarean rate will be impacted because there is only a 10 percent chance that a woman who has had a cesarean is going to have a vaginal birth afterward," she said.
Ten percent. That means a full 90% of women who have had a cesarean section go on to have a repeat cesarean for their second birth. What a number. While it is encouraging that first-time cesareans are either stabilizing or declining, we still have a long way to go before cesareans are not an inevitability for a large percentage of women in America.
What do you think of these statistics? Is a 2% decline something to celebrate? How do we decrease repeat cesareans (and convince hospitals that this is the profitable thing to do)? Let us know in the comments.
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