New York Injury Lawyer Blog

The boom in cesarean section births worldwide is leading to unnecessary surgeries that jeapordize women's health, The United Nation's World Health Organization warned this week in a report published in the medical journal The Lancet.

The New York City birth injury attorneys and the New York medical malpractice lawyers at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool represent families dealing with the injury or death of a child because of medical negligence, including problems during cesarean section delivery and because of surgical complications or failure to manage pregnancy.

Nearly half of all births in China are delivered by cesarean section-- the highest rate in the world. The report noted C-sections have reached "epidemic proportions" in many countries and raise the risk of complications for the mother, according to MSNBC.

The WHO found that 1 in 4 Asian births are the result of c-section; 35 percent of births in Latin America were the result of C-section in 2005; and 30 percent in the United States, where C-section births are at an all-time high.

Here in the U.S., C-sections are often performed on mothers who request it, despite a 2006 government warning against elective C-sections, according to the Associated Press. The WHO found that women undergoing C-sections that are not medically necessary are more likely to die or be admitted into intensive care units, require blood transfusions or encounter complications that lead to hysterectomies.

And U.S. studies have shown babies born by cesarean have a greater chance for respiratory problems.

"The relative safety of the operation leads people to think it's as safe as vaginal birth," said Dr. A. Metin Gulmezoglu, who co-authored the Asia report. "That's unlikely to be the case."

The study also noted that 60 percent of hospitals studied were motivated by financial incentives to perform surgeries.