CAESAREAN SECTION – INTRODUCTION
It is said that Julius Caesar was not born in the conventional way, but that a cut was made through his mother’s abdomen into her womb and the child emerged that way.
The modern operation to deliver a child has been called caesarean section because of this.
Until recently, a caesarean childbirth was a rare last-ditch event.
In America the rate has increased three or four times over the past 10 years and now one baby in eight is born this way. At a large Australian hospital caring for mothers and babies, the rate is only half that.
Medical consumers — pregnant women and their husbands — are demanding a return to more “natural” methods of childbirth. Why then, are the suppliers of the service — the medical profession — making it more scientific and involved?
In obstetrics, there are two patients — the mother and the baby. In the past, the greater emphasis was placed on the mother’s welfare and the baby had to take second place. Now that modern medicine has reduced the risks to the mother, the concern is increasingly for the health and welfare of the child.
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