Something very strange must be happening in Dominican Republic, since for some time it is being confirmed that most women are having a lot of trouble giving birth to their babies and their deliveries end in caesarean section. There is talk of caesarean section rates of 56%, which leaves only 44% the percentage of women who still manage to give birth vaginally.
Breaking down the data, it is being seen that in public hospitals the rate is 42% of caesarean sections and that in private hospitals of a terrible 87%. I imagine that there, in private centers, women who do not achieve a vaginal delivery, 9 out of 10, will be studied carefully in order to find the cause of this epidemic of caesarean sections that could even go further. No wonder all alarms are going off.
And these could be health professionals
As I explained the situation in the first two paragraphs, it seems that these in the photo are the health professionals of the hospitals in the Dominican Republic when a pregnant woman arrives to give birth. Running to know that a pregnant woman comes in to try to save her birth, to prevent her from having a caesarean section, to continue studying the reason why they are not giving birth as life has been done.
But no, they are not these. I don't know if they run or stop running, nor do I know if they care about having caesarean section rates so far away from what WHO proposes by suggesting that a country's maximum should be between 10 and 15% of C-sections. What I do know is that the fault is not that mothers do not know how to give birth, but of professionals, that they are falling into bad praxis, performing cesarean deliveries that should end vaginally.
Do you know the struggle that has been taking place in many countries for a long time to try to humanize births, to ensure that nature is respected and the times are respected when it comes to giving birth? Well there, apparently, they are skipping everything to the bullfighter. The number of C-sections is too high, and that means that women are lying so that they believe that they are not able to give birth or, directly, so that they believe that it is better to give birth by caesarean section.
Why so many caesarean sections?
For several reasons that do not have much to do with the benefit of the mother or the baby. If professionals do caesarean section, attention is billed for more money. That is, hospitals charge more the more cesarean sections they do, because it is more expensive to attend a caesarean section than a birth. Caesarean section is an emergency intervention and in a normal delivery, if all goes well, it is the woman alone who can give birth.
Another reason is the time of delivery. A woman giving birth does not have a schedule, goes into labor without being able to control it and has her baby at an undetermined time. This is a problem for many professionals, it seems, so to solve it they program a caesarean section and solved. Thus the baby is born when professionals want and not when he wants.
And a third possible reason is the desire to avoid problems at work and problems at the legal level. A caesarean section is scheduled at any time and the birth is controlled in this way. If a woman is going to give birth there will be a few hours of dilation in which there may be complications. The normal thing is that everything goes perfect, but in case of possible complication the professionals must act and, depending on their performance, put themselves at risk of claims or complaints. One way to avoid all that is to do as many more caesarean sections better: you tell the woman that the baby was not doing well, that something was wrong and that it was necessary to do it as soon as possible He still thanks you for saving his son's life.
Yes, many caesarean sections are necessary and thanks to them many babies are alive. But it is impossible that 87% of women who go to private centers require emergency intervention to save their lives. Impossible because if giving birth were something so fragile, so problematic, we would be extinct.
Is this not like Brazil?
Two days ago Lola told us about an epidemic of caesarean sections in Brazil, and how she is acting to stop it. The Dominican Republic is the same, although the figures are slightly worse.
In both cases we must act as soon as possible, because the risks of a C-section are greater than those of a vaginal delivery, and with such a number of C-sections maternal mortality is at risk of being too high.
Risks of giving birth by caesarean section?
So is. A couple of years ago we explained what a cesarean delivery is like. In that post we tell you what are the indications for a cesarean section and among them were neither "because the schedule is going well for the gynecologist", or "because that way more money is billed to health or to the insurers" or "to avoid complaints and legal issues". They were all Medical indications, situations where it was necessary.
In addition, we tell you the risks, which are a few and that is why I take the opportunity to enumerate them again:
- Infection of the bladder or uterus, since it is a surgical intervention with wound and rupture of the uterus, which should heal.
- Injury of the urinary tract.
- Injury to the baby (we have already seen here a wound made during cesarean section).
- Increased risk of placenta previa in future pregnancies.
- Increased risk of placenta attached in future pregnancies (the placenta has trouble separating after the next delivery).
- Increased risk of uterine rupture.
- Increased risk of bleeding as a result of the three previous situations.
- Bleeding hemorrhage in the intervention area.
- That blood clots occur that reach the pelvic veins or legs.
- Wound infection.
A sample of how bad they are doing in both Brazil and the Dominican Republic
Not bad, fatal. 42% of cesarean deliveries at the public level and 87% at the private level are scandalous numbers. And they are, especially when we cross them, for example, with the Basque Country, the community of Spain where fewer caesarean sections are performed, with 85% vaginal deliveries. The difference is obvious, true?
