Study: Maternal weight and c-section rates

The article excerpted below is from Yahoo!:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...rean_weight_dc

I wonder if they thought to factor in whether the
doctors *suspected* that they baby might be big.
I doubt it: all the usual politics of this aside,
that would be a hard thing to quantify. They're probably
looking only at outcomes and are unlikely to have
data about the doctors' thoughts before hand.

Emily



Cesarean More Likely with Excess Pregnancy Weight



Wed Oct 6,11:43 AM ET

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pregnant women who put on more pounds than
generally recommended are more likely to undergo a Cesarean delivery,
according to a new study.

Researchers found that among nearly 9,800 first-time mothers, those
who gained more weight than U.S. guidelines suggest were more likely to
need a C-section, even when the baby was not large.

[...]

SOURCE: Obstetrics & Gynecology, October 2004.

Emily wrote:

The article excerpted below is from Yahoo!:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...rean_weight_dc


I wonder if they thought to factor in whether the
doctors *suspected* that they baby might be big.
I doubt it: all the usual politics of this aside,
that would be a hard thing to quantify. They're probably
looking only at outcomes and are unlikely to have
data about the doctors' thoughts before hand.

I suspect there are all *sorts* of plausible
relationships in there ;-)

Best wishes,
Ericka

"HMMMM....SHE'S A LITTLE HEAVY - IT'S C-SECTION TIME"

See below..

From the article Emily posted...

"...it was only among initially normal-weight women that excess weight gain
raised the odds of C-section. Overweight women who gained more than 25
pounds had a Cesarean rate similar to that of women who fell within the IOM
guidelines."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...rean_weight_dc

OBs are blaming mother and babies for gaining weight - but not blaming
themselves for closing birth canals up to 30%.

Meanwhile OBs KEEP birth canals closed when babies' shoulders get stuck.

See ACOG birth crime video evidence
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group...t/message/2300

PREGNANT WOMEN: It's easy to allow your birth canal to OPEN the "extra" up
to 30% - just roll onto your side when you actually push your baby out.
Talk to your OB.

Also noteworthy: It may be that lying on your sacrum torquing it in exactly
the opposite direction the baby needs it to go neurologically inhibits
labor...

"HMMMM....SHE'S A LITTLE HEAVY - IT'S C-SECTION TIME"

"Stotland speculated that doctors may sometimes choose to perform [a
c-section] when a heavier woman is having a hard time during labor."

(The OB says to himself: "I'm torquing her sacrum wrong - I've got her
birth canal closed up to 30% - I've done everything I can - she's a little
heavy - c-section time.")

BTW, I liked Ericka's (?) point that...

Although individual MDs might get paid about the same for a c-section as
they do for a vaginal birth...

C-sections bring a lot of money to others in the system...

Todd

Dr. Gastaldo

I wonder if they controlled for edema at all? I gained something like 60 lbs
in my last pregnancy (all of 22 weeks)-and lost almost all of it within 2
weeks following delivery, and since I've started retaining fluid, If I
continue as I did this last week, I'll probably be over that, even if I stay
with "minor" fluid retention. And while not everyone who retains fluid has
PE, a pretty high number of women with PE end up with inductions, and often
C-sections when the inductions fail.