The Royal College of Midwives have recently stated that this is something that already happens and the new guidelines are merely a formalisation of a process that already was happening.

The guidelines have been produced by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence and it is said that the guidelines will probably mean that the number of women having a caesarean will actually decrease because of increased awareness about the procedure. The guidelines that have come from Nice have highlighted the risks that both caesarean and vaginal birth.

Currently about one in four women in the United Kingdom have a caesarean section and in most cases these are planned ahead so that the health so the mother is assured. The risks that are highlighted in the guidelines are for women who are choosing to have a caesarean section ahead of time, if you have one during pregnancy because of complications the risks are very different and sometimes a mother may need to be transferred to an intensive care unit.

Mothers who have a caesarean section are also more prone to postnatal depression and are more likely to have trouble breastfeeding their baby. The guidelines also highlight the risks of giving birth through the vagina which include, injury to the vagina, shock from loss of blood, heavy bleeding and pain. The risks associated with a caesarean section include admission to the ICU, a longer hospital stay, bleeding, the potential need for a hysterectomy, and heart attack.

The guidelines also confirmed that having a Caesarean section is significantly less painful than giving birth through the vagina. However, they also state that three days after giving birth the pain is equal to that of someone who had a vaginal birth. It also found that the vagina might be damaged during a traditional birth but highlights that there are significant benefits of it over a caesarean section.

The more major risks of a caesarean section, such as heart attack and the need for a hysterectomy are incredibly low with the figures being 0.2% and 0.03% respectively. The guidelines also give information about the chance of death during birth although they state that information is conflicting.

One study showed that a caesarean section was less likely to cause death but then another study showed there was a higher risk for those having a caesarean. The data on which is safer is quite conflicting but all studies agree that the chances of something happening are incredibly low.

The chance of complications occurring were found to be less than 1% no matter what method of delivery you chose. However, considering the health of the baby is important and babies who are born vaginally at significantly less likely to need admission to an intensive care unit.

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Out of all the births in Scotland, an additional 15.2% of births required an emergency Caesarean section.

The new report also showed that from March 2008- March 2009 there were 56,281 births, which is an increase of almost 2,000 babies from the year before. Out of these births a little more than a quarter was Caesareans.

Of these 10.7% of the births were elective surgeries, by women who already knew they would have a Caesarean due to the fact that they knew they would be having more than one baby, or for clinical reasons, such as a child that was in the breech position making a natural birth difficult.

This is a stark contrast to 1976 when only 8.6% of all births required surgeries out of which only 4.6% were electives and 3.9% were electives.

Also reflected in the figures is the fact that many of the babies were born to older mothers in the age range of 30 to 34 making up 70% of all the births in 2008. In contrast, in 1976 only 12% of mothers who gave birth fell into the same age range.

Additionally, there were 1,960 babies born to woman who were over age 40 in 2008 which is more than double the amount born to older women in 1976 (813).

Also, the study showed that women who lived in poor areas had more than double the risk of low birth rate babies compared to mothers in better economical areas with women.

Along the same vein, the average age of a mother from an affluent area was 32 while the average age from deprived economic areas was 19.

Caesarean Birth

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