It has been said for years: "Are you sure that many C-sections are necessary?" The number of caesarean sections reached a few years ago to reach percentages of up to 25% in public health (private or I speak, because it is almost double), a very high number if we consider that it meant that 1 in 4 women I was not able to give birth vaginally.
With these data in hand, WHO put its finger in the sore saying that there were many, too many, that what was expected in a developed country was that complications occurred in 5-10% of deliveries, but that could be considered acceptable figures close to 15%.
For a while now, thanks to the WHO, thanks to all the mothers who have fought for a better birth and thanks to the fact that many protocols have changed, finally, based on the scientific evidence and the logic that says that as a general rule all women are able to give birth (better if it is in the position they decide), but just in case there should be someone watching, not hindering, the number of caesarean sections has decreased in our country and that means that many of the unnecessary caesarean sections are no longer done.
C-sections, in numbers
According to data from the National Statistics Institute in 2007, they accounted for 25% of deliveries, while in 2009 a much lower percentage was registered, 18%.
This decrease came as a result of the launching in 2007 of the Normal Birth Attention Strategy (EAPN), to make labor a more physiological and less intervened process.
In this way it was possible to reduce the number of caesarean sections, something positive if we consider that a caesarean section is a surgical intervention (it is the only operation performed in an operating room whose patient leaves having to take care of a creature that demands 24 hours of the day), with all the risks that this entails both at the level of infections and hemorrhage (four times more risk) or of risks in subsequent deliveries.
Recovery is also slower and the cost to social security is not the same, since giving birth by caesarean section costs almost twice as much as a delivery without complications (Although when we talk about health, well paid is a cesarean if necessary).
"Just in case it can't be done later" and "just in case the flies"
Now that the numbers have dropped, many people wonder what was the reason for 8% more cesarean sections before. The response of health professionals in this regard is that before they were done just in case afterwards it could not be done, because due to lack of personnel, perhaps it could be done at that time, but hours later, if things were not difficult, and just in case, because when a doctor was sued for a problem in a delivery, if he had not had a C-section, he had to lose.
Congratulations and thank you
Finally I want to give my Congratulations and thanks to all the professionals who struggle every day to give better attention to mothers and their babies, for making them protagonists and for letting them do but waiting there, to act fast and fast in case there are problems.
Congratulations and thank you to all mothers who did not accept a no, who moved with their birth plans written after hours of discernment demonstrating that they knew what it was to give birth, that they knew the risks, that they were informed and that they wanted to be able to make decisions.
Congratulations and thanks to all those who during these years have (have) defended change, humanization of births, respect for people and the adoption of new, less interventionist protocols.
But beware. Now we know the line to follow and you just need to follow it. As Marta Parra, president of “Childbirth is ours” said: "We hope that the decline is not at the cost of a greater number of instrumentalized or forceps deliveries", which would be a good way to reduce the numbers of caesarean sections but they would be playing, more or less, the same.
