Rixa at the true face of birth blog makes the case that C-sections are grossly under reported.

I was at a conference last weekend, where Henci Goer mentioned the underreporting of hospital cesarean rates. Some hospitals are starting to report their cesarean rates only among “low-risk” women; in their calculations, they exclude cesarean sections for breech, multiples, preterm births, fetal deaths, and abnormal presentations. In other words, the C-section rate that your hospital advertises may not be correct–it is likely much higher. This is the case, it seems, in all California hospitals. Remember my recent post about CA C-section rates? I looked at the fine print on the document and it turns out the rates are only for full-term, head-down, singleton births with no abnormal presentations!

Want to see for yourself? If you go to the original document, there’s a small hyperlink about rate explanations. The link brings you to a page that, at the bottom in very very small print, has the following text:

Rate Explanations:

Cesarean Delivery Rate
Number of Cesarean Section Deliveries per 100 Deliveries (excludes abnormal presentation, preterm birth, fetal death, multiple gestations, and breech procedure). Cesarean delivery may be overused in some facilities, so lower rates may represent better care.

Cesarean Delivery Rate – Primary
Number of Cesarean Deliveries per 100 deliveries among women who have not previously had a Cesarean section (excludes abnormal presentation, preterm, fetal death, multiple gestation, and breech procedures). Cesarean delivery may be overused in some facilities, so lower rates may represent better care.

Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) Rate
Number of vaginal births per 100 women with a previous Cesarean delivery. VBAC may be underused in some facilities, so higher rates may represent better care, though this rate includes some women who were probably not good candidates for vaginal birth.

Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) Rate, Uncomplicated
Number of vaginal births per 100 women with a previous Cesarean delivery (excludes abnormal presentation, preterm birth, fetal death, multiple gestation, and breech procedures). VBAC may be underused in some facilities, so higher rates may represent better care.
Cal me paranoid, but I doubt the extremely small font is accidental.”

Thanks for doing the homework Rixa, this is really scary information.
Jenny Hatch
Here is a video montage I put together titled The Wall. Obstetric Practice creates a wall between ultimate Divine Feminine Fullfillment and Birth.