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Researcher says a large number of women are choosing to have C-sections based on the advice of doctors.
In recent years the number of caesareans section deliveries has steadily increased, prompting some commentators to say that women are 'too posh to push'.
However a study conducted by researchers in Queensland has found that women are often acting on the advice of doctors when they decide to have a C-section.
Professor Sue Kruske, who led an investigation into the caesareans among women in the sunshine state, said the results dispelled the popular myth.
"I think there's a belief in the health sector that women are actually driving these high rates of caesareans and that they're doing it because they want control or for whatever reason that's socially indicated," she said.
"But I think that our data actually dispels that myth and actually shows that … the vast majority of them are doing it because their health provider actually recommends that."
Some 20,000 women took part in the survey on child birth, caesareans and the mother's role in clinical decision making processes.
After receiving feedback from participants Ms Kruske admitted she was surprised by the results.
Kruske said that a number of women who took part in the study reported going ahead with caesareans despite being unaware of the risks involved.
"What we found surprisingly was it was only half the women who received planned caesarean sections, so caesarean sections that occurred before labour – only half of them considered themselves making an informed decision around that," she asserted.
Researchers estimates that at least 50 per cent of women in Queensland are making ill-informed decisions, which is a worrying statistic in a state where the number of babies born via C-section continues to rise and has gone up more than 70 per cent in just two decades.
Ms Kruske went on to say that only ten per cent of women who took part in the study and also had a C-section wanted to give birth in this way before the surgery was undertaken.
With this in mind it is understandable that the professor is encouraging women to where possible take a more active role in decisions relating to pregnancy and childbirth.
"We'd like to see health providers encourage women to become active participants in their care," she asserted.
"And through that they're more likely to be satisfied with their care, and they're more likely to have care that meets their needs."
In Queensland about 34 per cent of all babies are born via C-section, a figure that jumps to roughly 48 per cent in the state's private hospitals.
Photo credit: © Martin Valigursky – Fotolia.com
As a mum who has had both – an elective c-section on obstetrician’s advice for a complicated breech presentation and two VBACs, this article rings true for me.
When I had my first baby, I really hoped for a vaginal birth. More than that, I wanted the safest birth possible and took the advice of the doctor at 38.5 weeks to have an elective c-section.
Two babies later (after a vaginal birth in the middle), my (different) obstetrician said she would not encourage me to labour much longer (after many hours) and things fell into place shortly after that, so it was a second VBAC. Had things not heated up, I would have taken her advice.
All I wanted, each time, was a safe delivery.
My 35 year old sister had two caesareans in Queensland on what she considered medical advice from her private obstetrician. The advice, given after nothing more than a visual assessment of the exterior of her hips, was she could not birth naturally. This was said at 20 weeks! No doctor can predict how a pelvis will respond and mine (also narrow in the middle) functioned perfectly, as did our mother’s and aunt’s. This doctor also insisted she birth in a private hospital, saying “in the public hospital you’ll get an Indian doctor who’ll cut you from hip to hip.” Pretty disgusting, eh? Racism, fear mongering and the doctor gets paid top rate for cutting a woman who should have had two simple deliveries.