Oral

This session will address the caesarean sections epidemic in the United States. Pregnancy and birth are normal bodily functions. Yet in a prosperous country, where nutrition and life style should provide adequately for all to “go well,” hospital caesarean rates in the U.S. have soared to over 30%, -- twice the recommended upper limit set by the WHO. With recent analyses that demonstrate a higher neonatal mortality among women who have caesareans in the absence of labour complications and other labour/delivery procedures, While U.S. cesarean rates have risen to 31.1% overall and 22.1% for primary cesareans in 2006, little attention has been paid to race-ethnicity disparities in these rates. Black non-Hispanic (BNH) mothers have the highest primary cesarean rate (24.1% ) among major race/ethnicity groups in the U.S. compared to 22.6% for white non-Hispanic (WNH) mothers and 19.9% for Hispanic mothers. The major question in this study is whether or not differences in primary cesarean rates by race/ethnicity can be explained by medical risk factors and/or other demographic characteristics.

Session Objectives: 1.Describe the marker which infdicates there is no reason to have a Caesarean rate over 15% and the correlation with increased maternal mortality and perinatal mortality if it is. 2.Describe the World Health Organizations benchmark for Caesarean Section Rates. 3.List the 5 most common reasons for Caesarean Sections

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)