Women increasingly decide to do cesarean section
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Another trend is a gradual increase in the average age of women giving birth.
According to the latest data from the Health and Social Security Information Center, 25% of British women give birth through a surgical procedure known as cesarean section. Compared to the previous year, the number of deliveries with caesarean section as a whole increased insignificantly, but there was a tendency to increase the number of these operations by the preliminary request of women, and not by the decision of doctors.
18% of women aged 35 years and older prefer not to give birth naturally.
On average, one in ten mothers between the ages of 25 and 34 makes a decision about deliveries with a cesarean section. Among women under 25, the relative number of such births is lower - 5%.
The staff of the Royal College of Midwifery are concerned about these indicators.
"The number of voluntary caesarean sections has increased, whereas unscheduled operations by the decision of doctors remained at the same level. We need to understand what is causing this trend, "says Louise Silverton of the Royal College of Obstetrics and lead author of the study.
"Increasing the number of operations during childbirth is often associated with a decrease in the level of communication between mothers and midwives, and this worries me."
The study also revealed a trend towards an increase in the average age of parturient women. That is, now young girls give birth less often than women in more mature age. The number of mothers under the age of 25 declined by 5% in five years, and girls under 19 years of age, compared to 2007, give birth to 22% less.
At the same time, the number of mothers aged 40 to 49 years increased by 16% - from 22,200 to 25,600.
"The surge in fertility, coupled with the increase in the average age of mothers, requires raising the standards of obstetric services, since pregnancy among older women is more likely to lead to complications and more often requires surgical intervention, which in turn means that more midwives or other health workers need to be involved in labor" , - explains Louise Silverton.
"Since the birth rate surge is now in full swing, these factors, together with the increasing demands for the care of women during childbirth, can have a significant impact on the workload to which the already overloaded obstetricians are exposed."
Tim Strawan, Director of the Information Center for Health and Social Protection, adds: "While the total number of hospital births in recent years, although at a slow pace, has already increased significantly, the number of women in childbirth dropped by almost 10,000 last year compared to the five-year prescription ".
"This trend has affected all regions of the UK, although in the Northeast the relative number of births among 13-19-year-old girls is still the highest."
The youngest teenagers give birth in the capital of the United Kingdom, London, and the percentage of women in senior growth in this city is the highest.