In 2001, 26 percent of mothers in the United States delivered their child via cesarean section — and 45 percent of those deliveries were not considered medically necessary, according to a new study by Truven Health Analytics.
Increasingly, the medical community is concerned with reducing the rate of elective and non-medically necessary C-sections, since the surgical procedure can be dangerous for both the mother and the baby, according to Whitney P. Witt, PhD, MD, director of maternal and child health research at Truven and the study's lead author.
The study also found major cost savings can be achieved by reducing the number of C-sections performed. A C-section delivery costs $4,000 more than a vaginal delivery on average, and reducing the national C-section rate by just 2.8 percent could save roughly $101 million annually.
One major contributing factor to women having an unnecessary C-section is their prior experiences: Women were more than 100 times more likely to have a non-indicated C-section if they previously had a C-section, the study found.
"Women and their doctors should work together to make decisions regarding childbirth. Based on previous research and what we have heard anecdotally, health insurers and hospitals may also need to re-evaluate their policies to increase rates of vaginal birth after cesarean," Dr. Witt said in a news release.
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