Mums and babies 'at risk' from caesarian free-for-all

Louise Nousratpour
Sunday October 30, 2011
The Morning Star

Mothers and babies will be put at risk by proposals to give all women the right to give birth by caesarean section, experts warned at the weekend.

Draft plans to extend access to the procedure - currently only deployed where there is medical need - have been floated by the NHS National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

But Royal College of Midwives chief executive Cathy Warwick said that CS for non-medical reasons was "inappropriate" and expressed confidence that "when women are fully aware of he evidence they will not be asking for CS."

Some studies have found that mothers are two to three times more likely to die following a caesarean section than after giving birth normally.

And gynaecologist Wendy Savage told delegates to the annual Charter for Woman conference that it was already "madness" that a quarter of mothers in England and a third in Ireland had had the procedure.

Ms Savage, who made history as the first woman consultant to be appointed in obstetrics and gynaecology at The London Hospital, said that the safest way for healthy women to give birth was natural and the best place to do it was at home with two midwives present - as required by law.

She added that a chronic shortage of midwives meant that home births are not being encouraged.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said the report, due out next month, was still subject to consultation.