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Delivery Failure: Gotbaum Report Finds Alarmingly High C-Section Rates And Increasing Risk
New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum released a report showing that the percentage of cesarean sections, or c-sections, performed at public and private city hospitals are, in some cases, twice the recommended average; at one hospital, nearly 40 percent of all deliveries are performed via c-section. Gotbaum's investigation also found that none of the City's hospitals could provide current information about c-section rates and other maternity care statistics, as required by state law.
"This is unacceptable. We've got hospitals all over the city that are delivering a third of their babies by c-section. The Department of Health has to get to the bottom of why this is the case. I also want to know why not one hospital out of 44 could provide the information they are required by law to provide," Gotbaum said. Her report points out that leading medical agencies, such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control recommend a cesarean rate of 15 percent or less.
Citywide, c-sections account for 26.4 % of births. In 1970, only seven percent of babies were born by c-section nationally but the rate has been steadily climbing since 1996. Among the City hospitals with the highest rates are Flushing Hospital Medical Center (35.6%), St. Vincent’s of Staten Island (35.6%), Brooklyn Hospital Center (34.8%), Columbia University Presbyterian (34.8%), New York Hospital (Weill Cornell) on Manhattan’s Upper East Side (37.3 %), and Lenox Hill Hospital (31.7%), where Gotbaum released the findings of her report. She was joined by Elan McAllister of Choices In Childbirth, Maureen Corry MPH, Executive Director of the Maternity Center Association, and Meredith Finnerty, who recently became a mother.
According to Corry, “The best research evidence is clear: unless there’s a compelling and well-supported reason for cesarean section, vaginal birth is the safest way for women to give birth and babies to be born. Women need full and accurate information well before labor about what is at stake in decisions about how to give birth.”
“It is critical that expectant parents have access to all data relating to c-sections. We know the risks associated with c-sections. The City’s hospitals should be recommending what is best for the health of the mother and newborn, so when 43 of 44 hospitals surveyed by my office fail to provide this data, we have to ask ‘What are they trying to hide’,” Gotbaum said.
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