Posted to findingDulcinea by Cara McDonough
In the study, the latest in the ever-changing world of birth trends, researchers asked 102 pregnant women and 341 midwives, obstetricians and other doctors at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Australia about situations that would prompt them to choose a Caesarean section over a vaginal delivery.
The new findings represent the first published study to compare women’s and doctors’ views on the issue, reports Irish Health.
The BBC reports that the group was asked about a range of issues, including “mild complications such as a prolonged birth and superficial tears to severe problems such as anal and urinary incontinence, vaginal prolapse and severe tearing.” In nearly all of the cases, the pregnant women were more willing to deal with complications in order to have natural birth than their doctors or midwives.
In addition to indicating that having a vaginal delivery is important to many women, the findings “may also indicate that doctors are biased by their inevitable involvement in complex cases, or labours where things have gone wrong,” said Professor Philip Steer, editor of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, which published the study.
Steer also pointed out that, beyond the preferences of patients and doctors, childbirth is an unpredictable process “and therefore any birth plan should be flexible enough to allow for unexpected complications.”
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