Monday, March 16, 2009

Cesarean delivery has a lower risk of pelvic organ prolapse than vaginal delivery

Unlike studies that heavily criticize health outcomes of cesarean delivery, this new study from Sweden, on 'Cesarean section and risk of pelvic organ prolapse...', has had minimal exposure in the media.

But I think that its conclusion is important to highlight - not to encourage more women to choose cesarean delivery - but in defense of all those women who do choose planned surgery. I refer to primary planned cesarean delivery on maternal request as 'prophylactic' in my online petition, and this study is just one of many that exemplifies this particular word choice.

The authors, Christina Larsson et al, conclude that: "Cesarean section is associated with a lower risk of pelvic organ prolapse than vaginal delivery."

And it wasn't a small study either.
The Swedish Hospital Discharge Registry was used to identify women with an inpatient diagnosis of pelvic organ prolapse, and the data were linked to the Swedish Medical Birth Registry, which meant that a total of 1.4 million women were investigated.

No comments: