Natural birth v caesarean — what the latest statistics tell us
D octors in the UK are never short of reading material thanks to a continual stream of new guidance on various aspects of clinical practice, the latest of which is designed to improve the quality of care for anyone considering a caesarean birth.
Colleagues working in specialities such as dermatology and orthopaedics can choose to ignore topics like this but we GPs are expected to know something about everything, so I read it over the weekend and want to share some of the highlights. Not least because they help to dispel a myth that regularly pops up on social media: namely that having a caesarean means you can avoid the continence problems that affect so many women after giving birth.
First though, a caveat. While the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has gone to great lengths to assimilate the best evidence out there, it remains far from perfect. Indeed Nice starts the section comparing the risks and benefits of vaginal and caesarean deliveries — for mother and baby — with a warning that, despite compiling data from 30 years' worth of international research, they are not as reliable as it would like.
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