Parents start caring for their children well before they are even born. After news of conception, a mother will start watching what she eats and take prenatal vitamins to ensure that the fetus has everything it needs to grow into a healthy baby. Although a dad can’t ultimately control the nutrition, he might drive a little more carefully, make sure mom gets plenty of rest and help eliminate stressful burdens.
Although parents will do everything that they can to make sure that their baby is born healthy, they cannot control everything. One of the most important parts of pregnancy is the labor itself, and it is the time when parents must put absolute trust in their team of doctors and nurses.
A common determination is whether a mother could, shouldn’t or absolutely needs to have a C-section, but how carefully is this decision made and whose interest are put first?
If you are an expectant mother in Los Angeles, you may go through labor at Los Angeles Community Hospital, California Hospital Medical Center or maybe even Western Medical Center Anaheim. Did you know that the C-section rates at these hospitals for women with anticipated low-risk pregnancies vary from 55 percent to 15 percent and 11 percent, respectively?
Failure to schedule a C-section in time can cause birth injuries, but unnecessary procedures can also cause significant harm, including fatal complications. Bleeding, cardiac issues, kidney failure and infection are only a few of the serious complications that a Canadian study found that women who undergo their first C-section with a low-risk pregnancy are three times more likely to suffer.
As for the baby, a vaginal birth is much less likely to cause breathing complications and may even be less likely to develop obesity, allergies or asthma because their mother passes on beneficial bacteria during birth.
So whose interests are being considered? We can’t say for sure, but here are a few interesting facts.
New research upends the long-held belief that longer labors lead to complications, but some doctors still push C-sections after a certain amount of time. Today, there are fewer births on holidays. Maybe it is the physician’s schedule or maybe it is the parent’s, but shouldn’t the doctor know best? Insurance and Medicaid cover more costs associated with C-sections than vaginal births — 50 percent more, as was noted in the Consumer Reports article.
Children born with a birth injury often require expensive, long-term medical care. A Los Angeles medical malpractice attorney can help parents determine the best course to obtain compensation to help cover these costs so that they can focus on loving and caring for their child.
Source: ConsumerReports.org, “What hospitals don’t want you to know about C-sections,” May 8, 2014
