New Risks Associated With Elective Deliveries

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:00:00 GMT

With induced labors up a whopping 125 percent since 1989, it’s clear that many preterm labors are not medically necessary. And this is particularly true around the holidays, when many parents schedule deliveries in time for a tax deduction or to fit in with a crazy travel schedule.

It’s understandable why parents have traditionally believed it safe to schedule a delivery anytime after the 34th week, since until recently obstetricians believed that everything except for the baby’s size was fully developed by then. But new research shows that those last weeks are more important than previously believed.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that “for each week a baby stayed in the womb between 32 and 39 weeks, there is a 23% decrease in problems such as respiratory distress, jaundice, seizures, temperature instability and brain hemorrhages.” Furthermore, it’s now clear that pinpointing the exact age of a fetus is very difficult; a fetus believed to be in the 34th week may only be in the 32nd.

Doctors must do their part to make sure parents know of the risks of an unnecessary preterm birth. The medical director of labor and delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital admits that it’s simply easier and less time-consuming to “cave” to parents’ request for an elective delivery than to inform them of the benefits of waiting for a full term birth. And according to the March for Dimes, some obstetricians fudge the requirements to qualify parents for a "medically necessary" preterm birth.

But with increasing research like the above study, some hospitals are now wisely requiring parents to sign a consent form before scheduling a delivery before the 39th week. F. Sessions Cole, the director of newborn medicine at St. Louis Children's Hospital, urges parents to trust their babies. "The idea is that somehow, if you're in complete control of the delivery, then only good things will happen," Cole said. "But that's categorically wrong. The baby and the uterus know best."

Photo: mothering.com

Why Insure Pre-Term Elective C-Sections?

They Say: Miscarriage Means More Risk

Amy Kuras — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:08:00 GMT

For women who’ve experienced the crushing blow of a miscarriage, one of the small comforts is the conventional wisdom that a single pregnancy loss doesn’t bode ill for future pregnancies.
A University of Aberdeen (Scotland) study of more than 32,000 expectant mothers showed an increased risk of many pregnancy complications among women who has suffered even one miscarriage.

They were 3.3 times more likely to have preeclampsia, twice as likely to have an induced labor, and almost six times more likely to need intervention like the use of forceps at birth.

Continuing the litany of suckage, they were 1.7 times more likely to show symptoms of a miscarriage but not actually lose the pregnancy, 1.3 more times likely to have bleeding after 24 weeks in the next pregnancy, and also had increased risk of a premature baby and of having a child with a low birth weight.

It should be noted that the risk of all of these things overall is pretty low, so an increased risk at that level is a concern but doesn’t mean your pregnancy is doomed to difficulty if you’re among the 20 percent of women who have suffered a miscarriage.

What’s interesting about this is that most research has focused on recurrent preganancy loss, defined as three or more miscarriages in a row. Most doctors won’t even begin to look at underlying causes for miscarriage until that’s happened. That’s an awful lot of heartbreak to go through before getting some answers, so hopefully this study will lead to women getting additional support in their pregnancies sooner rather than later.

Strollerderby : induced labor

New Risks Associated With Elective Deliveries

They Say: Miscarriage Means More Risk