This will apparently appear in new guidelines to be published by NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence - the same people who refuse drugs to terminally and seriously ill people on the grounds of cost). This is what I find to be the cherry (if you'll excuse the expression in this context) on the cake when you consider that a 'normal' birth costs around £1,500 and an elective C-section costs around £2.500 - so how comes terminally ill patients can be denied drugs that would extend life and money can be wasted on consumer baby deliveries?
One of the reasons appears to be because it will legitimise (sorry, they use the word 'formalise') those hospitals that offer C-Section on demand and this is, as I understand it, consumerism gone mad!
Listening to a radio programme for women (essential listening to and from the Crem') a couple of year's back I found myself railing at the radio as some high-powered executive woman explained that she had decided on a C-section to enable her to fit the birth in between meetings and social events. The baby's birth date (and time) was set to fit her work and social calendar with the added benefits that she'd still be 'like a teenager' (as long as she didn't look in the mirror at her face I guess) down below and could return to work within a 'matter of days'.
The fact is that all surgery is dangerous (even the 'safe' stuff) and a C-section is (unless things have changed recently) regarded as major surgery which therefore ramps up the risk. Not just that but when we take into account the fact that the current C-section rate is about 25% of all births in the UK (the World Health Organisation's recommendation is that it should be less than 15%) this is a totally off the wall move.
I understand that for some people there is a medical (physical or psychological) reason and necessity for such a procedure but this doesn't seem to be the situation generally with regard to this issue when it is billed as a matter of choice. It is just another part of the consumer 'our right to choose' culture (just like the social engineering that is abortion perhaps - the other side of the marketplace?). Oddly, I've not met many women who wanted an emergency C-section (but were truly grateful for it) - what a strange world but; Hey Ho - the world takes another step towards madness I guess.
Pax
