Posted on 07/02/2009 2:38:23 PM PDT by Entrepreneur
NHS trusts have for the first time barred women from routinely having elective caesareans because they cost too much.
The procedure, which costs twice as much as a natural birth, will be rationed in Greater Manchester so that it is only available to women with specific medical conditions.
Some top obstetricians condemn the decision, arguing that, while it will curb the fashion for choosing caesareans to reduce the pain of childbirth, it will also penalise those who opt for them on the grounds that they are safer for the mother.
Caesareans have been placed on the same lists for rationing by the NHS trusts in Greater Manchester as infertility treatment, cosmetic surgery and acupuncture.
The lists, called Effective Use of Resources Policies, state that planned caesarean sections should only routinely be offered to women in particular categories. They include women who have previously already had at least two caesareans.
Dr Christoph Lees, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, said: “I strongly disagree with this prescriptive condition setting. Sometimes well-informed women, often older and very unlikely to have further children, do request caesarean sections and it is unreasonable to refuse if they are fully informed.
About 23% of deliveries in Britain are by caesarean section, and, of these, more than half are emergency operations.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
So what if there’s a ten month waiting list...?
bttt
Hospitals curb caesarean births (UK Socialized Medicine)
This will cause deaths
They are acting like a C-section is a vanity procedure.
Sometimes the need for a caesarean develops very quickly and unexpectedly- only minutes make the difference in survival of mother and child - been there, done that
It’s not just for the mom. Many emergency C-sections occur because the baby is in distress. Limiting C-Sections will likely increase the rate of babies with cerebral palsy and other problems. A lifetime of therapy and care is surely more expensive than a C-Section.
I had my child in a military hospital that did not “believe” in epidurals (ie, cost cutting).
So 36 hours in labor without pain relief except demerol by mouth THEN an emergency C section
Believe me, I have a small idea of the suffering it causes “cases” when some bureaucracy decides what to spend on your medical care
And deciding in advance to have an “elective” C-section is often based on the obstetrician feeling the woman has a well above average chance of complications that will end up requiring an emergency C-section. The elective is a lot more likely to get good results without expensive or fatal complications for the baby, than an emergency C-section when fetal distress has already developed.
A lot of women also choose C-sections because it significantly reduces the very large chance of urinary incontinence following childbirth. This is usually permanent unless corrected by surgery — which is often complex and requires weeks of bedrest for proper healing (thus very expensive in terms of lost work time, and virtually impossible for a mother trying to manage young children). I can just imagine how the long the wait is for that type of surgery in the UK’s NHS. I’m sure it’s considered “elective” since wearing adult diapers beginning in the prime of your life and until the day you die is perfectly good alternative < /s>
Not only do they frown on women who are “too posh to push”, but they also want to reduce the number of women who receive epidurals during vaginal births.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5822051.ece
THey are not banning medically needed C sections but those to not have pain and because the patient requests them thinking they arfe safer.
They are not safer and pain in delivery is not an indication for c section.
I wouldn’t pay for this any nore than I think insurance should pay for nose jobs and face lifts and lipo. And no doc worth his salt does a c section for these reasons.
THe obamacare would be worse but this is a bad bad example.
Oh spare me. Surgery for post partum related urinary problems is usually not necessary with kegels and other interventions. When it is, they go suprapubic and it is a snap iwth the new surgery methods. It is no longer the horrid stuff it used to be.
And an elective c section for medical reasons is not disallowed.
If you are implying I had a c-section to stop pain, you are waaaay out of line.
NFI required
Oh sorry, I wasn’t talkinb about you at all. Was talking about csecs in general.
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