Too posh to push? Iran seeks to curb C-sections

Shirin does not consider herself too posh to push, but she is against natural childbirth. Like many other women in Iran, the 32-year-old has opted to have her baby by Caesarian section.

Medical officials say 40 percent of children in Iran are born by C-section on average, but the percentage in Tehran is as high as one in every two deliveries -- and it is greater than 60 percent in Isfahan and Gilan provinces.

"The World Health Organisation recommends a Caesarean section rate of 10 to 15 percent," said gynaecologist Nasrin Changizi, who heads the mothers' health bureau in the Iranian health ministry.

Shirin, a secretary in a construction company, said it was the thought of the pain during labour and the damage she feared could be inflicted on her body that encouraged her to choose a "planned" delivery.

"Why shouldn't I enjoy the benefits of science when it is available?" she asked in a Tehran clinic, as she waited along with a dozen other women to have a colour 3-D ultrasound of her baby.

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Delaying motherhood linked with more c-sections

The increase in the rates of cesarean sections reported by many countries appears to be associated, in part, to more and more women deciding to have children later in life, according to a report in the current issue of PLoS Medicine.

In the study, laboratory testing showed that as maternal age increases, the ability of the smooth muscle of the uterus to contract slows down, which is thought to slow the progression of labor, thereby increasing the likelihood of c-section.

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Cesarean delivery may increase kids' asthma risk

Babies born by Cesarean section may have a moderately increased risk of developing asthma compared with those born naturally, Norwegian researchers report after investigating this link in a population-wide study.

Dr. Mette C. Tollanes, of the University of Bergen, in Norway, and colleagues looked at the modes of delivery among more than 1.7 million single births reported to the Medical Birth Registry of Norway between 1967 and 1998. They used registry data from Norway's National Insurance Scheme to determine the number of children who, through the age of 18 or the year 2002, developed severe asthma.

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C-section may complicate next pregnancies

Cesarean delivery performed in a first pregnancy appears to increase the risk of complications in later pregnancies, researchers have shown.

The findings stem from an analysis of Norway registry data for 637,497 first and second births in women with at least two single births and 242,812 first, second, and third births in women with at least three single births.

Compared to a vaginal first birth, a cesarean delivery at first birth approximately doubled the risk in a second pregnancy of a woman developing pre-eclampsia, placenta abnormalities, and having a small baby, according to a report in the June issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

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