How ironic that on the heels of my blog on caesarean issues yesterday, CIHI released their Health Care in Canada 2005 report which includes our country's caesarean rates, among other things. Given that our caesarean rate has hovered at 20% for most of the 1990's, a dramatic increase from 7% in the early 1970s, we have an all new record of "achievement," a shocking 23.7%. Not only that, BC, NB, NS and PEI are all soaring at close to or over 27%!
The World Health Organization publicly states that a caesarean rate of over 10-15% puts women and infants unnecessarily at risk. Incredulously, in their formulative meeting on this topic, all worldwide studies showed difinitively that any caesarean over 8% was deemed too high of a risk. The reason it was increased to the 10-15% recommendation was because those who worked in the American health care system knew that no one in North America would take that figure seriously, given their already high caesarean surgery rates. How frustrating is that?
Increasing numbers of women are put at risk every day on operating tables across this country because of the immediate risks of surgery and anesthesia. More importantly, their longterm reproductive health is endangered, along with that of their future offspring, because of the risk of uterine rupture, placenta accreta and percreta, hemorrhage, placental abruption, placenta previa and stillbirth.
2 comments:
I wonder why this is, isn't there socialized medicine in Canada? That is awfully expensive for 'everyone' to pay for....
Just musing.
Indeed Greasy Joan, though the bigger problem with socialized medicine is the apathy that comes with the consumer not seeing the end costs of their, or their physicians, choices. The soaring healthcare costs specific to obstetrics because of the increased caesarean surgery rate is a non-issue thus far in the media despite ICAN's efforts to have those issues addressed here. Indeed, the release of this report has not even been covered in the media to any extent at all.
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