Too Many Cesareans in Buffalo?

Erie County, it is interesting to note, has a cesarean rate for 2005 of 26.1%. This is much lower than the rate for the entire US, which is a whopping 30.2%. So is this a non-issue for the women of Erie County?

My answer is, absolutely not. Women in our area are still being cut way too often. For the first time in at least two years that I've been watching, Buffalo's rate is higher than the state average - 25.4%. The CDC reports that cesareans in an industrialized country the cesarean rate should fall between 10% and 15% - the high end being at high-risk hospitals. In Buffalo, the high-risk hospital is Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo, whose rate is 30.5% - slightly higher than the country's average. Why so high?

Here are the local cesarean percentages for 2005:

Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital (Amherst) (2866) 25.4%
Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo (1814) 30.5%
Mercy Hospital (Buffalo) (2588) 24.6%
Sisters of Charity Hospital (Buffalo)(2502) 24.7%

When a woman has a cesarean, every piece of research indicates that a Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) is usually the safest bet for future deliveries. There are studies that indicate that if given the proper support and information, the percentage of women who can safely VBAC is in the 90's; and yet, Buffalo doesn't even hit the state average of 15.3%, which is a far cry from the Healthy People 2010 goal of 37%.

Here are the area's VBAC percentages:

Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital (466) 17.8%
Women and ChildrenÂ’s Hospital of Buffalo (304)11.9%
Mercy Hospital (Buffalo) (332)12.1%
Sisters of Charity Hospital (Buffalo) (334)14.2%

What's really bad about this is that, from my own personal experience as well as the experiences of others, is that women are being told plenty of information about Uterine Rupture - a risk that is a possibility in any birth, not just in a VBAC, and everything that women are hearing about uterine rupture is probably pretty accurate, but emphasized in a disproportionate way to the actual risk most women face. An unscarred uterus has about a .2% chance of rupturing. A scarred uterus has about a .7% risk. But how many women hear that a major risk of VBAC is Uterine Rupture and sign right up for that cesarean? Do women know that their risk of uterine rupture in a VBAC is 30 times lower than any other pregnancy related emergency?

Women need to be given complete information before consenting to a procedure they may not want and may put the life of their baby orthemselvess in jeopardy. I pray that this blog becomes the voice of information and reason in a community that is currently too willing to accept the edicts passed down from the authoritative medical community.