Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

Cut It Out: The C-Section Epidemic in America
ISBN: 9780814763087
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / NYU Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Cesarean section; Cesarean section -- Prevention; Surgical indications; Women -- Health and hygiene;

Trinity College sociologist Morris combines a broad understanding of systemic, organizational problems and how they impact behavior with statistics and 130 interviews with maternity patients and birth professionals to examine the country's rising C-section rate and low rate of vaginal births after cesarian (VBAC) attempts. As Morris notes, C-sections increase the risk of maternal complications while not appearing to impact birth outcomes significantly. Challenging conventional wisdom, Morris's interviews reveal that some doctors feel their hands are tied by the legal system, for which a prompt C-section indicates that the hospital has fulfilled its responsibilities to the patient in the event of a lawsuit; hospital policies like constant fetal monitoring, which limits the movement a laboring mother needs to facilitate a vaginal birth, and the requirement that mothers who have already had cesarians cannot have vaginal births for subsequent children; and medical training that no longer teaches methods of delivering breech or multiple births vaginally. The author's suggestions include changing insurance rules to compensate women and children with poor birth outcomes independent of fault; encouraging the use of doulas, midwives, and out-of-hospital care; counting C-section rate as a hospital quality measure; and loosening policies that reduce physician choice. Morris's powerful book deserves the attention of policymakers. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Theresa Morris is Associate Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University, where she teaches courses on Organizations, Gender, Reproduction, and Research Methods.She is the author of Cut It Out: The Cesarean Section Epidemic in America (NYU Press, 2013).