Cesarean Section Ban to Reduce Expenditure in UK

Hospitals ban pregnant women to have caesarean sections in the movement to reduce costs.In cash-strapped hospitals are banning hundreds of women to have a caesarean, it was today.

A number of NHS trusts said they would give the green light to a cesarean if the woman's health would be endangered by a natural birth.

They launched the crackdown against women who are "too posh to push" - say the waste millions of pounds of NHS money each year.

Most hospitals already discourage women to have caesarean sections highlighting the potential risks to mother and baby.

But today, some trusts are more complicated than dismissing them for financial rather than medical reasons - meaning that it will be even more difficult for women to obtain a C-section on the health service.

Some mothers have attacked the restrictions, saying it should be just a woman to choose how their baby is born.

A quarter of all births in the UK are now by caesarean section, against only 9 percent in 1980, despite a campaign by the World Health Organisation, which believes that there is no justification for any country with a rate above 15 percent.

A planned caesarean costs around £ 2600 - far more than the cost of £ 1,200 for a natural birth, without money complications.Take stretched NHS budgets on other priorities such as heart disease and cancer.

Economists estimate that a 1 percent decline in the proportion of women having the surgery would save the NHS some £ 5.6million per year.

Dr Michael Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance, which represents general practitioners who manage the budgets of health services, said: "We will need to balance all sorts of things in the future, from cancer to heart disease. When it comes to treatment we may need to spend less on that [CS] can be one. "

The bans are for planned caesarean section, and not c-sections are performed for reasons of urgency. And if a natural birth would pose a risk to the health of the mother or baby, a cesarean section would be allowed.

Health experts have long argued that women should go for a natural birth, because the risks are lower. A cesarean birth increases the chances of a baby breathing difficulties, and mothers may find it difficult to bond with a child while recovering from major surgery. They may also suffer from potentially fatal placental problems.