42% of UK births are c-sections

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Is anyone else surprised at this statistic? I’m sure it was only something like 20% when my now-teen was born.

Although I had noticed how so many of my friends/family members/colleagues having babies recently all seem to have had cesareans.

It looks as though the shift will only continue so potentially c-section will exceed 50% of births and be the more common mode of birth in a few years.

I think it’s really interesting! Will there be drive to try and push numbers down and increase vaginal births again? Or will it eventually become standard for most women to just book in for an elective section as standard and ‘attempting natural’ will be seen as a more unusual choice like home birth is currently.

there are a a couple of fairly obvious bits where a woman's bottom half isn't covered.... when the catheter's going in... at the end when they have to assess blood loss PV... when the drapes are going on or coming off. For the actual operation there are drapes that cover everything below the bikini line - only time intraoperatively that anyone else would do anything/see anything PV would if there was an impacted fetal head that needed a hand to push back up (more likely in an emergency than elective scenario). Even when patients aren't covered up, most of the rest of the room is not just standing about staring, and unless you're the one actually doing the catheter or whatever you really don't see much of anything.

Yes true, there's always going to be women turning up in labour before the date of the planned section. And I can see that someone who was lower risk previously may become high risk quickly. Of course, these factors would also be relevant when planning care around women attempting vaginal births too.

I mentioned earlier, I wouldn't think the ELCS rates are high enough yet for efficiencies to really kick in. The big increase in EMCS over the last few years must have a real impact on resources and organising care.